A good mystery can use more than murder and clues to build tension and create atmosphere. Subtle foreshadowing can hint at events to come and influence how your reader feels. In a recent post, Zara Altair shares tips on using foreshadowing.
While your sleuth will rely on direct clues – physical clues, hidden information – to catch their killer, you can also use foreshadowing to hint at the solution. For example, you might foreshadow a secret about your villain by dropping in details about something unrelated. Agatha Christie was a master at this technique. Miss Marple’s anecdotes about fellow villagers often hinted at motive, method, or murderer. In the rightly renowned The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Poirot’s musings about the titular murder point directly at the killer, but in such a way that the reveal in the final pages is still shocking.
Another method is to plant a clue before it has any context, even before a crime occurs. You might reveal your murder weapon a chapter before a killing takes place, before your reader is looking for clues. You might emphasize one aspect of a clue – say, a physical object – while deemphasizing another – the person who dropped it.
