Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

In many crime novels, part of the suspense comes from matching wits with the author and trying to work out who the murderer is before it’s revealed. But not all novels are like that. Some novels are inverted mysteries, in the sense that the reader knows from early on – sometimes even from the beginning – who the killer is.  The suspense in some of these stories comes from finding out whether the sleuth will catch the killer. It can also come from working out what the motive for the murder is. There are several different ways in which an author can tell an inverted story. Here are just a few.

Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley Under Ground sees Tom Ripley settled in a French village with his wife Heloise. He and his friends/business partners have put together a reasonably successful venture. They’ve convinced a Bond Street gallery to handle the paintings of Philip Derwatt, a relative unknown who died a few years earlier. Ripley and his group create new ‘Derwatt’ paintings, the gallery sells them, and the group pockets the profit. Things start to fall apart when an American Derwatt enthusiast named Thomas Murchison visits the gallery to see the Derwatt exhibition. He notices that one of the paintings is just slightly different to the real Derwatt’s work. The group decides they’ll have to convince Murchison that the painting is authentic, so Ripley goes to London to take the role of Derwatt and tell Murchison the painting is genuine. Murchison isn’t convinced, so Ripley comes up with another solution. He invites Murchison to his home in France and, when Murchison remains unconvinced, takes care of the ‘Murchison problem’ in his own way. We know in this case who the killer is and what the motive is. The suspense comes when the police begin investigating Murchison’s disappearance. Will they really solve this case? There’s also psychological suspense as Ripley’s team begins to fall apart under the pressure.

As L.R. Wright’s The Suspect begins, eighty-year-old George Wilcox has just killed eighty-five-year-old Carlyle Burke. We know right from the first paragraphs who killed whom. Wilcox cleans up, and later calls the police. RCMP Staff Sergeant Karl Alberg begins the investigation. After a time, he begins to suspect that Wilcox might be the murderer. He’s got two challenges, though. One is that there’s not enough hard evidence to make an arrest. Alberg has suspicions, and he’s found a few clues, but nothing that can convincingly make his case. The other challenge is that there doesn’t seem to be a motive. Wilcox is not a serial killer, nor does he have psychopathic tendencies. He and Burke knew each other for many years, too, so why would he suddenly kill Burke now? Wilcox admits he didn’t like Burke, and never really had. But that’s not a reason to kill someone. The suspense in this novel comes as Alberg gets closer and closer to the truth, and Wilcox tries hide his tracks.

Martin Clark’s The Legal Limit is the story of Patrick County, Virginia brothers Gates and Mason Hunt. They come from poverty and an abusive home, but other than that, they have little in common. Mason has taken advantage of every opportunity and has studied hard and gotten a scholarship to law school. Gates, on the other hand, has squandered his considerable athletic talent, and now lives on his girlfriend’s Welfare money and money he gets from his mother. One day, Gates gets into an argument with his romantic rival Wayne Thompson. The argument subsides, but flares up again late that night, when the Hunt brothers encounter Thompson again. Before anyone really knows what’s happened, Gates has shot Thompson. Out of a sense of loyalty, Mason helps his brother cover up the crime. We know who killed Thompson and why. The real suspense comes years later, when Gates is jailed for cocaine trafficking. By this time, Mason is Patrick County’s Commonwealth Prosecutor, and Gates begs him for help to get out of jail. Mason refuses, and Gates implicates him for the still-unsolved Thompson murder. Here, the suspense and tension come as Mason works to clear his name and keep his brother in jail.

T.J. Cooke’s Defending Elton is the story of Elton Spears, a troubled young man with a bit of a history of encounters with the police. Solicitor Jim Harwood has helped him before, so when Spears is once again in trouble, that’s the person he calls. The body of Sarena Gunasekeraw was found at the bottom of a cliff at Beachy Head, near Eastbourne. The prosecution alleges that Spears behaved inappropriately with the victim, then killed her and threw her body over the cliff. Spears is innocent – in fact, we know fairly early on in the book who killed Sarena and why. The suspense comes as Harwood and barrister Harry Douglas work out how they will defend Spears. There’s also the question of whether the killer will get away with the crime.

In James Craig’s Never Apologise, Never Explain, Agatha Mills is bludgeoned to death in her Russell Square home late one night. John Carlyle, from the Charing Cross Police Station, investigates. The victim’s husband Henry is the first and most obvious suspect. There seems to be no motive, though. The couple weren’t at odds, and there wasn’t a financial motive, either. Henry tells the police that Agatha had enemies, but his story is very hard to believe. Still, although he is arrested and jailed, he sticks to his story. Then, Carlyle gets a clue that supports Henry’s version of what happened. So, he starts to ask questions. He soon finds that this murder has a trail that leads to some high places, so he’ll have to move carefully. We know who the killer is within a fairly short time in this novel. And we follow along as the killer and Carlyle match wits against each other. That adds to the suspense in the novel.

And that’s the thing about novels that use the ‘inverted mystery’ sort of structure. They vary, but all of the well-written ones build suspense even though readers know who the killer is. These are just a few examples; your turn.

If you’d like more about inverted mysteries (including some excellent suggestions), do visit this fine post from Kate Jackson at Cross Examining Crime. You won’t regret it.

*NOTE: The title of this post is the title of a song by Jack Johnson.