Pressure Points by Susan Van Kirk

 Whether you’re a debut writer or you’ve written twenty mysteries, you are guided by certain principles of mystery writing. You can’t mix up point of view or “head hop.” Sprinkling red herrings throughout the middle is quite important. After the climax, you don’t want an additional ten chapters. The list can be quite extensive.

 One of those “rules” I try to remember is the application of pressure. You don’t want your main character—or your readers, for that matter—to get comfortable. Pressure is a wonderful challenge to keep the plot flying. It often reminds me of that old-time matinee, “The Perils of Pauline.” [Of course, I’m not old enough to remember that grainy black and white movie.] With that in mind, I’d like to describe how writers use pressure points to advance conflict. It’s important to press hard on those main characters, putting them through unimaginable difficulties before they triumph at the end. You can do this in several ways, but three I relish are pressure from the past, from public opinion/media, or from the threat of job loss. From my recent reading, here are examples of how authors do that.

 

The past can be a fierce pressure on protagonists. Connie Berry’s The Art of Betrayal puts Kate Hamilton, an antiques appraiser, through a modern murder investigation that seems to have a connection to the past. But what? Kate is in Long Barston in Suffolk, England, and she becomes involved in two murders—past and present. But the past is always harder to investigate. A betrayal stretching back to Anglo-Saxon England involving a local myth about the Green Maiden appears to have some relevancy to the present murder. But how to figure out the sad history of the Villiers family, and how is it related—or not—to the present day? The past is a great pressure point. It drives protagonists and readers mad.

 

Karen Odden’s Down a Dark River follows senior inspector of Scotland Yard, Michael Corravan, as he
investigates the death of a beautiful woman who was the daughter of a prominent judge. Similar murders follow. Because Scotland Yard was involved in a huge corruption scandal in the recent past, all eyes—and pressure—are on Michael Corravan and his understanding that he’d better figure out who is killing these women, or the past will continue to plague the Yard. Londoners will lose confidence. The pressure is on him.

 

Public opinion and social media can be tools applied to pressure protagonists. Sarah E. Burr’s #FollowMe for Murder sets up the novel’s conflict based on public opinion. Her protagonist, Coco Cline, is a newly minted social media consultant, and her first clients, Sean and Olivia Chen, have a huge opening for their consignment shop in ten days. They’ve poured all their money into this venture. Unfortunately, Coco finds a dead employee in their shop, and the pressure is on via public opinion. Coco knows the adage about bad publicity being positive, but it doesn’t work in this situation. In her line of work, she knows about public opinion. Pressure, pressure.

 

Tilly Bagshawe also uses public opinion to apply pressure in Murder in the Castle. Iris Grey, a portrait painter, is called to Scotland to paint a wedding portrait of Baron Jock MacKinnon’s American fiancé. The fiance has rubbed the village the wrong way, initiated a public dispute with the local church, and done all she can to be “the ugly American.” The local village hates her. Gossip, stories emanating from the castle workers, and family feuds really pile on the pressure of public opinion. That helps fuel the conflict when two bodies are found buried on the estate. Gossip flies faster than the internet.

 

The threat of job loss, especially to a protagonist who dearly needs the job, is a
terrific way to apply discomfort. In The Maid, by Nita Prose, Molly Gray is a maid in a huge NYC hotel. She is a unique protagonist since she has few social skills, misreads intentions, and lives her life by simple, black-and-white rules. She is a neurodivergent character, possibly on the autism spectrum. Molly becomes the top suspect when Charles Black, wealthy hotel guest, is murdered in a suite she cleans. In fact, she finds the body. Raised by her grandmother, who’d recently died, Molly can’t afford to lose this job. It’s all she has going for her. Ms. Prose cranks up the pressure on Molly, especially so when her fellow workers figure she’s the murderer.

 

Each of these pressure points keeps readers reading and protagonists dancing on a thin line of suspicion. Disturbing both are great ways to make a conflict push a mystery forward. What pressure on the protagonist worries you the most in the books you read?