Muddle in the Middle

Thanksgiving means so much more to me this year. Why? FINAL JUROR, the mystery novel I'm working on, is set during that time frame. So I'm very cognizant of the sights, sounds and smells of the season.

My detective, Brad Frame, is serving on a jury in a murder trial. It's lasting weeks, and as might be the case in real life the trial happens to span the Thanksgiving holiday. In fiction, grounding events in places and circumstances with which the reader can identify helps make it more believable. As part of my research, I visited the courthouse where the trial would take place. I determined that, in fact, trials take place nearly every working day of the year except holidays.

While I can give my protagonist a respite from the trial, I can't afford to let the reader get too far away from the plot of the mystery, which brings me to what I call the "muddle in the middle."Every book has a beginning, middle and end--and each of those story aspects creates its own set of challenges. For me, the beginning of a mystery novel is all about setting up the premise of the story. Usually a murder has taken place and the reason is established as to why Brad Frame is going to take on the case. My objective is to raise lots of questions that will draw the reader into the story. In the final 50 - 75 pages I try to wrap up the plot in a satisfying way. Hopefully, the solution won't come "out of left field" even though the reader may be surprised by the ending.

It's in the middle of the story that I'm planting cues, laying red herrings, misdirecting the reader so s/he doesn't readily see the truth of what my detective sees. Middles are the most challenging part, in my opinion. It's important to me that all of the clue planting--as well as the misdirection--be organic to the story. So I'm plodding my way through the middle of my story, and eager to get to the wrap-up.

Muddle in the middle isn't what's stuffed inside the Thanksgiving bird, it's the framework that takes the detective (and the reader) through the puzzle and toward the ultimate solution.

Do you have any pet peeves about the middle of mystery stories that you've read? Please feel free to join the conversation.

I Could Use Your Help

I'm currently working on the fifth book in the Brad Frame series, FINAL JUROR.

Rachel Tetlow asks Brad to investigate the seventeen-year-old murder of her father while he served as a juror in a Federal racketeering case. Rachel wants answers after all these years. Brad explains that in spite of the odds of success after such a lapse in time, that they will look into the case.

But Brad gets sidetracked on helping Rachel when he is picked for a jury in a case where a man is accused of killing his wife and stuffing her body into a freezer.

Brad's assistant, Sharon Porter, tackles Rachel's case, while Brad ponders the evidence in the courtroom with the benefit of his own background as a crime solving investigator.

My story is plotted, but I'd like to hear a few "Tales from the jury box" that I could incorporate to enhance the reader's experience. Have you served on a jury in a criminal case? If so, do you have any interesting stories to share? Things like weird statements fellow jurors make, donnybrooks in the deliberation room, funny anecdotes. In the novel, to convey the sense of juror confidentiality, I've only assigned first names to the jurors in the story. YOU could be one of those names, just by sharing a good jury story. And for a really spectacular tale, I'd even be willing to name one of the characters after you.

By all means, join this conversation. I can use your input.

Universal Truth

My high school senior English teacher was Miss Abigail Cresswell. Not merely Abigail Cresswell, mind you, "Miss" was part of her name. I did a Google search hoping that I might find a photograph of her, but there were none. Suffice it to say that if you looked up "stern" in the dictionary you might see her picture.

She assigned a "term paper," and mine featured Joseph Addison's Sir Roger de Coverley papers. The topic is emblazoned in my memory, but I had to research Addison for this post since my memory of the content was sketchy. Sir Roger is a fictional "country gentleman," and perhaps, in the dark recesses of my mind, Roger influenced my future Brad Frame character?

Our term paper had a due date, and more than once Miss Cresswell would peer out at us over the top of her glasses and say, "Woe be unto you if you do not have your paper in on time." (She never defined the consequences, leaving that to our imaginations. I pictured the guillotine, since we'd read A Tale of Two Cities earlier in the semester.)

I'd worked on the paper, but on the day before it was due I got sick. With "woe be unto you" echoing in my brain, I stretched out on the living room sofa, feeling miserable, but finished writing my paper.

What endures from her class is the concept of "universal truth." As a seventeen-year-old I couldn't comprehend its application, but in the same way that "woe be unto you" stayed with me, the notion of universal truth began to make sense when I had a few more years under my belt and especially when I began writing. When readers can identify with the people and situations that populate our books, they have broader appeal. I'm glad to finally have a chance to thank Miss Abigail Cresswell for teaching me that lesson.

Did you have a teacher or mentor that had a strong influence on your life? Join in the conversation with a comment below.