Schematics of a Detective Story

1. Choose a time period and locale: The story would take place sometime in the 1960s-1970s in New York City. That is one of my favorite era's in American History and that was also a time of significance for New York City. The story would occur in the summer during the middle of a horrible heat wave and would have the "detective" in the story visiting the dingiest, grimiest places the city had to offer at the time in parts of Queens, Uptown Manhattan and Brooklyn's Coney Island. I'd want the story to have a very dirty and gross feel to it much like how one would feel outside in a humid heat wave. Maybe the story could occur during one of the blackout's the city had in that era, to add to the feeling of confusion the reader would feel for the detective of the narrative.

2. Develop a detective: The detective in my story would definitely be a Sam Spade type like in "The Maltese Falcon". I'd want him to be a smooth character capable of figuring out anything and everyone in a glance. The character would have ton's of soliloquies so we'd really get to see the type of person he is. Although he is the "detective" of the narrative, I wouldn't want him to be an actual cop or detective because that's to easy. I think this person would be maybe a hired hand or some type of assassin that normally wouldn't get himself involved in solving a mystery or some type of crime. I'd want him to be an experienced person but not experienced in being an actual "detective" so that perhaps the reader would be capable of solving the crime before the detective does himself.

3. Outline the crime: The "crime" would be some type of set-up. I'd want my "detective" to be the fall-guy or even set up on purpose. Perhaps by his own people or organization so that he would be all alone in clearing his name. Since my detective is a criminal the crime would be unknown to the public and the police and he would definitely not ask any authorities for assistance. He'd be trying to clear his name for the sake of his life, not prison. Maybe his mentor would be the one killed and he would be the one set up to be blamed for it, so that his own people are after him. During the story he'd be constantly fleeing and scurrying to find out who killed his mentor and why, and most of all why they have set him up for it.

4. Include some clues: The clues wouldn't be simplistic like footprints or fingerprints but they wouldn't be the most complex clues in the world. The detective is hired killer so hes not a genius but at the same time hes not as dumb as a bag of rocks. The clues would be like remembering the eyes of the person who killed his mentor, and maybe being able to take out one of the other people who helped kill his mentor. Being an assassin he is highly skilled in violent interrogation. I'd like to have it so that he brutally tortures an otherwise strong-willed individual into giving him a name. With this name he will slowly put the pieces together to find out who his mentor's killers are. From there I'd like to have his own people come for him thinking he is the killer not knowing that their is a traitor amongst them. In a spectacular battle over and under the boardwalk at Coney Island, our detective gets away but finds the dropped 1970's style pager of one of his pursuers (And yes they did have pagers back then). From there he is able to call back the last few numbers until maybe he finally calls a man who answers with the name of the real killer.

5. Identify the MMO: The crime would be the murder of my main characters mentor and highly ranked and respected contract killers in his organization. His killer would be a top ranked assassin of another organization that wants the "detective's" mentor killed because he is involved in a plot to take out the leaders and strongest of every organization in order to take over and unify all of the separate organizations for himself. This man hires the "traitor" to give up information on where the "mentor" will be at a given time where he would be most vulnerable to an attack. Mind you these men are all highly skilled and trained assassins so taking out one of the best would be something that must be thoroughly planned and thought out. He is taken out when he and the "detective" are on a job together with the "traitor". The "traitor" immediately flee's to warn the others of the organization to pin the murder on our "detective".

6. Identify the alibis of the suspects: The number one suspect of the story is the "detective". He is set up and the scapegoat for the murder of his "mentor" by the hands of the "traitor" within their organization who is being paid and promised the world by an unknown hand. The only people there at the time are the "detective", the "mentor", the "traitor" and two masked men who are the killers.

7. Provide a climax: The climax of the story would take place after our "detective" is forced to fight his own kin who think he killed his "mentor". During the fight he barely gets away yet finds the pager of the "traitor" and begins to call the last couple of numbers they he does not recognize as being his own people's. He finally gets in touch with an unknown man whom answers to the name that one of the masked men gave up. He leads his pursuers to where the unknown man is to have a final showdown in order to clear his name with his kin and catch the killer of his "mentor".

That last part kind of involved the last two parts on "How To Write a Detective Story so I did not see a need to include them.