The Elements of Mystery Fiction: Writing the Modern Whodunit

Books by William G. Tapply

Brady Coyne mystery novels:

Death at Charity’s Point

The Dutch Blue Error

Follow the Sharks

The Marine Corpse

Dead Meat

The Vulgar Boatman

A Void in Hearts

Dead Winter

Client Privilege

The Spotted Cats

Tight Lines

The Snake Eater

The Seventh Enemy

Close to the Bone

Cutter’s Run

Muscle Memory

Scar Tissue

Past Tense

A Fine Line

Shadow of Death

Other novels:

Thicker than Water
(with Linda Barlow)

First Light
(with Philip R. Craig)

Books on the outdoors:

Those Hours Spent Outdoors

Opening Day and Other Neuroses

Home Water Near and Far

Sportsman’s Legacy

A Fly Fishing Life

Bass Bug Fishing

Upland Days

Pocket Water

The Orvis Guide to Fly Fishing for Bass

The

Elements
of

Mystery
Fiction

Writing the Modern Whodunit

William G. Tapply

Poisoned Pen Press

Copyright © 1995 by William G. Tapply

Second Edition 2004

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: © 2004

ISBN: 978-1-65195-212-0

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

Poisoned Pen Press

6962 E. First Ave., Ste. 103

Scottsdale, AZ 85251

www.poisonedpenpress.com

[email protected]

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to all of the people who have directly and indirectly encouraged me and taught me how to write mystery novels: My editors Betsy Rapoport, Susanne Kirk, Jackie Farber, Otto Penzler, and Keith Kahla; all those who have read and critiqued my crude first efforts, especially Rick Boyer and Vicki Stiefel; my agents, Fred Morris and the late Jed Mattes; and, of course, my role models, all those writers past and present whose stories have entertained and informed me since I learned to read.

Sylvia Burack first encouraged me to write this book and then edited it relentlessly. Barbara Peters is responsible for the appearance of this new edition, and Rob Rosenwald and Jennifer Semon shepherded it through the production process.

Books would not appear on bookshelves without artists, copy editors, production people, publicists, sales reps, and booksellers. I am grateful to all those I’ve worked with over the years for their good work.

Writers could not persevere without the support of family and friends. I am lucky indeed to have had so many unwavering supporters in my corner: My parents, H. G. and Muriel Tapply; my children, Mike, Melissa, and Sarah Tapply; my stepsons, Ben and Blake Ricciardi; Kate Mattes, who’s always been there; my colleagues and my writing students at Clark University; and, especially, my wife and my love, Vicki Stiefel, to whom this book is dedicated.

W.G.T
March 2004

Table of Contents

Introduction to the Second Edition ix

Introduction xiii

Part I: Writing a Modern Whodunit

Chapter 1 The Elements of Mystery Fiction 1

Chapter 2
Finding Your Story
9

Chapter 3 The Protagonist: The Sleuth As

Hero or Heroine 21

Chapter 4 The Lineup: Villains, Victims, Suspects, and
Other Characters 33

Chapter 5 Point of View: Giving Your Reader a

Place to Stand 43

Chapter 6 Setting: The Scene of the Crime 59

Chapter 7 Getting It Started: Setting the Narrative Hook 71

Chapter 8 Structuring the Story: Building Tension 79

Chapter 9 Building Conflict to Make Scenes Work 91

Chapter 10 Dialogue: The Lifeblood of Mystery Fiction 99

Chapter 11 Getting It Right: Rewriting and Revising 111

Part II: Other Important Considerations

Chapter 12 Writing the Mystery Series, 119
by Philip R. Craig

Chapter 13 Standalone or Series Mystery? 127
by Bill Eidson

Chapter 14 Seeing Double: Making Collaboration Work, 139
by Hallie Ephron

Chapter 15 Doing Business with Agents, 147
an interview with Fred Morris

Chapter 16 Editing and Publishing Mysteries, 155
an interview with Barbara Peters

Chapter 17 The Bookselling Business, 167
an interview with Otto Penzler

Chapter 18 Catch 23: Publicizing Your Mystery Novel, 173
an interview with Jeremiah Healy

Chapter 19 Persistence, 181
an interview with Vicki Stiefel

Introduction
to the Second Edition

A decade ago when I wrote the first edition of this book I worked on an Apple IIe computer. It had no hard drive. The manuscript was printed out on tractor-feed paper in dot matrix and submitted via the United States Postal Service. I saved the text on five-inch floppy disks. It took four of those disks to hold it all.

Today, five computers and ten years later, I am submitting this second edition electronically and saving it on both my hard drive and a CD. All of the additional material that the other contributors wrote came to me attached to emails.

