How realistic do you want to be in the city, town and state where your victim, murderer and detective are located? There are any number of thoughts on this topic, and the one you decide to use depends on a blend of your writing philosophy, writing comfort zone and personal experiences.
There are two real “basic” ways to determine the location of your story. One is to pick a state or city that is a real place and set the entire story there. You can pick streets that are real, but to avoid any legal complications from residents or businesses in that city, you should probably make certain aspects of the setting fictional.
Trust me on this, should you decide to go with real businesses, there will always be someone who will call you out for a small inconsistency or inaccuracy. It’s just a part of life in the writing biz, sort of like getting mosquito bites, poison ivy or poison oak.
The other method is to make up the city or town and make everything there fictional. This way there’s no doubt that you’re setting your story in a fictional town.
Even with this method you will still end up with someone claiming that your fictional town is a thinly disguised version of this or that real world city or town. IF your book turns into a good seller, you may also end up with someone claiming that you have “obviously” described them in print and they didn’t
grant any permission for you to use them…, believe me. it happens
Like I said, mosquito bites and poison ivy are a part of real life, so don’t be surprised if it happens.
What I’ve done is to pick a real place, in my 3 book series, Boston Massachusetts, and set my stories in or around the area of Boston.
That’s about as realistic as I get in any of my writings.
AS a retired attorney, I set my characters in law offices or inside other locations common to the legal profession because that’s what I know and understand.
I use my experiences as an attorney to keep a strong vein of realism in my tales.
During writing, I will drop back to one of three basic plot overlays that most people will recognize.
One is the general, well-used multiple murders that occur in various locations around a city or town that I selected as a setting. This gets the characters out into the community and provides a great deal of writing flexibility for me.
The second method, one I’ve had a great deal of fun with is a variation of the old English manor house murder theme. Instead of all of the murders and character antics taking place inside a musty old manor house out in the English countryside, I have everything happen inside a musty, stuffy and well established Boston Law firm. You’d be surprised how much fun you can have in a setting like that. That kind of office can be in any city, in any state. As previously stated I’m a retired attorney, so I use law offices. I suggest that you adapt your background and experiences to do something similar.
The third method I really enjoyed is the good old-fashioned “locked room” murder mystery. IF you haven’t tried your hand at one of those, I highly recommend that you try one. It’s a lot of fun. If you do, I’d suggest that you first read the “Locked-room lecture” by John Dixon Carr. It’s a bit dated, from 1935, the U.S. printing of it is “The 3 Coffins” N.Y. Harper.
In the story, the all-knowing Dr. Fell lays out the necessary elements of a locked-room murder in a most interesting way.
Those elements are definitely adaptable for most any setting you choose, and that’s the key.
Your hero must be able to not only solve how the murder was committed inside a locked room, but also determine who did it, how the victim was killed and why.
With today’s modern technology, concocting a locked-room murder mystery has a lot more possibilities than what existed in 1935. When properly done, it sails
perilously close to a “dei ex machina” type of tale, but is much better.
When applied in this century, in a modern city, there is no limit to how your imagination can confound an avid murder mystery fan.
As always, I suggest keeping the setting of your book and the murders committed in it more believable than fictional.
In one of my books, I have a Federal Judge, a state Supreme Judicial Court justice and an assistant U.S. attorney, found shot to death, inside a locked,
small conference room on the third floor of a colonial era building with only one window that faces a busy, downtown Boston street and one set of double
doors to get in. There is only one key to the doors, and one of the victims has it in his pocket.
Additionally, this building is where a dusty old Bostonian legal club holds its monthly meetings, and the building is filled with lawyers and judges at the time of the murders.
So, when choosing a setting for your story try to be flexible. Old New England coastal cities have loads of old colonial era structures in them, surrounded
by ultra-modern technology. The possibilities are endless.
Oh yes – you probably want to know how three prominent legal figures were shot to death inside a locked room. All the murderer needed was a shoelace. I had a ball writing that part of the book.
If I can do it, so can you.
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