http://padlet.com/English9/mystery

What is mystery?

Mystery is a genre of fiction which is mainly focused on the investigation of a crime. Mystery normally involves a detective fiction or crime fiction. In other words it is a short story or novel, in which a detective investigates and tries to solve a crime.

Mystery fiction can involve a supernatural or thriller mystery where the solution does not have to be logical or even involve a crime.

How to write a mystery book?

1. Start by reading a few mystery books, in the genre you want to write in. Make sure you pay attention to details (conversations, everyday events etc.) and try to think of a plot developed along those lines. Make sure you do some research about the time or place that you want to set your mystery in, this way you can start to develop your story.

2. Start to develop your main characters. What are their personality? What do they look like? What quirky/faults do they have? Anything that will make you understand and get to now you main characters.

3. Include a Red Herring. A Red Herring is someone the reader believes is the criminal. It is best to make you readers believe it is the Red Herring until they find out the real criminal.

4. Come up with a plot. If you have more then one plot at first, don't worry.  Know you have a selection to pick from.

5. Start to write your first draft, try to get down all your ideas at first and then go back and structure it probably.

6. Write your second draft, this time get someone else to read it, so that you get constructive criticism.

7. Continue to write and edit it. Then ending is one of the most important parts in writing and make sure you tie up any lose ends, unless it has a cliffhanger and you intend to write a sequel.

The Solitary Cyclist (Book Review)

I remember reading this book in Year 8, when we had a look at Sherlock Holmes and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing. I love that in each Sherlock Holmes case it usually begins with Watson as the narrator.  It engages the reader and makes them feel part of the case. It was one of my favorite books featuring Sherlock Holmes and still is. It involves a young lady turning up on the door step of 221B Baker Street, asking for the assistance of Sherlock and Watson. The case begins with Sherlock being able to figure out the girls' personality by her appearance.  This is similar to the BBC's Sherlock, which means that Sherlock's personality hasn't changed that much. The case involves the young lady being contacted by two men who knew her uncle (died in South Africa). She is hired by one, to teach his daughter music, while the other one is strange towards her. Also she is continuously being followed by a man on a bicycle anytime she goes to visit her mother. Sherlock and Watsons job is to find out who the mysterious cyclist is. Here is a snippet from the book:

FROM the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive, Mr. Sherlock Holmes
was a very busy man. It is safe to say that there was no public case of any
difficulty in which he was not consulted during those eight years, and there
were hundreds of private cases, some of them of the most intricate and
extraordinary character, in which he played a prominent part. Many startling
successes and a few unavoidable failures were the outcome of this long period
of continuous work. As I have preserved very full notes of all these cases, and
was myself personally engaged in many of them, it may be imagined that it is no
easy task to know which I should select to lay before the public. I shall,
however, preserve my former rule, and give the preference to those cases which
derive their interest not so much from the brutality of the crime as from the
ingenuity and dramatic quality of the solution. For this reason I will now lay
before the reader the facts connected with Miss Violet Smith, the solitary
cyclist of Charlington, and the curious sequel of our investigation, which
culminated in unexpected tragedy.