I’m writing a murder mystery story what is a good place setting?
January 30, 2009 · Filed Under Books & Authors
Taylor asked:
I’ve decided to write a murder mystery book. I’ve already written a couple of fiction books but decided to switch for a change. I need a good place setting for my book. Something where it’s not to cold and not to hot. The time setting is on halloween. Does anyone know a good place setting for it. Also if anyone has some name suggestions for me i would appreciate it. Any tips would be fine too. Im up for anything! Thanks!
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I’ve decided to write a murder mystery book. I’ve already written a couple of fiction books but decided to switch for a change. I need a good place setting for my book. Something where it’s not to cold and not to hot. The time setting is on halloween. Does anyone know a good place setting for it. Also if anyone has some name suggestions for me i would appreciate it. Any tips would be fine too. Im up for anything! Thanks!
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Comments
7 Responses to “I’m writing a murder mystery story what is a good place setting?”
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Any modern city seems to fit your description.
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a subway car thats stuck underground would be awesome.
and haloween is really cliche, maybe you could think of something a little different.
good luck with your book!
wait do you mean youve written books or youve written books that got published? let me know, maybe i’ll read them =]
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I’ve got two great settings for you:
1) Asheville NC
2) Santa Cruz CA
Both of these are big towns (populations around 50-70,000), but not so big that everyone is completely anonymous.
Neither of them get too hot at any point in the year, but neither get brutally cold.
Asheville’s motto is “Keep Asheville Weird.” That alone should be a clincher, but I’ll also point out that Asheville is a really eclectic mix of university students, mountain people, old hippies, adventure athletes, and rich people building second homes.
Santa Cruz is a really eclectic mix of technology workers and surfers, and has some really interesting spots, like The Mystery Spot.
Good luck!
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I just saw the movie, room 1408. The room was haunted. Base your story on a high rise luxury apartment in Colorado. Maybe Aspen or Denver on Halloween night. Choose a particular room or a Penthouse apartment where in the past there were murders but, they were kept secret for the fear of closing down the high rise in the boom town. Devise a way for the tenant to seek information because of certain happenings in that room like the local library for past news articles. Have the tenant run into some other tenants that know of the murders but, are scared to elaborate on the story for fear that they too would succumb to being murdered but, have the tenant choose a child that lives there to confide in the tenant but, make it to where the child has a certain talisman that the child had found and the only way to stop the haunting murders is to gently explain to the child that the talisman is dangerous and needs to be destroyed.
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It would have to be someplace you are very familiar with in order for you to write about it in enough detail to write a mystery. Mystery readers expect clues along the way, and they know when you drop one. For instance, if I was having a character interrogated by the police in NYC and she said she was over by Lincoln Center and then described a restaurant near The Village - he would know she was lying because the places are nowhere near each other. Knowing your setting is ultimately important in a mystery. Mystery readers are the most careful readers in the world and they always know when you are cheating them by not knowing what you are talking about. Pax - C
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Unless the scenery or setting has a functional part in the murder or its resolution, it really doesn’t matter where the ‘place setting’ might be–but it should be somewhere you know about first-hand. As a previous answer put it, mystery readers are the pickiest people in the world…and a small error [such as putting a park where it isn't or moving a major street] can make everything else you’ve tried for in the book unimportant…the line goes, “Well if they can’t keep track of THAT stuff, then what else are they going to screw up?” I’ve thrown books down unfinished because the details were messed up. Some genre writers make the location the star of the show–as in, another bloody trip thru the Blue Grotto– but nothing NOTHING replaces authentic detail and plot twists that seem effortless and uncontrived.
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You could put it in London, England, Toronto, Canada, Chicago, USA, or New York City, USA.