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5 Tips You Need To Solve A Murder Mystery!

Its September! The nights are getting colder and they are approaching us sooner. Before you know it the creepiest month of the year is here: November. And so you find yourself on the couch with a cup of hot chocolate at nine o’clock in the evening. Perhaps you are endlessly scrolling through Netflix to find the perfect film or show that fits the vibe of the month of November. However, there are other things you can do like: solving (murder) mysteries!

Alright, I understand that this might not be everybody’s thing but please hear me out. If you enjoy detective shows and you like to be challenged than this might be something for you. I’ve formulated if few tips that can guide you. And no, I don’t expect you to be like Hercule Poirot or Sherlock Holmes when you finished reading this post, but it can certainly help you.

Tip Number 1: Take your time!

The book contains almost three hundred pages. This can be a lot for beginners, so it might be more digestible for readers to only read one or two chapters each time you pick up the book. This gives your brain more time to soak up every bit of information Christie gives, so I advise you to give yourself a break.

Tip number 2: Take notes some notes

A lot of information is given in the book about the ten different characters like such as their ages and their job occupations.

It is quite easy to forget important details of all ten characters let alone remembering everything the said and have done. That is why I recommend you to pick up your pen and start taking notes like:

• The name, appearance, job occupation, details of their past and their eventual death

• Your personal opinion about the character. What are their behaviour? Are they suspicious? And why is that so?

• Write a timeline of all the events that take place. This will be quite useful for your brain to organise all the information.

With the first tip I said that it is alright to take a break after you have read a few chapters. When you decide to continue reading the book, and with the mystery, your notes will help inform you of all the relevant information. You can use multiple colours of pen, annotations, highlights and anything else that is useful to you.

Tip number 3: Be careful with red herrings!

Red herrings are a plot device an author can use. Red herrings in mystery stories are used so that the readers will be focused on a particular person. Thanks to the red herring, the actual culprit will be under the readers radar. Therefore, it is my advise to remain open to all possibilities. The culprit can be anyone, and maybe there is more than one culprit? Only give your answer after you reached the end of the book and after you went through all your notes.

Tip number 4: Search for the answer online if you could not solve the mystery

And that is fine! I for sure did not solve the mystery myself. After a considerable time I caved in and read the final chapter where the true culprit revealed themselves. Not all mystery books will reveal the answer, so it is only understandable that readers will go to the internet to find the answer. The answer is not as important as the road that leads it to the solution.

Tip 5 (optional): Revise the story

You might want to return to the book now that you have the answer to the mystery. With this you can follow the culprit throughout the story. Not everybody has the time or patience to do this but it will be incredibly satisfying if you do.

And with this I hope I helped you to become a detective yourself. So what are waiting for? Pick up that book because there is a mystery that needs to be solved!