by L.S. Stratton
I’ve loved a good “whodunit” ever since I saw the cult dark comedy, Clue, on television when I was six or seven years old. Of course, at that age, I couldn’t follow all the plot twists or quite understand the multiple endings, but I loved the spooky mansion where the mystery took place with its hidden passageways and secret doors. I fell in love with the zany cast of characters and the interplay between them. The poorly repressed anger of Mrs. White versus the bawdy one-liners from Miss Scarlet . . . Wadsworth’s riddles and impish hijinks versus Colonel Mustard’s ham-fisted attempt to exert authority over their madcap ensemble. Each character had their moment to shine.
The movie Clue and the numerous mysteries that I’ve read since have taught me that though carefully placed clues, the occasional red herring, plot twists, and the big reveal are important elements of a good whodunit, so is the right cast. I knew as I wrote my upcoming mystery, In Deadly Company, which features diverse characters who are stuck together in Hudson Valley, NY, mansion during a three-day birthday weekend, that if the characters didn’t click, the rest of the story would fall apart. To make sure I was writing a strong mystery, I tried to keep in mind a few rules. I’ve listed them below along with some illustrative examples from other mysteries.
Choose Your Cast Carefully
Each character should be there for a reason, even if the reader doesn’t quite know the reason until the end of the novel. Are they the murderer, victim, or accomplice? Are they there for misdirection or to provide insight that will help the protagonist solve the mystery? Support players can be useful for adding color to a story, but they can also clutter the plot and keep it from moving along as swiftly as it should. Be aware of this when you choose your cast.
Make Your Characters Distinct
When you write any novel with an ensemble cast, it is very easy for readers to get confused. But if readers can’t determine which character is which, they may give up on the novel before they solve the mystery. Names and physical descriptions aren’t enough. Back stories aren’t enough. Give your characters not only solid motives and circumstances that will make the reader question if they’re the murderer, but also distinct personalities and overall motivations as individuals.
In the first chapter of the YA whodunit, One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus, we are introduced to the cast of Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, Cooper, and Simon, who are locked in a room with their teacher Mr. Avery during detention at Bayview High. They all represent archetypes: the nerd, the jock, the juvenile delinquent, the loner, and the popular kid. After one of them dies mysteriously, we not only see the remaining characters’ motives for murder, but also what drives them as people, taking them beyond mere stereotypes.
Ask yourself, do your characters want love, money or respect? Are they morbid, whimsical, or studious? And if you can, keep their similarities minimal; if one character is prone to anger and tends to lash out, make another timid. If one character is sarcastic, make the other earnest. The most important part of all is consistency. Know your characters well, and make sure you have them behave in a believable, distinct way based on their established characteristics, no matter what the situation.
Consider the Novel’s Setting Part of the Cast
Does the story happen during a dark and stormy night or a week of sun-filled days? Does it take place at a French chateau, a beach house in the Caribbean, or a log-cabin in the woods? One of my favorite thrillers involved a group of people trapped on the top-floor of a high-rise in the middle of the night when the elevators suddenly stopped working. Another took place at a rundown carnival where some teenagers decided to trespass on a dare.
Be creative with your setting and make sure it is the right fit for the mystery you’re writing. Do you want to write a dark mystery? Then a setting that’s forbidding and ominous is probably best, like a crumbling castle or abandoned warehouse with sterile rooms and long hallways. Or maybe you want to subvert readers’ expectations of a particular setting. Have a series of gruesome murders take place at a wellness and spiritual haven in Arizona like Kismet by Amina Akhtar. Have a bloody body discovered on the set of a television baking competition in Vermont, putting all the competitors under suspicion like in The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell. Either way, how you characterize the setting and how the characters perceive and interact with the setting impacts the story.
Use the Interactions Between the Characters to Help Guide the Plot’s Momentum
Depending on your preference, an ensemble mystery can be like a roller coaster ride filled with lulls and moments of heightened emotion, undulating throughout the novel. Or it can be the slow-moving train gradually and consistently picking up speed, until it comes screeching to a cliff’s edge ending. But, in my humble opinion, I don’t think it should be a ride that feels the same from start to finish. Why have the plot progress so quickly that the reader struggles to orient themselves, or so slowly that the reader is flipping pages, wondering when they will finally reach the end?
Rachel Hawkins’ Reckless Girls, a modern reimagining of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, starts off with a bang: someone is dying in the ocean, though the reader does not know their identity. The next chapter then slows down the story with a flashback when one of the main characters, Lux, is at work, cleaning a hotel and is soon fired by her manager. Now jobless, she and her boyfriend, Nico, take a boat trip to a remote island with fellow twenty-somethings who have money to blow. The novel has moments of action, conflict, and revelations between the characters that gradually accelerate to the book’s big finale and the revelation of who was dying in the ocean.
To help create the right pace, use the interactions between the characters to your advantage. Intense conflict placed carefully within the story can give the plot not only a jolt of action but also offers opportunity for misdirection. (Will the reader notice an important detail when so much chaos is happening on page?) Casual or reflective conversations can be used to slow down the story and include crucial information that the reader can reference later.
Using all these narrative guideposts (carefully chosen cast, treating the setting as one of your cast members, distinct characters, and using interactions between characters to accelerate or decelerate plot momentum) can help you to write a mystery that will not only keep readers guessing until the very end, but also very entertained along the way.
About the Author: L.S. Stratton is a NAACP Image Award-nominated author and former crime newspaper reporter who has written more than a dozen books under different pen names in just about every genre from thrillers to romance to historical fiction. Her thrillers have been chosen as Barnes & Noble Mystery/Thriller of the Month pick, Amazon’s Mystery/Thriller Editor’s Picks, and Gold Standard Selection by the Junior Library Guild. Her most recent thriller, In Deadly Company, will be released September 2, 2025.
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