In every mystery and crime narrative, there is a constant thrill that runs through it. So, it starts from the beginning and continues till the end. Readers develop their sense of interest and get themselves engaged in a novel. Their curiosity rises at every moment and reaches its peak when they read a chapter and proceed on with the book. They find a new suspense that intrigues them to know more about what lies in the story ahead.
Authors have their own conception of the story, and they build characters that are hidden and not revealed till the last moment. It boosts the sense of excitement among readers to go through the complete book. These secret identities drive tensions in the heads and minds of readers to capture them with suspense. People must read KJ Julian’s Death on the Douro to experience the thrill and remember it forever.
The following are some interesting techniques of creating tension in mystery and crime narratives:
1. Plot the Concealed Structure
The basic plot of every cosy mystery is absolutely hidden and concealed. It creates a dramatic irony in the story and makes it something enthralling. However, the story carries on with its own pace, leaving the suspense for readers. They feel the tension themselves while going through a novel and find no clues till the end. Hence, the first chapter of the story describes the simple atmosphere of the surroundings. It introduces the protagonist in the beginning, who solves the case with amateur sleuth qualities.
So, the protagonist in the story possesses a significant value as a lead hero. He receives all his support from his family and friends, who give him a clue to trace the culprit. These supporting roles are strong backups for an amateur sleuth to catch a criminal. The tension forms in the novel when everyone gets to know the truth. Therefore, they united to discover a reason behind it.
2. Creates the Twists and Turns
A cosy mystery is not smooth in its flow. But it contains some sort of twists and turns at every moment to give a spine-chilling experience to readers. So, they are in constant tension throughout a novel and do not sit in peace. Their minds race around the characters who make their head boggle to astonish them with something new in the story.
It makes things sudden and unexpected for them to happen in the novel. Hence, overall, they find a wonderful experience reading a suspenseful storybook. However, it is light-hearted with no more violence or crime. But still, it sustains the interest of everyone to stick with a novel. They find pressure on their nerves to get the clues and reach the culprit.
3. Turns Out to be An Insider’s Job
In most of these cosy mysteries, it turns out to be an insider’s job to create all the trouble in the town. So, that mysterious person turns out to be familiar in the end. It is always someone from the house and family who is a real culprit.
Thus, he plans everything to execute according to his own idea and strategy. But everything fails in the end when he is caught with all the clues. Every evidence goes against him, and nobody trusts that man anymore. His relationships with the family are over after committing such a bold crime. It can be anything like a theft or a murder.
4. Create a Psychological Complexity
These stories put readers under a great burden, and they have to face all the tension of revealing the secret identities of masked characters. Readers find a psychological complexity and feel the effect on their minds and senses. So, they also think in their sleep and dream about it. However, the suspense unfolds in the end when everything becomes clear.
Villains in the story are hidden, giving no chance to anyone to find their lead. But the protagonist is always on a wild quest to uncover the faces of these troublemakers who have ruined the peace of the community. Their efforts do not go to waste, and they finally succeeded in their attempts to trace their culprits and reach the end.
5. Friends Become Enemies
The relationships of characters turn out to be different when the truth is revealed at the end of the story. However, their friendships changed to rivalry after a deceit. It shows a cunning face of the villain who stabs the knife from behind. So, nobody knew about it in the beginning and found out at the last moment. These characters impersonate themselves and hide their appearances under the masked cover.
Hence, nobody can judge their personality from the inside, which makes it easier to fulfill their motive. Thus, they can easily capture the wealth of their loved ones and withdraw it from all of their assets and belongings. Therefore, the endings of these novels are worth learning a lesson. It is when these characters forgive each other and embrace together with love and affection. They keep their brotherhood alive and never create a gap in their connections forever.
6. Develop the Thrill of Anticipation
Reading these cosy mystery novels means sustaining the thrill of anticipation throughout. Not a single moment goes by that a reader feels bored with the novel. Instead, they feel engaged in the story and want to connect with it. Their whole interest is focused on the story, and they never want to miss out on anything.
It is all due to a continuity of suspense in the plot that makes it interesting and holds the tight grip of the story. They create a sense of confusion and doubt among readers to leave them in a perplexed condition. So, they doubt every character that can be a culprit, but the person turns out to be entirely different.
7. Small Towns Bury Their Secrets
Someone wise truly said that a secret is a secret until it is told to someone. So, these quirky towns keep their mysteries and create a riddle for an amateur sleuth to solve. Therefore, they are born detectives who possess the awesome qualities of a spy to investigate a matter. But they also find a lot of hurdles and difficulties in their search for a clue.
