Murder She Wrought: summary

Murder She Wrought began as an attempt at the Vocal Unreliable challenge. Having written the short story I wrote as an entry, I am not sure it qualifies. But let's not worry about that.

Unreliable challenge entry: Murder she wrought

The whole point of being a Vocal creator, the main benefit I get for my $100-a-year subscription, is the incentive and inspiration to write more.

So, having written the initial entry, which I am delighted to say was nominated as a top story, I went on to write three more unreliable viewpoints based on the same story. I also wrote a summary of these different perspectives in verse.

Summary of the story as it stands

Murder She Wrought is a tale of infidelity and revenge set within a background of Victorian/Edwardian class-ridden hypocrisy among the English upper-middle classes. A less pretty side to the Agatha Christie drawing room drama.

The drama revolves around the murder of a young woman working as a parlour maid to a famous author of popular murder mysteries. The circumstances of the murder are strikingly similar to those in the author's most recent book. This is not in itself an original storyline. It has been done before, by the likes of Anthony Horowitz (Magpie Murders) and has, indeed, occurred in real life with a number of murders linked to an author's writing.

In this story, the husband has a dalliance with the household's parlour maid, which he is later made to regret. After admitting this infidelity to his wife, he is bound to resolve the matter. He does so by dismissing the household servant who is later found beaten to death.

The husband is in due course arrested and charge with the young woman's murder. He struggles to account for himself, his movements and his actions and is in fear of his life, as conviction for murder can only mean one sentence: death by hanging.

In the courtroom, the author is put to the question, and is desperate to prove her husband's innocence. Her apparent genuine concern and support for her spouse is belied by the revelation (at the end of chapter one) that she is the real murderer. Her husband knows nothing of her crime, and she has set him up as a punishment for his infidelity. Her motivation is not to see his wrongful conviction and execution. She is careful to ensure that there is sufficient evidence to win his acquittal. So, what is her motivation?

In short, this story is not a whodunnit, so much as a whydunnit.

Question is: Can the setup so far, carry a story from the revelation of the identity of the true murder (end of chapter one), right through all the twists and turns through a crisis, climax and ultimate resolution?

If the answer is yes, it then begs the question: What comes next?

Given the background to this story, a one-off challenge that had nothing to do with novel writing, I am not sure that the original first part is necessarily the best start to a murder mystery book. So if I break the part one of the story down, I need to question each element.

I am also concerned that, having revealed the killer in chapter one, there may be insufficient drama, too few unresolved questions, to carry the readers through to the end. Time will tell and, perhaps, I will be able to craft a murder mystery worth the reading, but only if I resolve these outstanding issues.

Summarising the story as it stands:

An unremarkable man is on trial for murder, and therefore his life

His wife, an author of popular murder mystery novels, is revealed by her own admission as the real murderer, and has set him up. Why?

The victim, a servant of the couple, is not valued by either spouse, not unusually, given the class-ridden nature of respectable English society at the time.

The author and the husband both find the servant a nuisance and are glad to be rid of her, once she has been dismissed.

The police take the bait laid down by the author, hook line and sinker, hence the husband has been taken into custody to stand trial.

Questions unresolved at the end of chapter one:

1. Although we know who the murderer is, what was her motive? On the surface it looks like jealous rage but could there be more to it? More importantly...
2. Will she get away with it?
3. Who initiated the sordid encounter(s) in the pantry? Was it the husband, the maid, or was it mutual?
4. What were the husband's intentions? Was it just an opportunistic exploitation of a vulnerable employee or is there more to it than that? Is there any genuine feeling for the young woman?
5. What was the maid thinking when the sexual relationship began with her employer? Was it entirely consensual? Does she have any ambition/delusion about his intentions towards her?
6. If there is something more meaningful in the illicit relationship, do either or both players have any desire to run off and make a new life together? While illicit sex between servant and master is not unusual in this era, it would be wholly remarkable for this to lead to a lasting and legitimised (by divorce and remarriage on the part of the male employer) relationship.
7. Can/should the story have a specific time and place and, if so, where and when? As it stands (Chapter One) it could be anywhere in England where households have live-in servants. The story could take place any time within the late Victorian or Edwardian eras.
8. One vital timeline question: Does the book come before or after the murder?

The above questions also raise a question about whether there is a need for a more specific timeline as part of the planning of this work.

Perhaps the most important question for the author (me) at this stage is: What is the mystery? What are the important things that the reader does not know at the start of the novel? What clues will lead the reader (the principal detective) to the conclusion and revelation of the mystery without giving the game away? These are the key questions for this author to resolve before much progress can be made with the project.

On the subject of detectives, who is the detective in this mystery? An immutable convention of the detective fiction genre is that there must be a detective to ask the questions and find the clues to the mystery on behalf of the reader. It might be an actual detective, official police (like Rebus) or private (Marlowe), or it could be an amateur enthusiast (Marple) or it could even be someone who does not want to be a detective. In the case of the reluctant detective, the role is somehow forced on them by circumstance or necessity. Perhaps a loved one of the deceased who cannot accept the official verdict on the killing.

All of these questions are ultimately for this author to resolve. Though any suggestions would, as always, be gratefully received. Even though I ask the questions primarily of myself, the process of asking them in this way also helps me to figure out the problem. How to write this murder mystery and make it a story worth the telling and therefore the reading.

Thanks for reading these musings. Thinking through these issues has already helped me to figure out some of the answers.

Coming soon: Timeline of a murder mystery