  Mystery
This week: Murder or suicide ~ how can you tell? Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading  
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All that I see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
Edgar Alan Poe
A mystery is an answer in search of a question; knowing what's been done and journey to discovering the how and why of it. It deals with something unknown to the reader, which the writer reveals in bits and pieces with both subtle and overt clues, drawing the reader into the puzzle. Welcome to this week's edition of the WDC Mystery Newletter, where we enter and explore the puzzle for ourselves and our readers.
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Greetings, fellow puzzlemasters and weavers of prose and verse mysterious.
Now, there's a body, it's on the floor, there's a gun or maybe a knife just out of hand, with splattered blood, and the wound is almost invisible, so neat and tidy, no trace of a struggle, did she do it herself, or someone send her along the way? Was it murder or suicide? That's the question that launches many a mystery.
Your antagonist may wish to confound police and detectives into believing that a death was self-inflicted; it's your detective's job to determine otherwise. So how can you keep the reader confounded while giving your detective enough clues to solve the mystery?
Let's presume a murder - the knowing causes of death, or injuries which result in the death, of another. But what if it's mere manslaughter, or death resulting from the indifference to human life. Perhaps it was self-defense, and the demise resulted from an attempt to defend oneself or property. But it could have been another sad suicide, taking one's own life - or perhaps that's what the antagonist wants us to think, and we may find miscues and some herrings to toss along the way to learning the truth - was it a crime upon the person or a self-inflicted 'crime.'
Let's look at the weapons, visible or discernible through examination, we find upon encountering the prone body, and how these weapons can both serve as weapons of murder or self-destruction, and how the writer of puzzling mysteries can lead us to either premise - until we uncover and solve all the clues.
 Firearms, including handguns and weapons are fast and eash to use. Anyone can pull a trigger. Consider that it's a woman's most often chosen weapon for murder because it eliminates their physical disadvantage to a male. A bullet is as effective on a 6 foot linebacker as a 5 foot ballerina. When it comes to suicide, it's a quick and relatively painless out.
So, how to tell if it's murder or suicide? One would most likely point the gun to the head, the mouth or the front of the chest. They would be unlikely to dislocate an arm to shoot themselves in the back. A suicide would also be close range, with visible powder burns and burns at the entry wound and with a slight upward tilt. A suicide would most likely have one shot then either be in shock or in the process of dying. Signs of a struggle or other wounds would lead one to presume a murder. A suicide note would initially indicate self-destruction, unless a perpetrator staged it after the crime. ~ you seel the possibilities?
Knives, on the other hand, require direct contact. They are more likely to be weapons of choice for men than women, for the difference in physical body strength in battle. In a murder, there will likely be not one clean strike most likely to the chest, with perhaps a couple test cuts to the wrist to check the sharpness of the knife. In a murder there will likely be defensive cuts to the hands, forearm, as the victim fights to keep the knife from striking a death blow, and often multiple wounds to the victim's back, side, cutting through clothing to reach the body. The knife in a murder is often missing, not left near the victim's hand with fuzzy palm prints on the floor (unless the puzzlemaster so designs to mislead the sleuth).
Death by hanging, as an accident is rare, and homicidal hanging is even rarer. Most people who commit suicide by hanging, jump from a chair or a ladder, choking to death slowly. To break the neck, they'd have to fall more than six feet, which would be rare in an attic or basement or bedroom.
Hanging would leave a bruise curving upward along the jawline, as opposed to strangulation, which would leave a circle around the throat in the form of a scarf or muffler. Now, if the perpetrator catches the victim offguard, from a stair railing perhaps, that can be made to appear as if the victim fell across the bannister in a tragic accident.
So, let's not presume that the body on the floor with the gun, knife, pencil just outside reach was a victim of foul play by his own hand or that of another until we examine the surroundings, the state of the body, the surroundings, and the state of the demised. Engage the sleuth's senses of touch, smell, sound as well as vision. We give our sleuth and readers clues to unravel the mystery ~ was it murder or suicide? The clues are cast in the light you supply*light*.
Write On!
Kate
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I'd like to share first a mystery woven for our reading pleasure by a member of our Community stepping out of the familiar ~ now isn't that the natural breeding ground for mystery
Now, how about these puzzlers ~ do they invite you to investigate or question the very nature of the 'crime' or 'event'
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#1691606 by Not Available. |
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#1661180 by Not Available. |
Okay, now, who don't you give it a 'twist'
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Thank you for sharing your virtual home with me in this exploration ~ and I hope you also step out of your comfort zone and try a twist on the familiar and accepted premises and see where your puzzle leads your sleuth and readers.
While you're at it, visit some more with our own webrider  , who did just that, step away from the familiar altogether to weave a mystery ~ where will the puzzle lead us, to what conclusions, as we unravel the clues overt and implied.
From: webrider ~
My first love is Fantasy but on an dare from a friend, I was asked to write a murder/mystery. So I thought about it and wrote three chapters, relying heavily on reading Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys of my youth. She loved it and especially loved my main character. Now I find myself out of my comfort zone and tempted to write more of this genre. Yikes, I believe I am becoming a traitor to my dragons! I will place a chapter of the mystery in my portfolio, to see what others think!
Thanks for taking a chance to step out of the familiar with the start of a versatile puzzler.
Until we next meet, see the ordinary in an uncommon way ~ and your puzzles will mesmerize your sleuth and your readers!
Write On!
Kate
Kate - Writing & Reading
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Mystery: March 09, 2011 Issue [#4274]
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