With 25 mysteries published (and another on the way), I'm constantly looking for new ways to do in my victims. I've used guns, gas, sharp blades,...
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... an explosion, strangling, carotid pressure, poisons, suffocation, drowning, falls...,
...being fallen upon (crushed by a stone angel monument), and common-or-garden blows to the head with a blunt instrument. I'm sure there are others I've forgotten.
I've never got around to electrocuting anyone, though electrical safeguards in the 1920s left something to be desired. And I've never used fire, simply because I find the idea altogether too gruesome.
Do the writers among those reading this have a favourite method of murder? Do you find yourselves trying to avoid a method you've used before? Is the method important to your story, or doesn't it matter much how your victim dies as long as he's good and dead?
For me, it varies. The stone angel was hugely symbolic (Styx and Stones). In The Bloody Tower, I used the layout and history of the Tower of London to dictate the method. In Fall of a Philanderer, it was alliteration as much as anything that made the Philanderer fall to his death!
5 comments:
Interesting question, Carola, and I had to think very hard to remember how my various victims had been despatched. In fact, it made me realise how little attention I give to that part of the job. The modus operandi seems to come out of the characters involved and, to a great extent, to the number of actual clues and red herrings it can generate. I think my focus is more on 'Whydunnit'.
Mine too, Bill. I just don't want readers to say I always use the same method! In my WIP, why is really the only mystery. Who is pretty obvious right from the start, but the motive(s) are--I hope!--anything but obvious.
My favorite method of murder is anything simple. I don't enjoy research, although I do some. But if someone gets bashed over the head, poisoned, stabbed or strangled (methods I've used in my cozy mystery) I don't have to spend a great deal of time on Google. (Smile here.) Right now I'm working on a suspense-type mystery and I kill with carbon monoxide when someone is left in a closed car in the garage with the engine running.
Like both of you, I'm also a whydunnit. My theory is that anyone can be pushed to murder, if the motive is strong enough.
Loved your post.
I talked with the state medical examiner who was, understandably, reluctant at first ("just why do you want to know this?") especially when I said I wanted to do in 3 people at one time.
A cyanide solution applied to the part of a pop-top can where the mouth goes, then dropping each of the 3 bodies in a different county - it was November and drizzling....
The research was fun!
I always try to vary my murder methods and have asked pharmacists, nurses, officers of the law and the Poison Control office about certain methods of killing my characters. I agree that there should always be a strong "why-done-it" to insure that the homicide is plausible.
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