  Mystery
This week: Why did they do it? Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week: No one does anything from a single motive.
~Samuel Taylor Coleridge |
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In a homicide investigation, detectives often ask these questions:
"Who might have wanted to harm the victim?"
"Did the victim have any enemies?"
"Who might have something to gain from the victim's death?"
Determining motive is as important in developing a mystery story as it is in an actual investigation. The motive determines how the crime is committed, the appearance of the crime scene, and the behavior of the killer during the investigation. If you have a mystery story that doesn't quite work, it may be that the crime scene doesn't fit the motive, or maybe the motive doesn't fit the character.
Here are a few possible motives or explanations for homicide. You may be able to think of some more.
Accident An accident isn't a murder, but it can be the subject of a mystery if the person who caused the accident tries to cover it up or blame someone else.
Covering up another crime Sometimes, the victim is just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe the victim walked in on a robbery, witnessed a drug deal, or overheard the plan of a terrorist attack.
Delusional or insane killer The killer may be under the influence of hallucinogenic drugs or suffer from a mental illness that alters his perception of reality. A character with PTSD might have flashbacks of a war or other traumatic experience. In one real life case, a man killed a neighbor because he "had a vision" that the neighbor was an alien who was planning to kidnap his children. If you use a delusional killer, be sure and do research on the condition you intend them to have, so it will be realistic.
Crime of passion Maybe your killer caught her boyfriend with another woman, or maybe her new boss fired her. Whatever happened, she strikes without thinking and somebody dies. In a crime of passion, the killer reacts immediately. Instead of a conventional weapon, they may use anything that is nearby. In the short story, "Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl, a woman whose husband has just confessed to adultery hits him on the head with a frozen leg of lamb. I won't give away what happens next in this story, but she also disposes of the weapon in an original way!
Revenge The differences between a crime of passion and a revenge killing are the passage of time and amount of planning. As the old adage says, "Revenge is a dish best served cold." A vengeful killer may spend years planning his retribution and may come up with an elaborate scheme to make the punishment fit his victim's "crime".
Money Some people will do anything for money or personal gain, including murder. Your killer might murder his wife for her life insurance, his boss for his position, or an elderly relative for an inheritance. Since the police will be likely to suspect anyone who will profit from the death, there should be several suspects with equally strong motives, or the death should not look like murder.
Hate crime This killer believes that certain people do not have a right to exist, and chooses victims based on race, religion, or ethnicity. People who have these views usually do not hide them, so hiding the killer among other suspects might be difficult, unless all suspects are part of the same gang or hate group. With some careful character development, you might be able to create a hateful character who manages to pass himself off as a kind, gentle person.
Love Love can be a stronger motive than hate for some characters. Maybe your killer wants his victim's wife for himself, or maybe a young girl wants her parents out of the way because they disapprove of her boyfriend.
Serial killer's profile Just as investigators use an offender profile to catch criminals, a serial killer may choose his victims based on a profile of his own. Maybe his victims all live on a certain road or all have the same hair color. Many of Ted Bundy's victims had long straight hair parted in the middle, similar to that of a girlfriend who rejected him.
Professional hit A professional assassin usually does not know the victims and may not even know who hired him or her. The assassin kills only for money, but the true motive will be that of the person who hired the assassin. Depending on the skill of the assassin, the crime scene will be very clean with little evidence left behind, or it may be staged to look like an accident or robbery.
For an extra twist, the true motive should not be evident in the crime scene. For example, a revenge killing might look like a suicide, or a killing for money might appear to be a hate crime. Misinterpretation of the motive might lead the detectives to focus on the wrong suspect, while the real killer escapes.
The most difficult crimes to solve are those in which nobody seems to have a motive. Who would kill a character everyone seems to love? Only the author and the killer know for sure!
To understand the motive for a crime, you need to get into the murderer's head. This might be a scary place to be, but learning how to think like a killer (at least on paper) will help you create a realistic character and an unforgettable story.
Something to try: Write a murder mystery in which the motive is not what it seems.
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Mystery: September 11, 2013 Issue [#5875]
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