Episode 62: Let's talk about Crooked House

Notes:

The Verbivore referenced a quote from an article on mystery that says that “Writing a mystery story is like playing a game of chess with a thousand unknown opponents”. The author was George Dyer and here are the links to these articles:

Vintage WD: Murder for Profit, Mystery Story Techniques Part 1 - https://www.writersdigest.com/be-inspired/vintage-wd-murder-for-profit-mystery-story-techniques-part-1

Vintage WD: Murder for Profit, Mystery Story Techniques Part 2 - https://www.writersdigest.com/be-inspired/vintage-wd-murder-for-profit-mystery-story-techniques-part-2

The Verbivore mentions a trick to have two outlines to manage your mystery and another to manage all of the clues (real clues, false clues, pivotal clues) and what your suspects are up to at any given point in the novel. There are several resources that mentioned this practice, but the YouTube video “NANOWRIMO / How to Write a Murder Mystery” by Rae Sterling was the most helpful and concise.

The Verbivore talks about a quote from Crooked House that describes each family member as having different kinds of ruthlessness. Here is that full quote:

“There's a lot of ruthlessness in us - and - different kinds of ruthlessness. That's what's so disturbing. The different kinds”

The Verbivore references Sherlock’s quote about it being lucky that he did not have criminal tendencies. That quote is here:

“It is fortunate for this community that I am not a criminal” - The Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans

The Verbivore references Rian Johnson’s subversion of the mystery genre in his movie Knives Out by purposefully adding in thriller elements and beats into his story. She doesn’t reference details to keep from spoiling the movie, but there are several great YouTube videos that explore this melding of these story elements. Here are the links [Spoiler Alert]:

Behind the Curtain’s “How I Wrote Knives Out — Writing Advice from Rian Johnson” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd4XUCIqoFU

Just Write’s “How Knives Out Switches Genres (Twice)” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfF7-vJJBNY

Books Mentioned:

Crooked House by Agatha Christie

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

The Complete Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Movies Mentioned:

Crooked House - Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, Screenplay by Julian Fellowes

Knives Out - Written and Directed by Rian Johnson

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)