Amarisa,

Google "mystery writing" and you'll get lots of advice. Here's what I found from about.com with a bit of annotation.

1. In mystery writing, plot is everything.
2. Introduce both the detective and the culprit early on.
3. Introduce the crime within the first three chapters of your mystery novel.
4. The crime should be sufficiently violent -- preferably a murder. (I think the crime should be compelling but it doesn't have to be murder. Look at Sherlock Holmes.)
5. The crime should be believable.
6. The detective should solve the case using only rational and scientific methods.
7. The culprit must be capable of committing the crime.
8. Don't try to fool your reader. (I would say you should present enough clues that the reader could solve the mystery but do it in such a way that they probably won't, at least not too soon.)
9. Do your research.
10. Wait as long as possible to reveal the culprit. (Revealing the culprit is the climax, so there isn't much to say after you've done that.)

HRF Keating wrote a good book on mystery writing. He also wrote my favorite mystery series about Inspector Ghote of Bombay.


Marcia