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 Mystery: November 01, 2017 Issue [#8577] |
  Mystery This week: Play it Fair Edited by: Kate - Writing & Reading   More Newsletters By This Editor   1. About this Newsletter 2. A Word from our Sponsor 3. Letter from the Editor 4. Editor's Picks 5. A Word from Writing.Com 6. Ask & Answer 7. Removal instructions 
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A clue is anything that points to the perpetrator's identity. Clues come in many guises and, far from making a story formulaic, they can be used to create original mysteries that keep readers enthralled to the end. 
In addition to genuine clues, you need - just a few - red herrings, false clues, and misdirection. The term, red herrings, actually came from the practice of dragging a dead, smoked fish across a trail to throw hunting dogs off the scent of their prey. They can be factual, but they take the sleuth (and reader) in the wrong direction and don't help solve the crime. Now if there are too many of these smelly fish, don't you think the dogs would eventually grow tired of not finding anything and just give it up? 
False clues can be planted by the perpetrator to make an innocent person look guilty and prevent your sleuth and readers from finding the real culprit. Misdirection can be accomplished by burying a clue in a scene, letting it come from an untrustworthy source, or distracting the sleuth immediately after the clue is revealed, so that its meaning is overlooked. Consider placing a clue in plain sight to make it so obvious that both the sleuth and reader dismiss it. Think about it, did you notice today that the trash bin behind the restaurant was overfull and there was a red plaid cloth hanging from the corner? Or did you hurry past because the bin smelled of rotting eggs? Clue, or misdirection, to the headless body later found a block away? 
The genuine clues you might use include: 
Forensic evidence at crime scenes -- blood, fibers, hairs, clothing, "signature" objects left by the killer.
An unusual murder method that clues in the killer's profession or emotional state. A bloody meat cleaver stuck behind the trash bin of a restaurant could point to the chef, an irate customer, or simply be a tool discarded by staff because it grew dull cutting steak from bone - a matter perhaps for the health department, if the blood is from last night's dinner.
Items in the victim's or suspects' homes -- letters, jewelry, photos, almost anything that can reveal a relationship between the victim and the killer. As with crime scenes, something that should be present might be missing, or something may be found that shouldn't be there.
Emotional ties to the victim -- love, hate, greed, and jealousy can all lead to murder.
Secrets -- everyone has secrets, and so must your characters. A criminal investigation exposes the secrets of the innocent as well as the guilty, and the need to hide information makes people behave furtively, self-defensively. One secret will lead to the culprit. The rest will engage and entertain your readers and confuse the sleuth.
