 Mystery: May 26, 2021 Issue [#10788] |
This week: Weapons of Convenience Edited by: Jayngle Bells  
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Today's Mystery Crumb: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study In Scarlet is the first novel in which Sherlock Holmes appears, but Homes can found in three other novels and a whopping 56 short stories!
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We're all familiar with the criminal mastermind, the one who plans out elaborate plots against either a single person or group of people. There's also the character who is methodical, but perhaps not quite a mastermind. They're often found in smaller settings. There's another option to create a murder scenario in the "heat of several moments", where the planning is hasty, but the weapon is the genuine article. The character plans, at least very briefly, to take this weapon and use it for its intended purpose.
But what about the spur-of-the moment killer?
That's where weapons of convenience come into play. Weapon of convenience means just that—using whatever is available in the immediate vicinity to commit the crime.
Convenience doesn't have to be limited to only the weapon. Layering the convenience can include things like:
 locations of convenience
items used to distract the protagonist or antagonist during a fight, chase, or negotiation
items used for defense against the antagonist
items used to provide a physical barrier between protagonist and antagonist
While weapons of opportunity can be conventional, like a knife sitting on a counter or a gun in a drawer, keep in mind that not every weapon has to be the murder device. Combining multiple weapons of convenience helps develop red herrings or build more realistic scenarios. During a struggle, a glass of water is thrown in someone's face. While it may not seem like a potent weapon of choice, the water will cause the person to close their eyes, because it's human instinct to flinch when something's headed towards our noggins. The flinch opens an opportunity for the attacker to smash their cell phone on the victim's nose. That buys enough time for the killer to notice the log by the fire. The log becomes the murder weapon of opportunity.
Items don't have to serve a single purpose, either. Sure, you can smash someone over the head with a wooden chair. If it breaks, maybe the pieces create the opportunity for a stabbing, clubbing, or impaling weapon.
Weapons of opportunity can also use the physical body—hands can push, pull, strangle, punch, poke, rip, hold down, and scratch. Body weight can crush. Legs and feet can pounce, kick, stand on, jump on, and pin down.
As long as what the killer reaches for isn't well thought out or pre-planned, it's a weapon of opportunity.
So go ahead and find new and inventive ways to use those mundane objects and surprise your readers.
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| | Twenty-nine (13+)
There's some things in this world you can't explain. (2142 w) Winner: 2020 Quill Awards.
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