Writing Crime Fiction

A serial killer character is a fictional antagonist who commits two or more separate acts of murder, usually with a cooling-off period between offences, … Read more

How to research police work without a badge comes down to two tracks you run in parallel: open-source research you do alone, using public … Read more

To write a femme fatale without stereotypes, you have to give her a goal that exists without any man in the room, a set … Read more

Thriller vs mystery vs suspense explained comes down to what the reader is asked to do. In a mystery, the reader investigates and solves … Read more

A twist ending works when the reader feels two things at once: surprised and inevitable. Surprised that they did not see it coming, inevitable … Read more

Suspense in a short story comes down to one thing: the reader knows something bad is coming and cannot stop reading to find out … Read more

Learning how to write realistic police procedure in fiction comes down to one habit: fix the sequence before you write the scene. Real investigations … Read more

To plot a murder mystery novel step by step, you fix the answer first: who killed the victim, why, and how. Then you work … Read more

A detective readers remember is defined by a contradiction, a want that costs something, and a voice they can pick out of a crowded … Read more

To write a crime novel for beginners, you need one promise and a plan to keep it: a crime happens, a reader expects an … Read more