How to Plot A Murder Mystery
With  Juanita Rose Violini
20 years experience writing Murder Mystery Entertainment Scripts
Author of Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible and the Ignored

“Fair Play Whodunnits”

Mysteries where the author “plays fair” and gives the reader all of the clues necessary to solve the mystery. Fair play cluetrails can be used in:

• Mystery novels, short stories or scripts
• Murder Mystery Parties & Games
• Mystery Contests for promotion entertainment
• Murder Mystery Fundraisers

Love reading mysteries? Want to be a writer? Working within a structure makes it easy. Juanita Violini takes you through the dirt, bones, muscles, heart, mind and soul of a mystery plot.

For more information or to register contact College of the Rockies
Invermere Campus:
Phone: 250-342-3210, Toll Free: 1-866-489-2687 ext 7110 or email: Invermere@cotr.bc.ca
Kimberley Campus:
Phone: 250-427-7116, Toll Free: 1-866-489-2687 ext 3752 or email: Kimberley@cotr.bc.ca

Mayhem Parva is a fictional village setting, coined by mystery historian Colin Watson. In his book A Snobbery With Violience;  Watson reviewed mysteries by writers from the first half of the 20th century – why they were popular and what their books say about the prejudices of the time. But all of that sociology aside Mayhem Parva is:

“The setting for the crime stories by what we might call the Mayhem Parva school would be a cross between a village and a commuters’ dormitory in the South of England, self-contained, and largely self-sufficient. It would have a well-attended church, an inn with reasonable accommodation for itinerant detective-inspectors, a village institute, library and shops – including a chemist’s where weed killer and hair dye might conveniently be bought.”

John le Carre adds this about setting:
“If you describe a Secret Service and impose upon it the same ground rules of behavior as you would upon an English country house, you quickly get the reader with you. So these are bits of ammunition that are available to an English writer, and properly used, are pure gold, in my experience.”

And finally Diana Rigg (Remember her as  the marvelous Mrs. Peel from the Avengers?) while hosting Masterpiece Theatre had this to say:
“A cozy mystery refers to stories that take place in closed, often serene settings. An unexpected act of violence shatters the peace. A small group of characters falls under suspicion and a heroic detective arrives to solve the crime. Are usually solved within a short period of time, a week or two at the most.   In general the solution is usually in plain sight from start to finish. And the killer has been onstage throughout. Motives are clear and simple. Somebody hates fears or envies somebody else or else stands to inherits a lot of money. One by one suspects are considered and eliminated, although the detective will occasionally find himself in a blind alley.”

On the subject of locked rooms, I like what Michael Collins has to say in No One Likes to Be Played For a Sucker. “The locked room is an exercise in illusion – a magician’s trick. Otherwise it’s impossible, and the impossible can’t be done, period. Since it had been done, it must be a trick, a matter of distracting attention, and once you know what you’re really looking for, the answer is never hard.”

The speaker is an eight year old boy who is always winning at a game of marbles where you guess whether the person is holding an odd or even number of marbles in their closed hand. He figured out how his opponents would play based on their astuteness. When asked how he identified the other’s intelligence he replied :

“’When I wish to find out how wise, or how stupid, or how good, or how wicked is any one, or what are his thoughts at the moment, I fashion the expression of my face, as accurately as possible, in accordance with the expression of his, and then wait to see what thoughts or sentiments arise in my mind or heart, as if to match or correspond with the expression.”