I'd Like to Stop Killing People

Jeff Cohen

The wonderful Shannon Jamieson Vazquez, who edited an even dozen of the stories I've written, once told me she found me unusual among my colleagues: I was the mystery writer who most hated killing people.

As usual, she was completely right. I am not especially interested in violence. I don't really care what the method of the murder might be. Motivations to commit the act always seem stupid in my mind--really, there was no recourse other than to kill somebody? Exactly how much did you need that rare butterfly or the parcel of land in California (it's always in California)? Yeah, you were mad that your wife cheated on you, but so were another thousand spouses, and that's just today. You couldn't just get a divorce? Revenge-cheat? Take up chess?j

The method of murder is just as odd in my opinion. People living in suburban Indiana take each other apart with medieval axes? Citizens of Pittsburgh fly in an exotic plant to create just the right poison? My friend Luci Hansson Zahray, otherwise known as The Poison Lady, tells me a person can overdose on pretty much anything. For your character it has to be that species of Amazonian Strychnos? Really?

I'm not saying I'd ban all murders from all books; of course I wouldn't. Fiction is meant to be free and in some cases hyper-dramatic. I get that, and I have personally murdered more than 20 people in books and short stories. I don't have a problem with the existence of murder mysteries; they have provided me with a nice living and I find writing them to be enjoyable. When the writing is going well.

We are told as crime fiction writers that murder "ups the stakes" in the story and makes it more exciting for the reader. I tend to think that if your characters are involved in answering an interesting question and they themselves are not boring people, there are other topics to be explored.

One hedge against this--and it's one I've used in the past--is to write a supposed murder that turns out not to be a murder in the end. It gives the writer a nice surprise moment toward the end of the story where the assumed victim shows up breathing. I'm not above utilizing that one. But I am interested in writing something else once in a while.  A heist? A missing person? A lost dog? Something? Maybe. Not sure if my publishers would be thrilled, but I'd like to give it a shot. 

It makes me wonder if readers feel the same way. Do you really need there to be a killing (or four) in every book for the story to be interesting? Is that an absolutely essential part of the mystery reading experience? I'm asking this seriously and would welcome answers in the comments below.

What about a mystery with no murder? Not even the hint of one? What do you think?

 

Comments

[Anne Louise Bannon]

One of my favorite books of all time is Gaudy Night, by Dorothy L. Sayers. No murder and the only stiff happened years before and is never really seen and barely talked about. But, damn, it's riveting.

[Patty]

I enjoy books that don't have a high body count more than those who have a new dead body every chapter. Some of the most interesting are a presumed dead/murdered that really aren't. So, yes, if the writing is good and interesting and sometimes even funny, I'll read the book.

BTW, I seldom read reviews because too often they contain spoilers, so I wouldn't know if there actually is a dead body.

[catherine.mcfarland@gmail.com]

Alice Duncan's Daisy Gumm Majesty books are mysteries without murders (at the least the ones I've read so far) and they are completely enjoyable.

[Barb Goffman]

When I did programming for Malice Domestic, I so wanted to do a panel where all the authors wrote a mystery without a murder, but I never had enough authors registered to fill the panel. Sigh.

[Toni Lotempio]

of coruse you can have msyteries with no murders. There were no murders in the Nancy Drew mysteries,and I loved them.

[Donald A. Coffin]

As long as the stakes are high enough, almost anything will work. A minor theft, not so much. Kidnapping, major theft, arson...I'm good. And I would agree that the alleged motives for murder are often fairly implausible and that the choice of a means of death often strain credulity. So, go for it. If your publisher buys it, so will I.

[Lynne Patrick]

I read two in a row, just the other day! Couldn't put the first one down. The second was nearly as gripping. It can be done!