Elements of Mystery

Open Ended

Name any TV Shows or Movies that you would define as Mystery

Elements of Mystery

Open Ended

Two girls ate dinner together. They both ordered iced tea. One girl drank very fast and had finished five in the time it took for the other girl to drink one. The girl who drank one died while the other survived. All of the drinks were poisoned. How did the girl who drank the most survive?

1 - A death or crime to be solved.
2 - Usually involves clues, a detective, and suspects.

​

​The Mystery Genre

Mystery stories, as we know them, began in the mid 19th century (1850s).

First "detective novel" was written by Edgar Allen Poe

​

History of Mystery

​Agatha Christie

Edgar Allan Poe

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

It is one of the most popular genres of fiction out there today.

​Modern Day Mysteries

Follow this Link and see if any of your favorite TV Mystery shows made it to the top 50.

https://www.imdb.com/search/title/?title_type=tv_series,tv_miniseries&genres=mystery

​Basic Elements of Mystery

​Characters

​Setting

​Plot

​Problem

​Solution

A great mystery should invite the reader to try to solve the crime, and a great opening is critical to piquing their interest.

​

​1. A Strong Hook

Poll

Select your favorite hook lines from mystery novels.

• Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that they meant to murder him.

• This time there would be no witnesses.

• I opened my eyes to see the rat taking a piss in my coffee mug.

• We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge.

Poll

Select your favorite hook line from mystery novels.

• Some years later, on a tugboat in the Gulf of Mexico, Joe Coughlin’s feet were placed in a tub of cement.

• She was ten years old, but knew enough to wipe clean the handle of the bloody kitchen knife.

• Death is my beat.

• Even on the night she died, Rose Shepherd couldn’t sleep.

​Stories in this genre should create an ominous, uneasy mood through setting to support the anxiety of an unknown antagonist lurking in the shadows.

​

2. An Atmospheric Setting

Poll

Select the best atmospheric line from mystery novels.

• It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.

• The utter unbroken silence was more appalling than any ominous noise, than the loudest yells of anguish, than the most piercing screaming...Dead silence.Literally dead.

• The lamplight was eerie, and, standing there motionless in our bathrobes, sleepy, with shadows flickering all around, I felt as though I had woken from one dream into an even more remote one, some bizarre wartime bomb shelter of the unconscious.

• There was a shadowy light, not exactly twilight, but an uncertain vivid yet hazy illumination, wherein people walked like spirits, bathed in light and not revealed.

This is our central problem that must be solved, but the conflict can shift and both victim and perpetrator can change

​

​3. A Crime

At the heart of every mystery is a main character determined to solve the crime.

The character development of the sleuth is important; they need a backstory that connects them to the crime or the killer, and a motive that explains why solving this crime is important to them.

​

4. A Sleuth

Multiple Choice

Here is a review of terms associated with Crime that are helpful to know while reading a mystery novel.

Forensics

• the use of scientific techniques in criminal investigations

• a person appointed to act for another in business or legal matters

• a combination of the study of the human species and the study of criminals

• a feeling or guess based on intuition rather than known facts

Multiple Choice

MOTIVE

• the reason a crime is committed

• the chance for a crime to occur

• the way a crime is committed

Multiple Choice

What is the MEANS?

• the reason a crime is committed

• the way a crime is committed

• the chance for a crime to occur

Multiple Choice

What is the OPPORTUNITY?

• the reason a crime is committed

• the way a crime is committed

• the chance for a crime to occur

A mystery is often called a whodunit because the culprit is unknown until they’re caught at the end.

​

5. A Villain

A mystery plot is in constant motion thanks to a cat-and-mouse narrative thread.

​

​6. Narrative Momentum

The reader becomes an amateur sleuth, following the trail of clues to try to discover the identity of the culprit.

​

​7. A Trail of Clues

Multiple Choice

What is an ALIBI?

• a person who commits a crime

• someone who has personal knowledge about a crime

• a false clue or lead

• story or proof that someone was not involved in a crime

Multiple Choice

What is a LEAD?

• information that helps move the case in a certain direction

• something that proves who committed a crime

• something that appears to give information to solve a crime

• a false clue

Mysteries often drop hints of things that will happen in the future. This is known as foreshadowing.

8. Foreshadowing

A writer creates red herrings by placing extra emphasis on an object, event, or character that catches a reader’s attention, making that element seem more significant than it really is to the storyline.

​

9. Red Herrings

Multiple Choice

What does "Chekov's Gun" refer to?

• the idea that if an object is featured in a story, it must be used in some way.

• the idea that any act of violence in a novel must be shown off stage.

• the idea that the villain must die at the end of every mystery.

• the idea that the murder weapon must be the main clue in a mystery story.

At the end of great mystery novels there is the big reveal—the sleuth discovers the identity of the culprit. An ending should also provide an alibi for any other suspects to strengthen the identity of the real killer and eliminate doubt, tying up loose ends.

​

10. A Satisfying Ending

Keep Your Eyes On:

1. Foreshadowing

2. Chekov's Gun

3. Red Herrings

4. Clues

5. Small Details

6. Minor or Unimportant Characters