Now Write! Mysteries

KAREN HARPER, published since 1982, is the New York Times–bestselling author of fifty novels, including contemporary suspense and a historical mystery series. Dark Harvest, with its Amish amateur sleuth heroine, won the Mary Higgins Clark Award. Harper’s novels have been translated into many languages, most recently Russian and Turkish.

Despite the popularity of police, detectives, and forensic specialists as central characters in books and other mass media, amateur sleuths are always popular with readers and, therefore, publishers. As a veteran author of many books featuring amateur sleuths, I’d like to discuss how to create and bring them to life to propel and sell your work.

Amateur sleuths have worked well for me for eighteen years. My heroines, who have solved serious crimes (and made me a bestselling author), had such careers as rose grower, Amish teacher, scuba diver, farmer, camp counselor for at-risk girls, TV anchor, and a Ph.D. cancer researcher. And, oh yes, Queen of England in a nine-book mystery series featuring Bess Tudor, Queen Elizabeth I.

But first, what’s the continued appeal of amateur sleuths? For one thing, many readers identify with them more easily than with a professional detective, and pulling the reader into your main character is job number one. The subconscious idea of This could happen to me—this could be me! is powerful.

This bond between the reader and the main character is also strengthened by the fact that, however much we love to see professional crime-solvers at their clever best, it is more compelling to watch an amateur sleuth solve a crime where something personal is at stake. Amateur sleuths would not be investigating if something hadn’t deeply affected them. Someone they know, possibly someone they love, has been abducted or murdered.

It makes for a good read to see a dedicated professional sleuth solve a crime, but it ups the ante if the sleuth has a huge stake in the investigation besides doing his job. Screenwriters of P.I. or police procedurals are aware of this ploy and sometimes go out of their way to work a detective’s personal investment into a plot. How many times have you seen a police show on television where it happens that the investigator knows the victim or identifies with the victim for some reason? But when you write an amateur sleuth, you don’t have to stretch for this, and the closer the crime victim is to the main character, the better.

Another allure of writing amateur sleuths is that many readers are overwhelmed with high-tech crime solving. They’d love it if the sleuth used good old deduction and brain power. Low-tech crime investigation is often more challenging and just plain fun for the reader and provides a break from his or her stress-filled, tech-loaded life.

Finally, amateur sleuths can provide a central character who has a fascinating hobby or career—hopefully one that provides the necessary investigative skills for the protagonist. In addition to the heroines mentioned above, I’ve used an Appalachian midwife, for example: she was skilled at observation and interviewing people, and nobody was going to steal her patients’ babies. And amateur sleuths are easier to isolate for suspenseful scenes and often have to face the villain alone. (Which means it’s good to avoid the common temptation to make the best friend or love interest of the sleuth a cop or detective.) Now, let’s try to get some specific ideas together for creating your amateur sleuth.

EXERCISE