Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

If you watch enough cop or PI shows on television, you might get the impression that committing crimes and solving them happen very quickly. But that’s not how it always works in real life. It can take some time to set a successful trap for a criminal – one that will catch the ‘bad guy’ and pass muster in court. And some criminals wait a long time to commit their crimes. They want to pick exactly the right moment, where they won’t be as likely to be caught, and where the victim will be vulnerable. Criminals bent on personal revenge may  even wait years to strike. So, it benefits both police and criminals to be willing to play the long game, as the saying goes, to achieve their goals. That’s true in real life and in crime fiction.

For instance, in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Adventure of the Empty House, Dr. Watson gets the shock of his life. Sherlock Holmes, whom Watson thought dead after the events of  The Adventure of The Final Problem, is alive and well. He’s safe for the moment, but he knows that former associates of his nemesis, Professor Moriarty, have heard that he’s back in England, and will certainly be targeting him. He guessed that might be the case, so he’s been playing the long game. He hid for a few years until the time was right and then returned to England. Now, still patient, he lays a trap for his enemies and creates a waxwork bust of himself, so they’ll think he’s in his usual rooms at Baker Street. He’s not, though, and when Moriarty’s associates attempt an assassination, he’s ready for them.

Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles is the story of Emily Inglethorp’s death. Colonel Hastings has recently been invalided from World War I, and is staying with his good friend, John Cavendish, who is Emily Inglethorp’s stepson. One night during the visit, Emily is poisoned. The family is loath to call in the police, but Hastings has a better idea. He’s recently learned that his friend, Hercule Poirot, is staying in the nearby village, and he offers to ask Poirot to investigate. The family agrees, and Poirot begins asking questions. It’s not going to be easy, because the criminal is clever, and has a plan. Poirot suspects as much and makes his own plan. In order for it to succeed, he has to forego what you might call the immediate gratification of a quick arrest, trial, and so on. Instead, he has to play the long game and lay the right trap for the culprit.

Jussi Adler-Olsen’s Mercy is the first in his Department Q series. In the novel, Copenhagen detective Carl Mørck returns to work after a serious line-of-duty injury.  He’s not easy to work with under the best of circumstances, and the trauma of the injury has only made things worse. Things get so bad that he’s ‘promoted’ to head of the newly-created Department Q, to get him away from his colleagues. This department, created mostly for political purposes, is tasked with investigating ‘cases of interest’ that have gone cold. The department consists of only Mørck and his assistant, Hafez al-Assad, but they begin their work. Their first case is the five-year-old disappearance of promising politician Merete Lynggaard. It was always believed that she went overboard in a terrible ferry accident, but there are little pieces of evidence that suggest that more might be going on. As Mørck and Assad investigate, they find that someone is, indeed, responsible for what happened to Merete, and that this person has been playing a very long game in order to achieve a goal.

 In Michael Bennett’s Better the Blood, we are introduced to Auckland police detective Hanna Westerman. One day, she receives a cryptic email and video of a certain building. When Hanna and her partner go into that building that night, they discover the body of a man who’s been ritually murdered. An investigation begins, but Hanna doesn’t see why the video and email would have been sent to her. Then, she receives another video and email. It’s a different building this time, but it’s the same scenario: a dead man, ritually killed. Now it seems clear that Hanna is being targeted by a killer who wants the crimes to be discovered. In order to solve these murders, Hanna will need to find out what connects the victims, and how she fits in. It turns out that the deaths are related to 160-year-old murder of a Māori chief, and that someone is playing a long game to achieve a purpose.

Fans of Qiu Xiaolong’s Inspector Chen Cao novels know that Chen has learned the wisdom of waiting until the moment is right to take action. He lives and works in late-1990s Shanghai. The Party is in full control of just about everything, and it is unwise to do anything that might call unwanted attention to oneself. So, Chen can’t outright accuse anyone, especially a highly-placed Party member. Instead, he works quietly, bides his time, and acts thoughtfully. The same might be said of the Party, really. Members are willing to play the long game to police themselves and deal with any perceived dissidence or anyone who might embarrass the Party.

It can be satisfying, even cathartic, to act quickly to catch a criminal (or commit a crime), but that’s not always the most successful strategy. Sometimes, patience and the willingness to wait are more effective choices. And that willingness can add tension to a crime story.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from the Eagles The Long Run.