  Mystery
This week: Edited by: MaryLou  
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| Mystery stories are so popular because they fulfill one of humans' deepest instincts - the need to explore, to question, to find out. Humans are incessantly searching for answers to life's greatest mysteries. Since those mysteries are so difficult to unravel, we can find comfort in reading and writing mystery novels and short stories. Thus, our need to discover is satisfied...until the hunger strikes again. |
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A person's possessions tell quite a bit about his or her personality - their likes and dislikes, etc. The books on your bookshelves, the pictures you hang on your walls, the knickknacks you scatter on the mantel all offer glimpses of your psyche.
When describing your characters, why not give your readers a peek at their own personal space? Rather than telling the readers what your character likes or doesn't like, show them and let them make their own deductions.
Here's an example of a room/character description from Elizabeth Peter's Devil May Care:
The room was enormous--thirty by fifty feet at the least. There was another fireplace, with a white carved mantel, and a wide bay window filled with plants. Some of them were withered. The outstanding quality of the chamber was the incredible litter that filled it. The furniture consisted mainly of chairs and tables; the flat surfaces of both types were covered with objects, many of them cats.
Henry had never seen so many cats. Fat cats and lean cats. Short-haired cats and cats that looked like animated mops. Blue cats. White cats, tabby cats, gray cats. Siamese cats, Persian cats. and cats of indeterminate species. Kittens. Cats with long tails, cats with no tails at all.
Kate had left the room, presumably in search of refreshments, so Henry was able to stare unobserved, which he did. The cats weren't the only kind of clutter. A long table in the center of the room was heaped with miscellaneous objects, ranging from fabric and tangles of bright-colored wool to tools such as pliers and hammers; scraps of wood, papers (newspapers, carbon paper, sketching paper), pencils, scissors, an orange rind, and four coffee cups, all of them dirty. The chairs and the floor contributed musical instruments (guitar, zither, lute, and a set of trap drums), sporting equipment (a tennis racket, a baseball bat, and a jump rope), several pieces of unfinished embroidery, a quilting frame, with a quilt on it, and two plastic do-it-yourself models of monsters (Dracula and the Wolf Man). The walls were pale green, but very little of their surface was visible; pictures and posters covered them, as in an overcrowded and bizarre art gallery. The only painting that rated a clear space, above the mantel, was a Japanese water color of cherry trees in bloom. Henry's superficially educated eye recognized its quality, which made some of the other pictures even more appalling. Many framed photographs depicted cats and kittens, sickeningly maudlin in style. There were several photographs of statue heads, one of a man in a femininely draped hat, and another of a personage with a weird crown on his head and features so exaggeratedly ugly that they verged on caricature.
The posters included a map of Middle Earth, a profanely belligerent piece of propaganda for women's liberation, and, occupying the center of the longest wall, a near life-sized representation of a large gentleman in the act of throwing a football. The face guard of his helmet obscured his features, but Henry did not need the number 9 stamped across the ample front of his jersey to identify him.
Now, what does this room tell us about its owner, Kate?
1) She's a clutterbug.
2) She likes plants, but isn't very good at taking care of them.
3) Her love for cats borders on the obsessive.
4) She likes oranges and coffee.
5) She dabbles in embroidery and quilting.
6) She's eclectic in her musical tastes.
7) She is interested in current events.
8) She's athletic.
9) She's attracted by vampires and werewolves.
10) She's very sentimental, in regards to her cats.
11) She recognizes the beauty in painting and sculpture.
12) She's read and admires Tolkien.
13) She's a feminist.
14) She loves football, particularly one specific football player.
15) Kate has a very wide range of interests, which indicates broad-mindedness.
There are many more qualities which can be deduced about Kate from this description of her workroom. The few paragraphs mentioned above gives the reader a good feel of what Kate is all about.
Describing a character's room and personal possessions is a very good device to let your readers in to your character's personality. But they can't be just any old inanimate objects. Make them significant; make them tell something about your character.
This is my 12th mystery newsletter. Yes, I've been a mystery NL editor for one full year now. 
To celebrate my one-year anniversary, I'm hosting a contest: "Invalid Item"
I hope you all will consider entering it. 
See ya next month,
MaryLou
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Here's a few items for your reading pleasure. I hope you enjoy and don't forget to rate and review!
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#1116487 by Not Available. |
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#1116542 by Not Available. |
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#1088605 by Not Available. |
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Feedback
scribbler : what I wouldn't give to see that house!
Definitely worth the trip!
dogfreek21: That is so cool!
Yes, it is supremely fascinating.
Mini Mystery
1000 GPs for your correct answer.
The Case of the Invisible Murderer
from Great Book of Whodunit Puzzles
Thomas P. Stanwick, the amateur logician, and Inspector Matthew Walker of the Royston Police Department were grateful for the sea breeze on that hot Auguest day as they walked from Walker's car to the entryway of the Sea Maiden restaurant. The two had been discussing another case in Walker's office when the call had come in about a murder at the Sea Maiden.
Inside the stuffy restaurant, two uniformed officers were recording the names and addresses of those who had been there when the body was discovered. The discovery had occurred at 3:30, less than an hour before stanwick and Walker arrived, so only six patrons - one couple and a family of four - were being detained. They sat in a row of chairs along a aide wall. With them were a cashier, a busboy, two waiters, two waitresses, and the chef.