A lot has changed in the world of mystery fiction in the last decade besides the writing technology. Now we have online
bookstores. Chain super-bookstores have sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rainstorm. We have print-on-demand books and E-books. Tradition-drenched old independent New York publishing houses have become imprints under the umbrellas of giant multinational conglomerates. Small specialty publishers have popped up all over the country to fill the void
.

New best-selling authors have burst upon the mystery scene in the past ten years. Several old best-selling authors have passed from the scene.

But some things haven’t changed. Good books are still good books, and they’re written by solitary, dogged people who know what they’re doing and who are willing to hunch over their writing machines for hours every day, through sickness and health, fair weather and foul, month after month to do it.

The elements of mystery fiction and the ways of the successful mystery writer remain constant. Classroom teachers, workshop leaders, and writing tutors who have used
The Elements of Mystery Fiction
with their students have told me not to change a word of it.

They have, however, reported that the first edition fails to address a number of issues that their students repeatedly and predictably raise, issues such as: What are the pros and cons of writing a mystery series versus a standalone thriller? What about collaborating on a novel? Why does everybody insist that an author needs an agent? How do the publishing and bookselling businesses really work? If my novel gets published, how can I help promote it? And the universal question that haunts aspiring mystery writers: Recognizing the odds, do I really have a chance of ever seeing my book in print? Why shouldn’t I give up this quixotic dream and take up cabinet making, or gardening, or rock climbing?

To address these valid and important issues, I invited, begged and bribed some of the most prominent and successful people in the mystery business to share their experience and expertise for this new edition.

Philip R. Craig (Chapter 12: “Writing the Mystery Series”) is the creator of the long-running Martha’s Vineyard mystery series featuring ex-cop, surf fisherman, gourmet cook, and all-round good guy J. W. Jackson. Phil’s books have been touted on the television show “Good Morning America.”

Bill Eidson (Chapter 13: “Standalone or Series Mystery?”) has published six “standalone” novels, three of which have been optioned for movies. Bill’s most recent novel,
The Repo
, is the first in a new mystery series.

Hallie Ephron (Chapter 14: “Seeing Double: Making Collaboration Work”) is half of the G. H. Ephron team that has collaborated on four (and counting) popular and critically acclaimed mystery novels featuring psychiatrist Dr. Peter Zak.

Fred Morris (Chapter 15: “Doing Business with Agents”) is a veteran literary agent with the Jed Mattes Agency in New York City, which specializes in mystery novels. Fred has worked with both first-time novelists and old-timers.

Barbara Peters (Chapter 16: “Editing and Publishing Mysteries”) is the founder, editor-in-chief, and publisher of the Poisoned Pen Press in Scottsdale, Arizona; the proprietor of the Poisoned Pen bookstore; and the editor of several anthologies on mystery writing. Barbara has won a number of awards and is one of the most influential people in the mystery world.

Otto Penzler (Chapter 17: “The Bookselling Business”), owner and proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, has been in the bookselling business for twenty years. He’s a publisher and a writer and the editor of numerous mystery short-story anthologies. Otto has won just about every honor the mystery community bestows.

Jeremiah Healy (Chapter 18: “Catch 23: Publicizing Your Mystery Novel”) is the creator of both the John Francis Cuddy private-investigator series and (under the pseudonym “Terry Devane”) the Mairead O’Clare legal-thriller series. Jerry has written seventeen novels and more than sixty short stories, fourteen of which have won or been nominated for the Shamus Award. He belongs to all of the mystery organizations and has been the keynote speaker at countless conventions.

Vicki Stiefel (Chapter 19: “Persistence”) is an expert on her subject. A successful film critic and magazine editor, Vicki served a twelve-year apprenticeship writing, revising, rewriting, and submitting mystery novels before her persistence finally paid off and
Body Parts
was accepted for publication.

I respect and admire all of the contributors to this edition. I am happy and honored to know them as friends as well as colleagues. In fact, Vicki, to whom this book was (and still is) dedicated, is my wife. Her persistence is one of her most lovable traits.

William G. Tapply
Hancock, New Hampshire
September 2003

Introduction

When I began writing my first mystery novel, I thought I had a crackerjack idea. I had invented characters who intrigued me, I had thought up dramatic scenes and tense conflicts, and I had in mind some vivid settings. I knew where my story would start, I could foresee the direction it would take, and I knew how it would end. I had done enough nonfiction writing to feel confident that I could string the words together. I had even sold a few articles.

I had never tried writing mystery fiction. I had never tried to analyze its elements. So what? Writing is writing, I figured.

That first mystery of mine had everything required of a novel—characters and settings and scenes, themes and plots and subplots, dialogue and description and narrative. When it was finished, it made a gratifyingly tall stack of pages. I was rather proud of my accomplishment. I wasn’t ready to say I’d written a book, but I had written a book-length manuscript.