Crime fiction is a huge market, but it's also a market with
some distinct subgroups.
When one person says they love crime fiction, they might
mean they love a cozy mystery, others a gritty suspense novel. Others still
might think of legal thrillers that involve a crime as being crime fiction.
Quite often, these lines are pretty permeable. There are
extreme examples of both.
At one end of the spectrum, you have what I think of as
'closed' cozy mysteries. These are the 'Murder on the Orient Express' model.
You take a group of suspects, and you isolate them. This could be on an island
or croft, in a mansion or virtually anywhere geographically remote. This is
classic crime drama - the murder is less important than the relationships
between the characters. This is a 'whodunnit' in the most classic sense, and it
works really well for period crime novels where DNA evidence is unavailable.
It's pretty rare for there to be no trace forensics at all at a crime scene, so
modern novels don't tend to use this approach as often. If they do, it's a
"DNA will take x days" scenario giving the author time to use more
classic techniques before affirming/ denying the investigator's current supposition.
At the opposite end, you've got your suspense novel. A
serial killer is on the loose, and it's a matter of time until they strike
again. The police are in hot pursuit, but are always one clue behind. This can
range from a gore fest to a forensic bent to a legal bent or any combination
thereof. Sometimes, you'll find authors give the readers information that the
investigator doesn't have, and watch them root for the policeman/ PI/ Joe
Public who gets caught up in it.
Both ends of the spectrum are great, but as authors we need
to carve out a niche. Generic fiction rarely sells as well as something
unusual. Unusual carries a big risk in that you either flop completely or find
the target audience and excel. What makes your crime novel unique? Do you have
a particularly unusual protagonist? Is your book forensically accurate? Do you
know your police procedure? Can you weave in courtroom scenes?
The big crime novels tend to be in series. It's hard to
create unique intellectual property, i.e. branding, in crime. The slightly
flawed investigator has been done many times, and having a unique take is not
easy. We've got some great regional variations - Irish and Swedish crime
fiction has been doing very well for the last decade or so.
But for me, it's all about having a gripping premise. There
are, quite literally, thousands of 'I shot him' novels. Nearly always, this
comes back to Greed (Money, crime)/ Anger/ Jealousy (especially of the sexual
kind)/ Revenge / Duress / Concealing something .e.g a crime or a family secret
/ Political or Religious vendettas.
This can be quite unusual e.g the duress of a kidney transplant
list leading someone to bump off those above them. It's not always a neat fit
within the above, but 99% of murders will fit in one or more of the above.
So, how do you write a great crime novel?
1. Firm motive - give your character a reason to care. A
murdered ex, a cheating spouse, a big inheritance, their child kidnapped, etc.
2. Give them the means - and make it appropriate to the
setting. Women rarely kill by violent means, so think poison rather than axe.
3. Come up with something unique in terms of premise. For
example, you might pick something from forensic journals. Recently, a lab faked
DNA. They took blood, and spun it in a centrifuge to remove the white blood
cells. The remaining red cells had no DNA. They added DNA from saliva that had
been subject to Whole Genome Amplification, and voila. Fake DNA. This is a huge
problem - and would lend itself well to a court drama. You can tell when this
has been done as normal DNA has a certain level of methylation that fake DNA
doesn't. If your theoretical criminal was say, a scientist, and worked out how
to fake that as well... then he could set up his ex/boss/ anyone who has
crossed him. That makes for a compelling 'It wasn't me' story of a man or woman
trying to prove their innocence against widely accepted and relied upon DNA.
So, combine all the
above. Make your investigator unique - decide if they'll be a cop, a
psychologist, a forensic anthropologist, a genealogist, whatever. Use ying-yang
theory to make them human - a little evil in your good characters, a little
good in the bad guys. Mix it up. Add something to put pressure on timelines -
legal issues, kidnapped children, threat of murder/ duress. Then dump appalling
circumstances on your protagonist. Every time they overcome a barrier, put a
bigger one in the way. Raise the stakes, make it personal. Then break it to a
great resolution in an original way.
Crime is seriously fun to write - so if you're on the fence,
give it a go!
Leave questions/ thoughts/ requestions as comments - we'll try and make this a whole series for you guys. Guest posts are more than welcome - contact us in the usual way.
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