The Elements of Mystery Fiction: Writing the Modern Whodunit by William G. Tapply

is promised. Readers want to hear more.
    3. A tidbit of interesting information . Tell readers something they probably don’t know, and promise them that this information will be relevant to the story that follows. Readers love to learn new things from novels. Here is an example from my novel, The Spotted Cats :
    In Zambia the leopard is called Nyalubwe . In East Africa the natives call him Chui , and farther south he’s called Ingwe . But everywhere—in Africa, in Asia, in parts of Europe and the Middle East—the leopard is the same animal: a perfect killing machine, the most efficient mammal predator—aside from man—on earth.
     
    This kind of beginning works best when the information is both specific and arcane. Don’t tell readers what many of them are already likely to know. The informational opening succeeds when the information itself hints at danger or mystery and the narrative voice is confident.
    4. A snatch of dialogue . Dialogue is immediate. Stories that open with dialogue accomplish several things at once: They introduce the point-of-view character and at least one other; they create an in medias res sense that the reader has entered an ongoing scene; they suggest conflict and hint at mystery and drama; and they characterize the players by what they say and how they speak.
    Blanche on the Lam , Barbara Neely’s Agatha Award-winning first novel, begins this way:
    “ Have you anything to say for yourself?” The judge gave Blanche a look that made her raise her handbag to her chest like a shield.
    “ Your Honor … I’m sorry. … I …”
    “ Sorry? It most certainly is sorry! This is the fourth, I repeat, the fourth, time that you’ve been before this court on a bad-check charge. Perhaps some time in a jail cell will convince you to earn your money before you spend it, like the rest of us. Thirty days and restitution!”
     
    In this brief conversational exchange, Neely creates two characters and establishes a problem. It’s an efficient and compelling way to begin a book.
    5. A dramatic moment . Begin at the beginning—the precise moment when the puzzle presents itself. If it happens suddenly, and if its implications are powerful, you will instantly hook your readers.
    Here, for example, in the single compelling opening sentence of Darker Than Amber , John D. MacDonald grabs his readers’ attention:
    We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge.
     
    Similarly, Edna Buchanan begins Contents Under Pressure this way:
    I stopped to listen. So did a detective and several patrolmen, frozen in motion. One cocked his head and held his walkie up to his ear. The morning had started out as a slow news day, but that could change in a heartbeat. It was happening now.
     
    What happens next? Readers will feel compelled to find out.
    6. An appealing narrative voice . You don’t need high drama or clever wordplay or other tricks to capture your readers’ interest. Promise them that they’ll be keeping good company on their journey through your story, and they’ll want to keep reading.
    Here, in A Beautiful Place to Die , Philip R. Craig’s Martha’s Vineyard detective J. W. Jackson invites readers to join him:
    The alarm went off at three-thirty. Outside it was as black as a tax collector’s heart. Smart me had stopped at the market the night before for doughnuts, so I was on the road as soon as I filled my thermos with coffee. I rattled through Edgartown without seeing another soul and went on south toward Katama. The air was sharp and dry, and the wind was light from the southwest. Maybe it would blow the bluefish in at last. They were two weeks late, or at least two weeks later than the year before. The heater in the Landcruiser didn’t work too well, so I was a bit chilly for the first few miles.
     
    It’s a quiet, confident, friendly beginning. Jackson, the narrator, is not out to impress us. Come along, he seems to say. Sit here beside me in my