In a post on CrimeReads, Joshua Chaplinsky examines why the epistolary format – fiction in the form of personal letters – is so useful in crime stories. “Letters are personal, confidential, and intimate,” he says. “Their confessional nature helps establish empathy, authority, an immediate rapport.”
That personal touch helps create a connection between your protagonist and your reader. In crime fiction, the writer can abuse this trust in multiple ways, such as presenting disinformation. After all, no one says that a letter has to contain only truthful information. In fact, if your protagonist is the villain, lies and misdirection are part of the game. Even empathetic characters are likely to avoid telling uncomfortable truths or slant a story so that it presents them in the best possible light.
Other methods to achieve a similar result include presenting some or all of your story as internet texts or chats, diary entries, or medical records. “What better way to draw the reader in, allow them to truly understand your characters, than by giving them complete and unfettered access?” Chaplinsky writes. “Because if readers are anything, they are a group that gets off on the lives of other people.”
Going further, the modern epistolary form isn’t limited to letters. “They can include any number of textual forms, such as magazine articles, newspaper clippings, audio transcriptions, legal documents, diary entries, grocery lists—which makes them the perfect vehicle for disguising your info dumps,” Chaplinsky says. “It makes sense for a police file to read like the outline of a college lecture. A monologue from your main character? Not so much.”
