How to Write a Halloween Mystery

My latest Rae Riley mystery, A Riddle in the Lonesome October, takes place, surprisingly, during the month of October with the finale on Halloween. The holiday offers unique features for the mystery writer, and I wanted to share what I learned about how to write a Halloween mystery.

Defining Halloween Mystery

Before I get started, I should define what I mean by Halloween mystery. This is a story that fits squarely in the mystery genre. No matter how spooky the incidents appear throughout the story, by the end, the detective will have proved that everything has a rational explanation.

Sherlock Holmes summed it up best in the short story, “The Sussex Vampire”. A former client asks Holmes to see a man who needs information on vampires. Holmes does some quick research and finds the topic beneath contempt. He tells Watson, “This agency stands flat-footed upon the ground, and there it must remain. The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply.”

I know there are paranormal cozy mysteries, but if a book belongs to that subgenre, that should be clear from the cover and back cover blurb. Mystery fans hate to puzzle their way through a story only for the detective to reveal that it wasn’t the butler who did it, but a ghost.

So I’m giving tips on how to write a mystery set at Halloween without any supernatural trimmings.

Take Advantage of the Halloween Traditions

If I’m going to set a mystery during Halloween, then the traditions associated with the holiday have to be critical to the mystery. Otherwise I could set the story at any time of the year.

In Riddle, an outdoor Halloween attraction, The Haunting in the Hollow, is a setting essential to the plot for a number of reasons:

The attraction is set up on a piece of property rumored to hold a lost inheritance.
Because it’s a public attraction, characters can come and go on the property as I need them to.
The abandoned house and the notorious reputation of the man who built it and hid the inheritance add atmosphere as well as critical clues to the mystery of inheritance’s location.

Since it’s October, people have spooks and ghouls on the mind. When Rae’s Uncle Hank is seriously injured in a riding accident, his daughter, who riding with him at the time, says a monster spooked his horse. That statement attracts bigfoot hunters to the county. And people call Rae’s dad, the sheriff, at home, reporting sightings of either a bigfoot or a black bear. And since it’s October, it could also be someone in a costume.

Trick or treating at a nursing home becomes a way to get kids and adults in the same space who don’t usually mix and wrap up several story lines.

Other Halloween traditions that work for a mystery:

Trick or treating, any location. It’s a great way for people to be in places they don’t normally visit. A kid could observe a crime undetected. A mom waiting on her kids at a house could see something suspicious. Or the bad guys could try to escape through streets clogged with kids in costumes.
Jack O’Lanterns: Carving pumpkins as a group can be a way to bring characters together who don’t usually associate with each other. A clue could be hidden in one. Or the particular way a pumpkin is carved could provide a clue.
Halloween parties: Lots of mysteries involving costume parties. See if you can give this old setting a fresh twist. I’ve hosted a family Halloween party for years for my kids and nieces and nephews at our house in the country. Kids running around in the dark can provide all kinds of trouble, clues, and red herrings for a mystery. Actually, adults taking part in a Halloween scavenger hunt would work the same way.

Some areas have very localized Halloween traditions. See if there are some you can use for inspiration in your mystery.

What mystery used Halloween as a setting with no supernatural aspects?

October 22, 2025 0

Researching Cozy Mysteries

I’m guest blogging today at American Christian Fiction Writers about researching cozy mysteries. Here’s the opening paragraphs

Yes, you read the title right. But what research? We’re not writing historical fiction or scifi. We just need to set a cozy mystery in a cute small town with tons of ugly secrets. Create a likable amateur detective with a quirky sidekick. Throw in an unlikable victim, shifty suspects, and an even more unlikable villain, and the cozy mystery practically writes itself.

Well, not quite.

Here is my whole post on why I find conducting research critical for my cozy mystery series, Rae Riley Mysteries.

Here are more tips on writing mysteries.

October 16, 2025 0

Writing a Christmas Mystery

Since I’ve been reviewing Christmas mysteries, I thought I’d repost this article on writing a Christmas mystery.

