Mystery writers and fans: For my next mystery, I want it to be one where it's not a whodunit...

erika, have you read Laura Lippman's latest? It still sort of a whodunit but not really.

erika, you could write it so that we find out things as the detectives do. Or, if they already know who did it, how they pull together evidence to try and convict the person. Or tell it from the murderer's viewpoint, put them in the position of being able to watch the detectives detect, and see how they do it.

I think the main thing is to give a fair number of other people good motives and at least possible opportunity. You can go too far with that, of course; there was a P.D. James novel that after I found out why many people would want to kill this person, I wanted her dead too.

Oh, I'm already planning to put the killer in, part of the time. Thanks for all the thoughts.

I wish I had some advice for you, erika, but my complete incomprehension of how you pull off that clue thing is why I don't even think about writing mysteries. Love reading them, can't imagine writing one. Balancing how much you reveal with how much you keep hidden so that the answer doesn't come out of left field but isn't staring the reader in the face for too long, either, it's like a magic trick.

Yeah, I'm saying. David Simon says the crime story is *the* form for the 21st century. But no, if David Simon jumped off a bridge, I wouldn't go with him. His account of the way down would be so much better than mine.

snerk.

I'm sure it's been done, but it seems like there's huge potential in having a killer watch the investigation unfold, with the increasing nervousness and paranoia.

Help!

Two characters in my WIP are fighting. J has just tackled F, and they are rolling around on the ground. F draws a knife and slashes at J, scoring a minor cut or two, but then J disarms him, pins him down, and chokes him to death with his bare hands. Which sounded well and good, in a bloodthirsty way, until I tried to write it:

1. How does J disarm F? He's the younger and stronger of the two, so I think if he gets a good grip on F's knife hand, he can prevent him from doing any more damage, but how does he make him drop the knife? Should I have that happen before J knocks F down? I'd like the knife to be thrown/kicked somewhere where neither of them can reach it, because it's really important that J kills F with his bare hands--he's a soldier, so he's used to killing with musket and bayonet, and I want him shaken and shocked at himself in a way he wouldn't be if he'd used a bullet or a blade.

2. What is J going to see as F goes through his death throes? Will F turn red? Blue? How long will it take him to go limp and then to die?

Thanks!

Signed,
Discovering that Fight Scenes are Much Tougher Than Sex Scenes, Probably Because I've Had Sex but Have Never Killed a Man With My Bare Hands

How does J disarm F? He's the younger and stronger of the two, so I think if he gets a good grip on F's knife hand, he can prevent him from doing any more damage, but how does he make him drop the knife? Should I have that happen before J knocks F down?

I'm pretty sure you need to hunt ita down for exact details, but I vaguely recall a friend/instructor in the Russian martial arts class I took ages ago leading us through disarming someone with a knife or handgun, and there are a couple of fairly simple wrist-and-finger holds you can do that will not only turn the weaponed person's fingers to jelly but often drive him to his knees.

I know it's both possible and not incredibly difficult once you've got the training, but I have no clue as to exactly how it works. But ita probably knows twenty variations on it.

eta:

Discovering that Fight Scenes are Much Tougher Than Sex Scenes, Probably Because I've Had Sex but Have Never Killed a Man With My Bare Hands

Best. Signature Line. Ever.

Of course, ita would know! I'll xpost with Natter tomorrow. Am too tired now, having just wrestled my to-do list into submission, and with my bare hands, at that.

Best. Signature Line. Ever.

Heh. I try to amuse. Anyway, I figure it's probably true of most of my readership, too, so it won't be quite as obvious if I get it wrong. OTOH, if I'm going to write military fiction a la Bernard Cornwell, I'm sure I'll get readers with military training who could spot hand-to-hand combat errors a mile away and would point and laugh if I just made it all up.