If you got here by flipping forward from this page, flip back and keep reading!
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DETECTIVE’S NOTEBOOK: FOLLOWING A LEAD
Eliza finally gets a chance in Chapter 13 to follow a lead she’s been wanting to tackle since much earlier in the book: She and her mom are headed to the attic.
A lead is a kind of clue—but it’s a clue that “leads” the detective to go somewhere or talk to someone new. For example, Eliza has had several leads that have pointed her toward the attic. Not only has she heard strange sounds coming from there, but the attic key has been hidden for many chapters, causing her to think someone is trying to keep her out. With some assistance from her mom, who is now helping her investigate, she has a chance to finally follow up on those leads.
If you’ve read Chapter 13, you already know what happens next, but let’s take a moment to point out two important things she finds:
Another clue. Whoever the culprit is, there are clues that they were indeed up in the attic. There’s a leaf from the missing plant, so whoever took it must have had it locked up there at some point.
An unexpected obstacle. Someone locks the door while they’re inside! More about this in the next chapter.
Following up on a lead can be a great way to move the story forward. It gives your detective a new place to snoop around, or a new person to ask questions of, and it may even put them in danger, causing some unexpected excitement….
MYSTERY WRITER CHALLENGE: WHERE WILL THE CLUES LEAD?
Sometimes leads are really obvious. If the detective hears a noise in the attic, it makes sense they might want to look in the attic. Or if the detective hears someone say “I wonder where Mrs. Sandwich is? I haven’t seen her since the mystery started,” then the detective is probably going to want to go find Mrs. Sandwich and ask her questions.
But sometimes leads are trickier than that, and the detective has to do a little bit of puzzle solving to figure out what they mean. Here’s a game called “Follow the Lead.” Decide where each lead is telling you to go!
1. Racing out of the amusement park went a little red car. If you looked very closely, you could just make out the model of a pizza on its roof as it sped away.
Where should the detective follow that car? Too easy? Here’s a trickier one:
2. In her sleep, she shouted out “barking, so many different barks, yips, woofs, howls, high and low.”
The answers are on this page.
Sometimes the detective finds another kind of lead, one that turns into a mini-mystery all its own, such as a note, a riddle, or a code they can’t figure out right away. For example:
“The note read ‘I hid it where the stairs meet the rushing water, by the bony hand.’ ”
What does that mean? Are there stairs near some water in the setting? Or is it a code? Are there rocks that look like stairs going down to a river? And what’s the bony hand? Part of a skeleton? A tree that looks like a bony hand? The answer will be up to the writer’s imagination! The detective is just going to have to ask people what it means, or walk around the setting looking for a place that could fit the riddle, until they finally realize, “Bony hand? Why, that broken-down old building looks just like a bony hand!”
This can be fun to try yourself. Practice writing out a riddle like this at home and see if anyone can guess what you mean. Maybe there’s a table with four thick legs that reminds you of an animal, and the couch nearby is dark black. You might say “Between the wooden four-legged beast, and the fluffy rock dark as midnight, this is where the remote control lies.” Or you can just draw a treasure map!
IDEA STORM: LEAD YOUR DETECTIVE TO THE CLUE
Try putting a lead in your story: a clue that tells the detective where to go, or whom to question next. The lead might be really simple, like a noise, a smell, or another big clue from the five senses that points the way. Someone could even just tell the detective the clue.
Or the lead might be a bit trickier, like a riddle, a note, or even a treasure map. The detective has to figure out what it really means.
Once the detective follows up on the lead, you can decide what happens next:
Do they find another clue? If so, go back to your Investigation Record (on this page) to make a note of how they find it.
Is there an unexpected obstacle? This can make things very exciting. Keep reading to find out more about it.
If you got here by flipping forward from this page, flip back and keep reading!
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DETECTIVE’S NOTEBOOK: RUNNING INTO AN UNEXPECTED OBSTACLE
Now things are really heating up. While Eliza and her mom were investigating the attic, they got locked in! They might be in danger!
Sometimes the culprit throws in an unexpected obstacle (something to try to stop the detective from finishing their investigation) so they never find out the real secret behind the mystery. The obstacle could be anything, but it’s usually something that puts the detective in danger. For example, the main characters could be locked in a room, or have their equipment tampered with (they’re driving in a car when suddenly the brakes don’t work, or they’re in outer space when their oxygen supply starts leaking), or be attacked in some way (a vicious dog approaches them, or a snake appears in their room, or a robot goes haywire and tries to crush them), or anything else that makes them afraid to keep investigating.
How does the detective get past the obstacle? The answer is up to you, but it’s usually the most exciting if they try a few different things before finally getting to a solution that works. For example, check out the “Get Past the Obstacle Organizer” we filled out for Eliza and her mom on this page.
