Chapter 12: Timeline of a Crime

And now, a break from our scheduled programming

This post contains Chapter 12 of The Perfect Crime, my mystery-writing textbook. To read previous chapters, check out the Archive.

All of the Classic Plot Twists we’ve discussed thus far make great Climactic Plot Twists—that is, plot twists that end your novel with a massive surprise. But your mystery may need more than that. You may also need a Midpoint Plot Twist—a shake-up right in the middle of your novel to send your plot cruising off in a new, unexpected direction.

This is what we’ll be digging into in the next couple of chapters. But first, we need to talk about a core concept that will help us proceed with a shared understanding of the territory: The Timeline of a Crime.

Nearly every crime in mystery fiction shares the same basic timeline, which looks like this:

Note that this isn’t the same as the timeline for your novel. Your novel can begin at almost any point on this timeline (except, perhaps, the Confrontation). These are simply the stages that the Villain goes through as he conceives, executes, and tries to hide his crime. They are:

The Trigger

This is the event that causes your Villain to commit murder. It’s usually one of these two things:

• The Villain is put under pressure. This might be financial pressure—he realizes he’s in danger of losing his business—but he can save it by committing a Money murder. It might be romantic pressure—there’s an interloper threatening his marriage, which causes him to commit a Love murder. Maybe it’s the pressure of a wrong he can’t countenance—so he commits a Power murder to take revenge. Or maybe it’s the pressure of Fear.

• The Villain becomes aware of a new opportunity. He realizes that he can gain Money, Love, Power, or relief from Fear by committing a murder.