Mystery stories have never gone out of style, but the newest Sherlock Holmes movie starring the very talented Robert Downey, Jr. has added to their popularity. Many opportunities exist for writing mysteries – from short stories to plays to movie scripts and even novels. But first, one must come up with an engaging detective.
To create a detective, one must consider several key elements, such as physical description, occupation, personality and habits, and crime-solving methods.
How the Detective Looks
Detectives come in all shapes in sizes, from the tall and thin Holmes to the large and loud Andy Dalziel in the Reginald Hill mystery series. They can be good-looking, such as Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum or Elizabeth George’s Thomas Lynley, who is a lanky and blonde British lord (though the actor in the BBC interpretation is dark-haired . . . and very handsome).
Some detectives have interesting physical attributes, such as Jack Frost in the R.G. Wingfield British mystery and TV series, who has burn scars on his face. In the TV series, Monk is always impeccably dressed, in keeping with the OCD dysfunction that drives the show’s plot. Another popular TV detective Brenda Leigh, played by Kyra Sedgwick turns heads by looking like a proper Southern lady with long curly hair, pretty dresses, high heels, and a purse, but she has the brains that belie the supposedly flighty look.
What the Detectibe Does For a Living
One’s detective can be any kind of crime-solver: police, federal agent, ordinary citizen, psychic, psychologist, anyone who interacts with the public and is curious about crime-solving. That is the main quality a detective will need to have: curiosity. The detective is motivated by questions of why crimes occur and what drives the criminal mind.
As witnessed from the popularity of Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series or Susan Wittig Albert’s mystery series starring Beatrix Potter, the detective need not be an actual detective. Evanovich and Albert certainly owe a debt to Agatha Christie, whose Miss Marple set the standard for non-detective detectives who could solve a case precisely because no one was expecting them to.
The Detective's Habits and Personality
Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum is a bounty hunter who uses her comic personality and quirky family to get close to the suspects. Something is always going wrong for Plum and her hamster and her out-of-control gun-toting grandmother, and this edgy but comic personality makes her an interesting detective.
Though not addressed in most Sherlock Holmes movie versions, Holmes was a cocaine addict, a habit that shows both his obsessive personality and his need to avoid boredom at all costs. A far less dangerous habit is the one Hercule Poirot is known for: stroking his waxed mustache. In the new Fox TV series The Good Guys, the detective played by Bradley Whitford seems to constantly chew gum or eat chips, which adds to the character’s nonchalant attitude and humor. In a recent episode, he tried to get his partner to have some barbecue chips because “the dust on these makes you feel good.”
The Detective's Crime-Solving Methods
Different detectives use all sorts of methods to solve their crimes:
- Observation
- Forensic analysis
- Interrogation
- Deductive reasoning from the clues
- Knowledge of psychology and criminal behavior
- Intuition
- Note-taking
Sherlock Holmes’ observational skills and his powers of deductive reasoning awe the readers and the other characters in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories, especially Holmes’ own sidekick Watson. In the popular TV show Law and Order, detectives solve crimes by questioning witnesses and suspects through interrogation.
Monk is good at seeing beyond the surface of things to what others miss. Miss Marple – and the unassuming women in Susan Glaspell’s play Trifles -observe details and get information from people because they are not taken seriously as older women. In Psych , Sean solves crimes through claiming to be a psychic, but really, he is simply, like Holmes and Thomas Jane in The Mentalist, good at observing small details and following clues to a suspect.
Whether writing short solve-in-a-minute stories or mystery novels, writers must come up with detectives that encourage readers to go along with them in pursuit of the solution. Building that detective with certain key elements is the first step in getting the game afoot.
Shaun Perkins - Shaun Perkins, teacher, poet, storyteller, porch-sitter, beekeeper, gardener, writer, has been a high school and university teacher for ...
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