For some reason, Christmas and mysteries go together like silver and gold on a Christmas tree. Christmas mysteries are a very old tradition in the genre. One of the first, and best, is “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”, a Sherlock Holmes story. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple had Christmas cases. So did Nero Wolfe, Ellery Queen, V.I. Warshawski, Brother Cadfael, and Father Brown. Maybe the mystery of God coming to earth, fully God and and fully human, gives the whole season an air of the unexplainable. If you’d like to try your hand at this very specific sub-genre, here are a two tips about writing a Christmas mystery.

The Story Can’t Take Place at Any Other Time

The best Christmas mysteries take advantage of what the season offers. In “A Christmas Party” by Rex Stout, the boss of an interior design firm is murdered during the Christmas office party. The man who was working the bar in a Santa Claus outfit disappears during the confusion created when the boss collapses from cyanide poisoning. Santa was so heavily made-up no one at the party can describe him.

Christmas gives Agatha Christie the perfect reason for warring members of an extended family to gather at the family estate in the country in Murder for Christmas. It’s hard to imagine another plausible reason for relatives who dislike each other to come into contact with each other, except maybe, a funeral or wedding. In “The Flying Stars”. author G.K. Chesterton uses the English Christmas tradition of the pantomime as the key plot point.

One of the many fun qualities of “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” is how well it incorporates characteristics of Christmas that existed at the time Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote it. A commissionaire who is an acquaintance of Holmes, finds a precious stone, the blue carbuncle, in the crop of the goose his wife was going to roast for Christmas dinner. Holmes and Watson follow clues through a bitterly cold London night to figure how the jewel, stolen from a luxury hotel, ended up in the goose.

Include Themes of the Season

Another quality you can take advantage of are the meanings of the season. One aspect of “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” that makes it so special is the offer Holmes extends to the culprit once he uncovers him. “The Killer Christian” by Andre Klavan is about redemption. In my Christmas mystery, “A Rose from the Ashes”, I used themes of mercy and forgiveness as my teen detective Rae Riley attempts to discover who her father is and if he tried to murder her mother when she was pregnant with Rae.

Writers, have you written a Christmas story? What was it about? Readers, what Christmas story uses the holiday setting effectively?

December 19, 2024 0

How to Use Misdirection in Mysteries

Last week, I wrote about how thinking like a mystery reader helps me write mysteries. This week, I want to focus on playing fair with clues and red herrings. Misdirection is key and I describe below how to use misdirection in mysteries while still presenting the clues readers need to solve the mystery themselves. What is misdirection? Read on!

Mysteries and Stage Magic

I’m sure many people have noticed the similarities between writing mysteries and stage magic. One of the best descriptions of this comparison I’ve read comes from Otto Penzler, founder of Mysterious Press and editor of numerous mystery anthologies. In his introduction to a reprint of Death from a Top Hat, which features the Great Merlini, a retired magician as the amateur sleuth, Mr. Penzler writes about how both arts use ways to snatch your attention from what’s really going on.

In both arts, the audience knows they are viewing a trick. Since they know it, it makes it fun to be either impressed with the ingenuity of the writer or magician or accept the challenge of figuring out what they’re up to. In magic, a magician may wave his left hand so you don’t notice what his right foot is doing. In mysteries, the writer shows you all the clues, but the way she emphasizes them or doesn’t is the misdirection.

“Bovine” in Ohio Trail Mix: Adventures and Inspiration Along the Ohio Literary Trail”

I’m taking a chance here and pointing out the first clue in my short story, “Bovine”. I hope you’ll still read it, but the first clue is a good illustrations of misdirection.

Elite New York novelist Harrison Sharpe stages burglary in the rustic retreat he’s renting in rural Ohio. He’s walking through the home with the sheriff.

Then he [the sheriff] frowned, staring at the fireplace with its hodge-podge pattern of heavy stones. “That’s funny. Since all the items but the TV were very small, you’d think they’d’ve gone for those.”