They can only detect the sign with the help of a hushed gossip. These chatters are mostly voiceless, which are only whispers in the ears. So, no noise can be heard in the surroundings. Protagonists must be experts in reading faces and analyzing their subtle expressions. Nobody will tell them anything, but they know everything that happened.
8. Secret Identities Disappear into the Crowds
Finding these secret identities is no less than a challenge for amateur sleuths. It is because of their lack of experience that they make wrong guesses. Protagonists attempt to fail in the beginning due to their inaccurate judgments that turn out to be their foolish mistakes. These bad characters in the story plan their escape well.
They mislead the protagonists in the wrong direction. So, create scenarios where everybody is a crime suspect, and the situation becomes complex to handle. Thus, they cannot find their valid proof of evidence to catch the guilty and find the actual truth. It always takes a lot of time and effort for amateur sleuths to help out the victim in solving the matter.
9. Purpose to Find Truth and Justice
The primary aim of every protagonist is to find the hidden truth and bring justice to the naive victim. It is a person who is absolutely innocent, and somebody else ruins his life for the sake of revenge or something. But the duty of an amateur sleuth is to uncover the concealed mask of a man behind all this. So, the hero must be on his wild quest to catch the real culprit. However, his intentions must also reveal a close relationship between the protagonist and the victim. Therefore, they can be the best childhood buddies who grew up together in life.
Now, it is a matter of a friend in need is a friend indeed. So, a hero must help his mate to find the offender. But he only wants to listen to a true statement of a criminal as to why he committed this crime and for what reasons. It is a test of trust and patience for an amateur sleuth to stand by the victim when everybody goes against him. Thus, he shows his good intentions and friendship that lasts forever. However, he attempts to keep his relationship alive for a lifetime.
10. Play With Red Herrings
Red herrings are a common technique in these cosy mysteries to mislead the reader and the protagonist in finding the truth. So, initially, they get stuck in making wrong guesses and suspecting people who are not guilty in the real sense. But the story takes a turn before the climax to shape the new direction of their motives.
Nevertheless, these amateur sleuths also do not leave their attempts till the last moment and finally succeed in catching a culprit. Hence, throughout, it maintains the suspense throughout the story in a seamless flow. Readers are excited to reach the end and never leave the book without finishing.
11. Game of Truth and Deception
One thing is remarkably similar in all of these cosy mystery and crime narratives: they all play a game of truth and deception. However, they hide their characters behind their secret identities and never expose their actual reality. It is an excellent way of creating the thrill and suspense that go along the way. Many a time, clues are missing or deliberately removed, making it difficult to find them.
The hiding of truth is another trick that keeps the readers in a tense condition. So, they find it suspicious to conceal all the facts and make it a mystery. However, they leave it to a protagonist to search for the evidence.
12. Cross the Line of Morality
Characters in crime and mystery narratives find the moral ambiguity in their words and actions. So, they speak lies to conceal their secret identities and hurt their relationships. People start to give them a doubtful look because of their strange behavior. Hence, they consider their protagonist a culprit and suspect that is unveiled at the end of the story. Thus, amateur sleuths have to cross their boundaries and go beyond their limits for the sake of truth. They find their clues with their identity disguise.
However, they are compelled to work undercover to collect their evidence. So, they can easily prove themselves innocent and help regain the trust of others, especially for the mending of their broken relationships with their family and loved ones.
Conclusion
Hence, in a nutshell, people love to read these cosy mysteries and crime narratives because of the tension created by these secret identities. So, readers spend all their time finding out the truth behind the whole story. It develops a sense of addiction to them in reading these books for joy and pleasure.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
There can be various sorts of secret identities that author create in their stories. So, they can be hidden criminals or undercover detectives. Their purpose is to conceal their appearances to deceive the audience.
Yes, it is primarily for villainous characters. But heroes and supporting roles can also hide their personal identities and impersonate others. Victims can also do that to find the true means of justice.
It is because their presence engages the readers and keeps their involvement in the flow of the story. The audience makes their right or wrong guesses to find the real suspects.
These secret identities conceal their faces and appearances to put the readers in a state of doubt and confusion. So, they find tremendous difficulties and challenges in solving these mysteries.
The prime reason is the formation of suspense and intrigue. It builds their interest and raises their curiosity to know more about the novel.