by Maggie Toussaint
I came to mystery writing—and killing on paper—via the romantic suspense genre. It had all the hallmarks of a mystery and an engaging romantic plot. After writing a half-dozen of the stories, I had an epiphany. Why didn’t I nix the hard-to-write part and focus only on what I loved, the mystery angle?
For instance, some writers stick with the same means of death for all their books. One author told me she always conks her victims over the head to kill them. Upon hearing that, I realized that I mostly killed my fictional victims with bullets. Not out of redundancy, more so because I was familiar with this topic after attending Writer’s Police Academy, doing police ride-alongs, going to firing ranges to shoot, and all the cop-and-robber shows I watched.
In other words, I was doing the easy thing, repeatedly. Not wanting to bore myself or my readers, I immediately expanded my repertoire of “killing,” to being pushed down a flight of stairs, slain by an arrow, stabbed by a knife, poisoned by oleanders, sleeping pill overdose, and in a similar vein, killed by overdose of heart meds, and death by hit-and-run. Once I had two characters die of exsanguination (blood was drained), and a few characters have been murdered by drowning.
However, murder isn’t a casual conversation topic you can strike up anytime, anywhere. When writers get excited about their craft, voices may rise and arms may animate. If authors in a restaurant have a murder discussion, others might move away, not understanding that there is no real danger…unless they made a scene nearby that resonated with an author. Then, they’d likely be swarmed and questioned about their means, motive, and opportunity, or on a deeper level, how they’d describe their emotional intensity.
After all, writers are by their very nature curious. They want to know why things happen as much as the other w’s (where, when, what).
Speaking of settings for murder stories, some writers kill their characters in their hometowns or in exotic locations. After all, writers aim to portray authentic settings. As a native Georgian, I use coastal Georgia as my setting, with the exception of the one series I set in Maryland.
A frequent question writers hear is “where do you get your ideas?” Some writers make it up. Others are inspired by nearby incidents or “ripped from the headlines” tragedies. My inspiration comes from everywhere. If I don’t home in on a compelling story in a newspaper, inspiration might come from an overheard conversation, dreams, or from applying the improv question of “what if?”
I’ve found that if I ask the right questions, the story comes together like the tail end of a solitaire game on your phone, with all the cards automatically flying where they’re supposed to be. For my amateur sleuth in my latest release, Mancini Blue, his call to action happens when he’s convinced the cops and medical examiner got the means of his late wife’s death wrong.
Of course his “call” is delayed due to profound grief. With an Irish heritage and his absolute certainty that his late wife didn’t commit suicide, he lands in a spot or two of trouble. But he gets sorted out, makes a fresh start, and revisits the issue with fresh eyes, and that’s where this first Art Studio Mystery begins.
Circling back, there are more than fifty ways to kill a murder mystery victim. I may not explore all of them (on paper!) in my work, but I enjoy the challenge of hiding the killer in plain sight, of pushing my limits with every single book.
What draws you to mystery books? I’d love to hear from you.
