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Craft of Writing

Marcia Kiser

Selecting The Perfect Tool...For Murder

When writing any murder scene, whether murder mystery, suspense-thriller, horror, or even romance, the writer must give a lot of thought to the murder weapon.

One cannot simply decide that Colonel Mustard enticed his victim to the library and used a lead pipe. The lead pipe is a valid blunt instrument, but does it fit the circumstances? That is to say, would Colonel Mustard have the opportunity to obtain a lead pipe and hide it in the library? Would he need to leave the pipe behind or would he need to take it with him?

The answers to these questions are determined by motive and opportunity, but the psychology of the murderer also plays a part. For example, one would not expect Michael Myers, of Halloween fame, to use poison. Michael appears to prefer the sudden attack, silent and stealthy, sneaking up on his victims and using weapons that create both a great deal of terror and a great deal of blood. Michael lives in, and for, the moment, with no regard for long-term planning once the blood lust is on him.

Most mystery writers, especially series authors, do not use the same weapon again and again without significant variation. To learn how psychology, motive, and opportunity affect the selection of the murder tool, try examining the work of one author with at least 10 novels in a series. Read everything that author has written, including short stories and off-series novels, to see how that author handles the choice of murder weapon.

A good place to start is Rex Stout's series featuring the detective duo of Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. The series spans more than 40 years and comprises more than 80 novels and short stories. In a body of work that size, there is bound to be repetition in the choice of murder weapons, primarily guns, poisons, and the ever-popular blunt instrument. However, Stout manages some surprising murder weapons, too, including a champion bull, an exploding cigar (twice), and dry ice. None of these weapons can be considered run-off-the-mill choices, but each one fits the situation perfectly in terms of motive and opportunity. This body of work is also an excellent way to see why a particular method was used and how it fits the psychology of the murder.

In Fer-De-Lance, the opening novel, a poisoned needle is shot from the handle of a golf club into the stomach of Peter Oliver Barstow, who, by the way, was not the intended victim. The psychology of the weapon choice was to disguise the murder as a natural death, which it does, until Wolfe becomes involved and forces an exhumation and autopsy. The motive? The true intended victim was the murderer's own father, but the son wanted to inherit, of course, hence the decision to make the murder look like a natural death.

Motive, opportunity, and psychology come clearly into play in Black Orchid. Many times, the use of a firearm as a weapon is a spur-of-the-moment decision, a crime of passion. In this Stout mystery, however, the use of a revolver is planned and executed in exquisite detail. A walking stick is stolen and attached to the trigger of a revolver by a length of green yarn. When Archie Goodwin retrieves the walking stick, he pulls the trigger of the revolver, which has been cleverly concealed in a "living" display at the New York Flower Show, and unknowingly commits a murder. Mr. Dill, the actual murderer, planned his crime to provide an alibi for himself. Harold Gould, the victim, had been blackmailing Mr. Dill. In the event the police found out about the blackmail, Mr. Dill would be a prime suspect, hence his desire for the alibi. Mr. Dill almost gets away with it, even though Wolfe surmises the truth. With no real evidence, Wolfe forces Mr. Dill to the extreme step of trying to kill Wolfe, Archie, and everyone else present at Wolfe's denouncement.

In Cordially Invited to Meet Death, tetanus is used as the murder weapon. The bacteria is introduced into a bottle of iodine, then an accident is engineered so the victim steps on a piece of broken glass and requires first aid. The victim, Bess Huddleston, develops tetanus and dies a horrible, agonized death. Janet Nichols, the murderer, also puts a sliver of the broken glass in a bath brush as a red herring to divert suspicion. Janet loved Bess' nephew, but Bess disapproved of the match, so Janet removes Bess' objections, for good. The motive for this weapon is obvious. Janet doesn't want her character besmirched in front of her love, Larry, and killing one's aunt does have repercussions.

Stout uses poison quite often throughout his works, and it almost always signals multiple deaths and/or an audience-filled "locked-room" mystery. Also, Wolfe, Archie, or both are inevitably present at the crime scene. For example, in Champagne for One, Archie attends a dinner in a private home for a group of unwed mothers. During the course of the evening, Archie learns that one girl carries a vial of cyanide in her purse. The others express a concern that the girl, Faith Usher, plans to commit suicide, thus Archie remains alert. When Faith collapses, everyone presumes she administered herself the cyanide. Everyone, that is, except Archie. Stout's use of poison in this way, for his classic, yet unorthodox, locked-room mystery, indicates the psychology of a bold, desperate murderer, who likes to sneak about in the shadows and the rare opportunity for a murder to appear as a suicide. In the case of Champagne for One, Wolfe forces a re-enactment of the murder scene to determine that the murderess is the benefactor of the unwed mothers home who learned that Faith Usher was the daughter of her late husband.

These four plots involve very different personality types, motives, and opportunity, thus Stout also needed to employ very different tools. When writing your own mystery, don’t always go with the obvious. Think about the psychology, opportunity, and motive to select the perfect tool…for murder!

About the Author
Marcia Kiser writes, works, and lives in Lubbock, TX, with her husband, Eckert, and their SharPei mix, Kaiser Sosei. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, the Palo Duro Chapter of NSDAR, and was a contributing editor to Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine. Publications include The Writer's E-Zine, The Writer's Room Magazine, The Murder Hole, The Thrilling Detective, Dusty Cowboy, Novel Advice Mysterical-E, FUTURES, Over My Dead Body, and the recently released Novel Advice Anthology. Marcia can be contacted at Mek357@sbcglobal.net.