He stepped around a disemboweled cushion and broken lamp, staring at two flintlock pistols hanging on hooks above the mantle.

“They’re fake,” I said. “Sara told me that because she didn’t want me to think she kept unsecured firearms on the premises. I have no idea why she owns them. I’m sure she can afford the real thing. I suppose the thieves could tell.”

“I don’t know how, just by looks.” The Ox lifted one gun from its hook. “But you can by holding them. They’re too light.”

“Then they must have grabbed them and put them back.” I coughed to cover a smile.

Inferring that most of the male rednecks would possess a deep knowledge of firearms, I had decided leaving the guns in place would bolster the illusion of locals being responsible for the crime.

I present everything readers needs in this scene, but since the story is told from Harrison Sharpe’s POV, I let his thoughts misdirected the reader from the true importance of the guns, which the sheriff explains at the wrap up.

Set Up and Pay Off

Click here for an excellent article on how to set up and pay off plot points. I realized I’ve been doing this for years but hadn’t had a label for the technique. Setting up a plot point and giving it multiple pay offs will misdirect readers.

For example, let’s say the amateur sleuth is a music teacher and plays drums in a weekend band. Readers will expect that skill to play a some kind of role in the story or why else did the author give the MC the skill? During the course of the story, MC goes to a music festival and being a drummer gives him access to a suspect. Since the plot point of love of music has already served the plot, readers will probably think it won’t come into play again.

But the author then makes the MC’s knowledge of drumming a key clue to catching the bad guy. The author misdirected readers into thinking music was a minor plot point when it was both a minor and a major one.

For more tips on writing mysteries, click here.

What examples of misdirection have you seen in books or movies?

October 17, 2024 0

Write Mysteries Like a Reader

I write mysteries because I love to read them. I love following the clues laid out by the authors in a traditional mystery. One of the best pieces of advice about writing mysteries I’ve received came from thriller author Steven James. It made me realize that I had to write mysteries like a reader of mysteries.

Steven James told a roomful of writers at a writing conference that when you are writing and realize a connection within your story or a question rises in your mind, it is very likely many of your readers will have the same realization. When that happens, you need someone in the story to share that he or she has spotted it too.

Plot it naturally

As an example, I’ll tell you about an experience I had when reading a mystery novel as a teen. I’m going out on a limb here because I’m about to criticize the Queen of Mysteries, Agatha Christie. But the clue confused me, and if a character had made a comment within the story, then the book would have been a better read for me.

In A Murder Is Announced, Letitia Blacklock seems to be the target of a murder plot. When amateur sleuth Jane Marple and Inspector Craddock are investigating, they find that Letitia has letters she wrote to her twin sister Charlotte. When I read that, I was puzzled. Why did Letitia have letters she mailed to her late sister? Neither Miss Marple or Inspector Craddock comment on the oddness of this and I thought it would be natural for someone to remark on this strange fact.

So I was confused and made up my own reason. Since her sister was dead, maybe Letitia acquired them with the rest of her sister’s possessions. Eventually the letters are revealed as a vital clue. But if Ms. Christie had had one of the detectives state a possible explanation, it not only would have kept me from being confused, it also would have provided an excellent red herring. As it was, the fact that such a strange discovery wasn’t explained at all drew attention to it. I should have known it was an important clue.

So when I plot, I try to keep in mind how I would receive the information as a reader. If a development is bizarre, a reader will notice, so a character would naturally mention that. If mean Old Man Olsen gives someone a compliment, a character would naturally notice that something’s changed in Old Man Olsen.

It’s tempting to glide over significant clues because I don’t want to tip my hand to the reader. But if the clue would provoke questions if I was reading this book, then, as a mystery writer, I need to address that. I’ll discuss how to guide readers through clues and red herrings so that the mystery is fair-play but without giving the game away in next week’s post.

For advice on writing mysteries, click here.

October 10, 2024 1

Tag: Tips on writing mysteries