Craft Corner

How many ways are there to catch a crook?

1)  Only the BG (bad guy) knows a detail that only he would know; a name, an item at the crime scene, etc.
2)  The BG doesn't know something he's supposed to; the name of his uncle, the time of the crime.
3) The BG leaves something incriminating behind; a fingerprint, his work glove, etc.
4) The BG is seen; surveillance footage, a witness.
5) The BG brags and someone tells the police what he said.
6) The BG's behavior changes; a poor man buys a new car.
7) The BG suffers an injury during the commission of the crime that incriminates him.  He has burns from setting off a fire for example.  Or he has little glass cuts all over his face from the window exploding when he dove through it.
8) The BG has a specific field of knowledge that ordinary people wouldn't know; a court reporter knows something only because she could read the steno notes left at the death scene of another court reporter.




Can you think of any other ways? 

Appearing in issue #4, January 26, 2015

Title:  Crime wave

By Author:  Penelope Mandis

  

Tag line:     Luckily, the ever-vigilant Mrs. Carson was on the alert when trouble came to Medvale…

Police characters:   Officers Jane Prior and Andy Carson

The gist:    Mrs. Carson is Officer Andy Carson’s grandmother.  Although they live in a quiet town with hardly any real crime, Gram sees potential muggers hiding behind every tree on town.  The officers were drinking coffee in a cafe remembering when Gram reported a neighbor for growing marijuana in the kitchen window and the chief had them confiscate the plants only to later make them return them when they turned out to be oregano. 

Gram Carson had taken it upon herself to persuade Mr. Greeley to install a new alarm system in his store, J. R. Greeley Antiques.  Gram had a secret crush on Greeley who was a bachelor with no family since his parents had died. She went to visit him in his store and was surprised to find a stranger tending the store.  The security camera light was not on.  He said he was Greeley’s nephew and that his uncle was out back taking inventory.  Gram had never heard of any such nephew and said so.  The man said he hadn’t seen his uncle in years, but business had brought him to the area so he had stopped by.  Gram was suspicious and hustled her old self down to the café where she knew her police officer grandson was having coffee and reported that there was a robbery in progress at the antique store.  When she explained how she knew, the police proceeded to the store, arrested the stranger that claimed to be the nephew, and found Mr. Greeley bound and gagged in the storeroom.

How had Gram known?

Crime scene:    Antique store.

Clues:    Mr. Greeley was a bachelor with no family.

Suspects:   The visiting nephew.

Red herrings:    None.

Solution:  Gram knew that Greeley was a bachelor with no family and as an only child he couldn’t have a nephew.  She also deliberately misled the man by referring to his ‘uncle’ as Howard, when the sign on the shop said J.R. Greeley.

My two cents:    Help me, Lord.  We have another Angela Potts in the making here.  This was a cute story, and better put together than the Potts series.  There was humor and charm.  BUT … notice the photos on the right side of this blog.  These dumb-ass cops didn’t know the difference between marijuana and oregano?  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.

And all of a sudden Greeley is an only child in the solution?  I would think that ‘having no family since his parents died’ would have covered that.  I would have cut that bit out. 


Just because the sign said J.R. doesn't mean the current owner has to have a name starting with a J. 

I must be mellow from a nice vacation because  I wanted to give this one 5 stars.  There’s nothing majorly wrong with it, it hit all the elements I’m looking for, and it was pleasant to read.  But the author blew it with the marijuana/oregano nonsense.  Do your research and write credible material.

 

This blog is on VACATION!  woo-hoo. 


I'll catch up when I return in two weeks.


Behave.  There's a snack in the fridge.


Jody

Take a little test.

Can you guess what these British phrases mean?

The Brits are a funny people. They have accents, are unusually polite to everyone, never cut in line, and say a lot of things that just don't make sense to us across the pond. Could you fit in? Just take this quiz to find out.

See if you'd fit in in the UK.

http://en.what-character-are-you.com/d/en/1041/index/5577.html

A little contest to start the new year....

65 Little Words Writing Competition – February 2015

1st Prize: £260.00

2nd Prize: £195.00

Closing date: February 10th 2015

Entry fee: £2.00 or FREE to Premier1 Write, Learn and Publish Members

You have just 65 words or less including the title to write a complete story. It’s a tough one but you can do it and we look forward to receiving your submissions.

Of course it doesn’t have to be exactly 65 words but if you win the top prize, it’s equivalent to £4.00 per word.

Your submission must be inspired by the photo.

Submissions must be original and previously unpublished.

Submissions must be written in English.

