When I’m starting out with a new story idea, I have to ask myself these two questions:

Why here? Why now?

These are essential questions to answer for a murder mystery of the type that I write. In a psychological thriller, for example, a killer may kill for reasons of their own, totally unrelated to the victim(s). They may kill for fun. Or as a test of some kind. Or just out of curiosity about the process. They may kill a specific type of person based on their gender, race, religion, political beliefs or occupation.

That is not usually a feature of a cosy or murder msytery. Aside from the occasional accidental death due to, say, mistaken identity (oopsie!), mu

rderers usually have very personal, very pressing reasons for killing the person they do.

So that brings me back to my initial questions; why here and why now?

There has to be some compelling reason why a victim must die at this particular point in the book, in this particular way.

Is it due to time pressure? Murderers are notoriously busy people :D. If the victim is not dispatched, will that leave them free to take some action that is detrimental to the happy continuance of the killer’s life?

Is it due to opportunity–also linked to time–was this the only time-slot available in the killer’s busy schedule, one where they knew they could fake an alibi convincingly?

Or is it because everything in their life comes together in what for them is the perfect moment: the means, the opportunity, the victim, the alibi, all here together in this one moment in time?

There’s only one way to find out…

You’ve got to read it.

***