Walker introduced himself to the agitated owner of the restaurant, Steven Evans. Evans, Walker, and Stanwick then passed through the main dining room, which contained 17 tables, to a smaller dining room on the right.
"Hello, Ernie," said Walker to the poice photographer. "Are you fellows about through?"
"Just about. Jim is still dusting for prints."
The smaller room was connected to the main room by an open doorway. One of the five tables still had dirty untensils and dishes of half-eaten food. Slumped across this table was the dead man, a wealthy publishing executive named Gerald Hottleman. A knife protruded from his back.
"It was a restaurant steak knife with no prints," reported the fingerprinter. "Wiped clean." Walker nodded and glanced around the plainly decorated room. Several small windows near the ceiling did little to relieve the warmth and stuffiness of the room. An odor of fish lingered in the air.
"How was the body discovered?" Walker asked Evans.
"About an hour ago, Kris, the waitress for this room, started to come in to ask Mr. Hottleman if he wanted coffee or dessert," replied the perspiring owner. "She saw him from the doorway and stood there, screaming."
"No one else was in this room, then?" asked Stanwick.
"He was the only one in here. An elderly couple who had lunch here left about 20 minutes before we found Mr. Hottleman."
"Did anyone see Hottleman alive after they left?" Walker inquired.
"Oh, yes. When the old folks were about halfway to the cash register, Mr. Hottleman came out and gave the lady her sunglasses, which she had left on the table."
"Then Hottleman came back here?"
"That's right."
"And who else entered the room between the time Hottleman returned to his table and the time his body was discovered?"
"Why, no one, Inspector. The other guests were in the main dining room, and Kris was on break."
Stanwick eyed the owner quizzically. "How can you be sure that no one slipped into this room?" he asked.
"I was sitting at a small table near the cash register looking over our receipts," Evans replied, "and I would have noticed it."
Just then the medical examiner's staff entered the room to remove the body. Evans excused himself and hurried off. Walker returned to the main room to talk to the uniformed officers. Stanwick lingered in the small room and glanced about, thoughtfully fingering a tip of his mustache.
No doorways led into the room except the one from the main dining room. The windows were too small for human entry and too high up for the knife to have been thrown in from outside, even if the angle of the knife in the body permitted such a hypothesis. Stanwick frowned, returned to the main room, and took Walker aside.
"Matt, was anything taken?" he asked quietly.
"Hottleman's walled is gone. If you mean evidence, nothing was touched until we arrived."
"Then how was Hottleman identified?"
"The owner and staff here know him. He's been here many times."
"Rather late for lunch, isn't it?" Stanwick smiled slightly.
Walker shrugged. "Not everyone thought so."
The two walked back to the side room and paused by the doorway. Photographers, fingerprinters, and medical examiners were gone, as were the dead man and the murder weapon. The busboy apologetically brushed by Stanwick and Walker with a small cart and began to clear the effects of the victim's table.
"We're still taking statements," said Walker quietly, "but everything we've heard so far corroborates the owner's story. He was seated at the table near the cash register the whole time. Frankly, Tom, I'm puzzled. The only way anyone could enter the room is through this doorway. No one was in here after the old couple left except for Hottleman; he was seen reentering the room; and no one else was seen entering the room until the body was discovered."
"An impossible crime, eh?" chuckled Stanwick. "Or at least a crime committed by an invisible killer. Well, there are more ways than one to be invisible, my friend. I can tell who the murderer is."
Who murdered Hottleman?
Answers to the last mini-mystery:
karabu: Mini Mystery -
"A mild, metallic odor suffused the small shop."
If he worked alone all day cleaning a huge volume of fish he should reak of fishy smell. That smell is what's missing.
Great newsletter - I've visited the Winchester Mystery House many times, and it's fascinating every time.
Ghostwriter : Orrison worked in a fish mart, so he should be smelling strongly of fish, especially on the morning of the murder, since Radford had a big catch. With the absence of the smell of fish, Orrison was actually lying about his whereabouts that morning.
Nimue  : The Negative Clue: Stanwick opens the window because of 'a mild, metallic odor' while Mr Orrison on the other hand fails to reek of fish after being up to his elbows in the stuff for hours on hot day.
Something smells fishy to me!
Deelyte- Chillin' : Hmmm, it mentions a smell but not the smell of fish. I would think he would reek of the fish smell if he'd been at work. Book him, Dann-o! Just a guess.
Loved this newsletter. You touched on a sore spot from my vacation. We wanted to go to the Winchester house when we went to California but it was closed!  I kept the flyer and pamplet on it though, it sounded like a lot of fun! Great job on this one ML.
dee
quasimeza: If Stanwick could smell a mild metalic odor, then Orrison must not have been giving off waves of fish smell: how clean can a fishmonger get after a long shift?
PJ Karina : No fish smell.
writetight: Mini-Mystery negative clue: Had Orrison been cutting up fish all morning the scent of fish would be upon him. The fact that nothing smelled fishy was the negative clue.
Breezy-E ~ In College : After saying that he'd been working with fish all day long, it never said he smelled like fish. Instead, there was a "metalic odor".
AL : If Orrison had been at work all day like he said he had, he would smell like fish, and he didn´t.
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Mystery: June 21, 2006 Issue [#1110]
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