Multiple submissions are welcome provided the correct fees are paid.

Submissions must be received on or before the closing date and pasted into the body of the email.

Submissions must be sent via email to: info@creative-competitor.co.uk

http://creativecompetitor.com/65-little-words-creative-writing-competition/

A brilliant concept  - sort of.


I did a little experiment.  I took someone else's WW mystery story that sold (it was well over a year old) and I copied it.  Not word for word, but I copied the style, the pacing, the number of characters, how the detective thought.  Everything.  But I changed everything.  If the deceased was a male, mine was a female.  If the story took place in the country, mine was smack in the middle of the city.  If the plot included a greedy developer who wanted to build a housing project, mine wanted to build a casino. If the killer used poison, my killer smothered the victim.  The only thing I kept the same was the type of clue; that only the real killer could know some detail.  I kept it because WW uses it so often, I figured they were comfortable with it.  So ... same story but a different story.


It made it past the first readers.  But it got rejected by Johnene. 


So much for that bright idea.   But it was worth a try.

Appearing in issue #3, January 19, 2015

Title:  What goes up

By Author:  Andrew Armstrong

  

Tag line:     If the tenants knew what had happened to Mr. Blodgett, they weren’t talking …

Police characters:   Sgt. James Mincher and Det. Gary Gorman

The gist:    There is an apartment building with five floors.  There are four tenants currently occupying the building, the top floor had been recently renovated and was ready to rent.  The building manager, Mr. Blodgett, was found dead, slumped in the elevator, a knife in his chest.  The police noted there was little blood in the elevator indicating he had been killed somewhere else.

Mrs. Rogers, who lives on the 2nd floor, found the dead man.  She was so startled and horrified she screamed when she found the body.

Joe Beasley lives on the 1st floor.  He is the building super, has lived there 15 years, and gets a reduction in his rent.   He said he spoke to Mr. Blodgett that morning to talk about the 5^th floor apartment.  Mr. B wanted to know if it was ready for the new tenant who was due to move in shortly.  Joe claimed that he heard Mr. B get into the elevator and head up to inspect the apartment.  He assumed Mr. B left after that but he didn’t see him go because Joe was downstairs in the basement working on the old water heater. Joe claimed that Mr. B was cheap and didn’t give him enough funds to replace items that broke, and Joe always had to try to fix things.

Joe said the man on the 3rd floor was a writer who was having trouble making his rent and was, in fact, two months behind.   Joe said he heard the elevator come back down from the 5^th floor and stop at the 3^rd floor, and it had stopped for awhile.  Joe figured Mr. B was confronting the writer about his late rent. Joe said although he was in the basement working this morning that his hearing was pretty good, and he said he lived there long enough to know how things worked, and he definitely heard the elevator stop on the 3^rd floor.  

A woman lived on the 4^th floor, but she was a flight attendant and was often gone for a week or longer.  She was away at the present time.

Mrs. Rogers said when she found the body she went to the 1^st floor and banged on Joe’s door and when he didn’t answer, she ran out into the street and got two men to help.  One was a doctor, who saw right away that Mr. B was dead. They found Joe downstairs and told him what had happened. 

The police took a look at the 5^th floor apartment.  It was sparkly clean, no sign of any trauma or struggle there.

The police spoke to the writer on the 3^rd floor.  He claimed he hadn’t seen Mr. B in over a week.  He said he had gotten a nice advance on a script, so he had caught up on his rent a few days ago by sending in a check.

The police went back to Joe and told him he had heard wrong about the writer.  The police wondered about something else Joe had told them.  

Crime scene:    An apartment building.

Clues:    Joe’s hearing.

Suspects:   The writer.

Red herrings:    None.

Solution:  Joe claimed he had good hearing and heard the elevator stop at the 3^rd floor, but he never heard Mrs. Rogers screaming or the commotion with the two men she got help from. Joe and Mr. B had had an argument over the way Mr. B ran the building.  Mr. B threatened to fire Joe.  Joe killed him on the 5^th floor, moved the body to the elevator then went back and cleaned up the mess.  After that he took the stairs to the basement to tinker with the water heater to give himself an alibi.

My two cents:    It was refreshing to read a well-written, brisk paced story that had no problems in it. The clue was good and buried well.  No police work problems.  In fact I can’t find anything major to complain about. 

I would have liked to have seen a tiny bit more of a hint that Joe and Mr. B weren’t getting along. And the tag line makes no sense, but that’s not the author’s fault.

Gotta say author Armstrong did a bang-up job.  This one deserves 5 stars.