6 THINGS IN A DETETIVE MYSTERY
- Detective must be memorable (both clever and a bit ordinary; must have talent, mannerism, and eccentricity)
- Crime must be significant - constructed around a murder or a great theft, murder crime must be worth the detective’s time and efforts
- Criminal must be a worthy opponent - adversary should have equal cleverness to be more interesting, intellectual equal of the detectives; conflict becomes a battle of intellectualness between detective, criminal and reader.
- All suspects, including criminal, must be presented early in the story - the fun of the plot is part of how the reader also assess the situation. The reader should know enough of the character and assume it is a main character and not a random last minute character before the story ends.
- All clues discovered by the detective must be made available to the reader - the reader must be given the same opportunity as the detective to solve the crime; this means, same evidence, same suspects at the same time it is made available to the detective. An author may deliberately mislead the reader as long as the detective is as well.
- The solution must appear logical and obvious when the detective explains how the crime was solved - the reader must be convinced that they could have done exactly the same to receive the same outcome. The reader must see how the detective got to the solution and see the pieces just like in a puzzle. This is what is so appealing to a detective story.