Eliza’s mom starts off with a logical solution to just call the police. Unfortunately, of course, the phone has been left downstairs.
Then they have to start getting more creative and think about crawling out the window. But they decide it’s too dangerous. Maybe if they were locked in for days with no food or water, or if they were being attacked, they might risk it. For now, they move on to option three….
Eliza’s mom, who is a botanist and knows a lot about how chemicals work, finds a way to literally blow the door off its hinges. They run out, only to find something even more unexpected when they make it downstairs….
IDEA STORM: THROW DOWN AN OBSTACLE
Try putting an unexpected obstacle in your story! Decide on something that puts the detective in danger, and makes them afraid to continue the investigation. Then decide how they get past the obstacle. If the first couple of ways they try to get past the obstacle don’t work, that’s great! It makes the obstacle seem even worse, and makes your story even more exciting.
You might think about your detective’s skills (as outlined in the Detective Dossier on this page), and how that helps them find a solution. Eliza’s mom uses her knowledge of science to get them out of danger, but your detective might overcome obstacles in a very different way. For example:
Are they very observant, and notice an important detail that helps them get past the obstacle? (“That panel on the wall looks different from all the others. If I press on it, will I find a way to exit the room?”)
Are they a puzzle solver, who figures out an extremely creative way out of trouble? (“I’m being attacked by a snake and a tiger at the same time…but what if I can get them angry at each other instead of at me?”)
Do they have a disguise that helps them? (“If I can just make it into the basketball stadium, I can dress up like one of the players and escape the guy who’s chasing me.”)
Are they a people person, and talk their way out? (“You don’t want to hurt me with that flaming bow and arrow. I know you’re a better person than that. Plus, I think we could help each other out.”)
There’s no wrong answer to this. Just think about the obstac
le you came up with, and decide how your detective would handle it. As always, you definitely have PERMISSION TO GET WEIRD!
If you got here by flipping forward from this page, flip back and keep reading!
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MYSTERY WRITER CHALLENGE: PERMISSION TO GET WEIRD
In every mystery, you eventually get to the part where most of the characters transform into dogs. Practice this yourself in a game called “They’re All Dogs Now.” To begin, you…
Wait—WHAT? WHAT JUST HAPPENED?
This is just a reminder: Every mystery does NOT have to be about a criminal trying to do evil and then getting caught. Sometimes the answers turn out to be MUCH weirder than that. If Eliza had started out looking for ghosts, but it turned out she’d just been hearing a criminal sneaking around…on the one hand, that would have made sense. It could even have been an exciting story! But it can also be a thrill for readers to have a mystery turn into something much stranger than they ever expected.
Don’t be afraid to get very, very WEIRD!
If you got here by flipping forward from this page, flip back and keep reading!
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DETECTIVE’S NOTEBOOK: QUESTIONING A WITNESS
Sooner or later, the detective is usually going to end up questioning a witness. A witness is someone who saw something important, and might know about some clues that could end up cracking the case. For example, Mr. Carroll’s business associate Leif has quite the story to tell about where he first got the plant, and gives a surprising clue: Someone…or something…has been following him and the plant from the island where he first picked it up. Whoever…or whatever…it is must be the culprit with yellow eyes, who has been sneaking around the house, and who finally stole the plant.
There are two kinds of witnesses in a mystery story:
Truthful witnesses. These witnesses are telling the truth. You can safely believe everything they say, and use those clues to help solve the mystery. Is Leif a truthful witness? Well, his story is pretty weird, but it seems to fit the facts so far. It does seem like he’s telling the truth (at least for the most part).
Lying witnesses. Sometimes witnesses are lying. Maybe they have something to hide. Maybe they’re trying to protect someone else. Maybe they’re not the culprit, but they don’t want the detective to think they are, so they change the facts to make themselves sound better. Is Leif lying? It doesn’t seem like it…but he’s a strange character. He makes his living selling rare, dangerous, and possibly illegal plants, so he doesn’t seem too trustworthy. And what’s with his name: “Leif”? Is that pronounced like “Leaf”? Is that some kind of weird plant clue? Even if he’s telling the truth, we’d better watch him closely.
MYSTERY WRITER CHALLENGE: CATCHING A WITNESS IN A LIE
How can a detective tell if they have a lying witness on their hands? Sometimes the witness may say something that goes against the facts: They claim they’ve never visited the amusement park in their life, but then photographs turn up with them posing in front of the Ferris wheel! Sometimes, it’s a little trickier. Sometimes the detective has to spot whether there’s something suspicious about the story they’re being told. Try it yourself in a game called “Why Is It a Lie?” See if you can spot what’s suspicious about this story:
“It was 100 degrees that day, and I was on my way to the pool. I couldn’t see well because I had my coat hood up and my heavy scarf wrapped around my face.”
