 Mystery: March 16, 2016 Issue [#7534] |
  Mystery
This week: Beware the Ides of March! Edited by: Arakun the twisted raccoon  
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Quote for the week: "Man is a messenger who forgot the message. "
~Abraham Joshua Heschel
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Today is March 15, the infamous Ides of March. Strange messages, such as the cryptic warning telling Julius Caesar to "Beware the Ides of March!" can be a great addition to mystery stories. The message can be a veiled threat, an actual code, or just any strange statement that your characters need to figure out.
Imagine that your character's phone beeps, and he receives one (or more) of the following messages:
It's happening tonight.
I'm watching you.
Meet me at the place where it started.
You broke the rules.
Don't tell anybody.
I need your help.
I saw the whole thing.
They're coming.
Run!
Maybe your character knows exactly who sent the message and what it means, but the readers don't. Maybe it was meant for someone else, and he has no idea what is happening, except that it probably isn't good. Or maybe your character disappears, and this is the last message the police find on his phone.
Of course, your character doesn't need a phone or computer to receive a strange message. It could be a snail mail letter, a newspaper ad, or a prediction by a fortune teller, such as the famous warning of Julius Caesar's demise on March 15. Maybe a complete stranger points an accusing finger at your character and shouts, "It was you!"
The message might have a perfectly innocent meaning and serve to misdirect the detectives and the readers. For example, "It's happening tonight" might refer to a surprise party for a friend or a planned marriage proposal.
The message might come from a victim or intended victim. In Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story, "The Adventure of the Speckled Band," Sherlock Holmes had to decipher the meaning of the victim's last words: "It was the band! The speckled band!"
If your message does come from the victim, make sure it is realistic. If the victim writes a coded message in his own blood, for example, instead of just writing the name of his attacker, there had better be a good reason!
A victim might need to send a cryptic message because the attackers are listening. A kidnap victim who is allowed to speak to family members on the phone might try to give a subtle clue to where he is being held or the identity of the captors. In one story I read years ago, kidnappers forced their victim to write the ransom note. She included the phrase "wellth isn't everything." By misspelling the word "wealth," she intended to reveal that she was being held in an abandoned well.
Something to try: Write a mystery story that includes an odd or threatening message.
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