Interesting Idea - (rubber room anyone?)

Heh, well, I'm not keeping you guessing about whodunnit - my opening line actually tells you - but I AM telling a murder story from the PoV of the killer as he goes through...

** SPOILER ALERT **

To see how this idea is handled by a master of the trade, read "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd" by Agatha Christie.

However, if you want some rubber room ideas - how about the killer not knowing he is the killer?

I dealt with a story last year in which my MC was slowly going insane, and even he wasn't sure what he was up to all the time. Of course, turns out he's the hero and NOT the killer. But it would be interesting to have a story in which the situation were otherwise!

And what would such a person do? How would they judge themselves after the fact?

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I think that would be incredibly interesting to read. I love getting into the minds of characters. I think it would be hard to write though, but it would be amazing and interesting at the same time.

***MAJOR SPOILER ALERT / Thr3e***

Hm, that idea of the killer not knowing he's the killer, makes me think of "Thr3e" by Ted Dekker. It was a very interesting book, and very suspensful too. ; ) The MC ends up finding out that it was all, technically his own doing, that nearly blew up the city, and whatnot. But he had DID / MPD, (whatever you want to call it.)

Now I want to write a book like this.... lol

Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.

Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)

Oooh, now I want to read that book. : )

Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.

Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)

Read it, read it! It's excellent. Caused an immense storm of controversy when it came out, about whether she was playing fair or not. "It is the reader's job to suspect everyone," said Christie. I will say no more.

That's my novel, this year. One of the killers, Joe, knows that he's the killer. The other killer, the FMC, does NOT know. She thinks that a person named Sarah did it. But she IS Sarah; she just doesn't consciously realize that. (part of the point of the story is her regaining her identity).

After the fact, she...doesn't really care. She lacks the ability to feel most emotions, including guilt. ^_^;;; Also, she lives in a society where crime is, well...kind of a cottage industry. O__o

Rubber room idea: how about a mystery in which everyone (both the readers and the characters) knows who the killer is right from the start? What they have to figure out is...something else. ^_^;;;;

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"However, if you want some rubber room ideas - how about the killer not knowing he is the killer?"

That's the plot of 'King Oedipus' by Sophocles - the guy goes about detecting the crimes and discovers he did it himself - a brilliant twist - the detective did it, written 2,500 year ago!

that was kind of done in "fight club" and it worked pretty well

I would LOVE to see it done without the MPD thing as you described. I would absolutely read that.

come to think of it, that kind of thing happens on the showtime series "Dexter" about a serial killer who only kills bad guys. it's based off a series of books, the first one is called "darkly dreaming dexter" and the second one is called "dearly devoted dexter" the third is called "dexter in the dark" unfortunately breaking the chain of using a "d" adverb and then a "d" adjective before dexter.

it has also been adapted into a TV show that has ran successfully for 2 seasons and is going to have a third in '08.

I watched the first season and read the first book. they are both extremely well done, and have some moderate degree of deviations, having their own strengths and weaknesses, and I'd recommend them both to you. the first season of the show is (loosely) analogous to the plot of "darkly dreaming dexter" and is (in my opinion) more entertaining, since it like most tv shows follows a third person narration, giving the characters besides dexter to gain some development.

it's a good idea, and I applaud anyone who tries their hand at it.

Ohhh, I've got another one. What if the investigating police turned out to be the bad guys? It would all be in the POV of some people involved in the crime, suspects etc. And then *blammy* - the police did it. Ouch. lol

I'm glad that some people are interested in this idea. I'm not sure if I'll ever write a myster with it, but anyone who sees this is welcome to it. (It's not like you'd be stealing anyway, since I just threw out a random thought.) So anyhoo...ttyl.

Laura

Writers are dreamers with good grammar skills.

Psalm 55:22a "Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you."
Right now I'm mostly worried about surviving November! (It's my first year!)

It sounds like the movie "The Number 23". It was good.

Not quite a mystery novel, but this pretty much describes real life in South Africa these days. Just look at a South African newspaper.... fiction writers could never dream this stuff up in a million years!