Simple Mystery Plots, Part 3: The Two Cases

Another mystery plot.  This one I like to call The Two Cases.

  1. Crime #1 occurs.
  2. Crime #2, a minor/funny crime, occurs.
  3. The solver tries to track down one of the two crimes, but it’s no good.
  4. They run into something from the one crime that reminds them of the other crime.
  5. Wait wait both these crimes are related.
  6. Switching from one crime to the other reveals both.  Wrapup, the end.

I’ve been listening to a lot of Inspector Montalbano mysteries lately.  Like that.  This seems like a good Police Procedural template, because it’s easy to believe they’re juggling multiple things at once.  They aren’t as limited by location as a cozy, but they do have to center around one location (their district), so this is a good way to jerk the reader around realistically by overwhelming them with two sets of clues.

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