If it was 100 degrees, why would you wear a hood and scarf? Something about that story doesn’t add up! The detective should be very suspicious!
Here are a couple more examples that are a little bit tougher. See if you can spot what’s suspicious about these stories:
“It was the middle of the night when the power went out in the city. There was no moon, and the clouds even covered the stars. I was hurrying down the street to get home, because I didn’t have a flashlight and I was a little freaked out. That’s when I looked toward the school about 100 feet away from me. Through the window, inside the principal’s office, was a clown juggling dark blue beanbags!”
“This all started when I was a small child in 1979. I was going to a friend’s birthday party, but I’d never been to her house before, so we got directions from the Internet. The directions turned out to be a little bit wrong, so we were late getting to the party. By the time I got there it had already happened: The whole house had disappeared!”
The answers are on this page.
Try making one of these yourself! Write out a very short story, where a witness describes something that happened to them…but put in one thing that doesn’t make sense, and shows that they’re probably lying. Show it to your friends and family, and see if they can guess what’s suspicious! It will be great practice if you ever want to write about a lying witness in a mystery story.
IDEA STORM: WHO WILL BE A WITNESS?
Think about what kind of witness your detective will question. Is it someone from the setting, who was around when the mystery took place? Is it someone unexpected, who turns out to know some important clues about the mystery? Maybe the witness is a suspect, and the detective thinks they might be lying. If they are, that’s an important clue as well!
Be sure to make a note of any important clues in your Investigation Record (see this page). You definitely have PERMISSION to question a WEIRD witness!
If you got here by flipping forward from this page, flip back and keep reading!
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DETECTIVE’S NOTEBOOK: STING OPERATION
In a sting operation the detective tricks the culprit into revealing themselves and proving they caused the mystery.
Eliza did this by letting the culprit know she had something he would want (the berries). Sometimes, a detective doesn’t really have something the culprit would want, but they trick them, like in Eliza’s mom’s plan to put a computer up to the window with a picture of the plant.
How does a detective come up with an idea for a sting operation? Sometimes they think about the mysteries the culprit has been causing, and try to lure them into striking again so they can be caught (“I’m replacing the stolen diamonds with some new, even more valuable diamonds. I SURE HOPE NOBODY TRIES TO STEAL THEM!”).
Sometimes, the detective isn’t sure who the culprit is, but they find a way to make the culprit think they do. For example, they go around saying “I found a witness who saw everything. I’m meeting them tomorrow night at seven.” Then the next night at seven, the culprit shows up, because they want to know who this witness is.
Of course, once they’ve done a sting operation, the detective has a new problem to deal with: The culprit has been caught, and often the culprit doesn’t want to stay caught. They might try to create some more obstacles that will put the detective in danger (as Eliza discovered).
But once a sting operation is over, the detective has usually solved the case! We are about to officially start the end of the story, where the mystery has been solved. Hooray!
IDEA STORM: MOUNT A STING OPERATION
Not all mysteries have a sting operation, but if you want to put one in your mystery, think about how your detective could trick the culprit into revealing themselves. Do they have something the culprit wants (or do they find a way to make the culprit think they do)? Do they trick the culprit into trying to cause a new mystery, so they can catch them in the act? What happens when the culprit gets caught? Do they give up, or cause an obstacle? (For more obstacles, see the Obstacle Organizer on this page.)
When you’re thinking about a sting operation, you absolutely have PERMISSION TO GET WEIRD. Eliza’s sting operation started out as a séance, where she tried to get a ghost to appear (and it ended up working, but not for the reason Eliza thought it would). Your detective’s sting operation can be as weird as you want it to be.
DETECTIVE’S NOTEBOOK: WRAPPING UP THE INVESTIGATION (THE
END IS JUST THE BEGINNING!)
Now that Eliza has wrapped up her investigation, let’s take a look back at what she did to track down all those clues and find the culprit in the Investigation Record on this page.
Eliza snooped around, spotted suspicious behavior, questioned suspects, followed a lead, and much more. Not every detective does every one of these things in every mystery, and they definitely don’t have to be in the same order as Eliza did them. You might even come up with some totally different ways your detective finds clues! But by carefully choosing what clues you want ahead of time, and then planning out the whole investigation like this, you’ll be in good shape to write a mystery that makes sense, with all the pieces fitting together.
However…what if you’re halfway through writing a mystery, and you suddenly get an idea for a more interesting mystery, or a different culprit, or a new kind of clue for the detective to discover? Can you go back and change your ideas?
The Story Pirates Present Page 16