Chapter 14: Flexible Plot Twists

Plot twists that work well as the Climactic Plot Twist or Midpoint Plot Twist

This post contains Chapter 14 of The Perfect Crime, my mystery-writing textbook. To read previous chapters, check out the Archive.

We’ve discussed several Classic Plot Twists that work well at the end of your novel, and several that work best as a midpoint. In this chapter, we’ll dig into three Classic Plot Twists that can work well in either of these positions.

Casualty of War

In the Casualty of War twist, the Villain is not linked by Motive to the initial Victim. He kills her, but not because he wants her dead—only because her death in some way furthers his plan to eliminate another person.

In The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz, an elderly British lady named Diana Cowper arranges her funeral—and is murdered later that day. Her famous son, Damien, flies from Hollywood to England to attend her funeral. Immediately after the funeral, Damien is brutally murdered.

We eventually learn that Robert Cornwallis, the funeral director who helped Diana arrange her funeral, was once at theater school with Damien. Damien screwed him over to get a particular part, resulting in Damien snagging a prime agent while Robert was left with a lesser pick. Since then, Damien’s career flourished, while Robert’s floundered, leading him to eventually give up acting and take up the mantle of his family’s funerary business. He has never forgiven Damien, but he has also never had the opportunity to take revenge, because Damien was off in Hollywood and Robert was stuck in England.

When Diana arrived to arrange her funeral, Robert realized he had an opportunity (there’s the Trigger!) to draw Damien into his clutches. If he killed Diana, Damien would surely come for her funeral, and Robert would be able to take his revenge.

A Villain might also commit a Casualty of War murder to occlude his motive. In The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie, a Villain kills three victims in alphabetical order: Alice Ascher, Betty Barnard, and Sir Carmichael Clarke. Eventually, Hercule Poirot learns that the Villain, Franklin Clarke, only had a motive to kill Sir Carmichael. He murdered the other Victims simply to make his crimes look like the work of a serial killer, and thus confuse the police about his motive.

When writing a Casualty of War plot, you can reveal the twist—the Villain’s lack of a motive for the initial murder—at the end of the book, while using one of the multiple murders that this twist demands to give you a nice, high-drama Midpoint.

Or, you can reveal the twist as your Midpoint, allowing your Sleuth to discover the Villain’s true intended Victim. They can then spend the second half of the novel investigating with this knowledge in mind.

Classic Plot Twist: Casualty of War

Summary: The Villain has no direct motive to kill the initial Victim, but kills her to further his plans to eliminate someone else.

Violated belief: The Villain wants the initial Victim dead

Other examples: Remington Steele, “Steele Eligible”; Monk, “Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse”; Monk, “Mr. Monk Goes Home Again”

Evidence Tampering

Evidence tampering occurs in a lot of mysteries, and many times it doesn’t really rise to the level of shock and awe that we want from our plot twists. It’s just something that happens during the course of our investigation.

However, it’s possible to get deliver an awesome moment of surprise—AKA a plot twist—when a major piece of evidence, in which we’ve invested total faith, is found to be manipulated.

In an episode of Monk called “Mr. Monk Goes to Mexico,” a San Franciscan teen, Chip Rosatti, dies while skydiving. Because Chip’s dad is a prominent businessman with connections, the mayor of San Francisco asks our Sleuth, Monk, to travel to Mexico to investigate the boy’s death. At the morgue, Monk is hit with some baffling news from the coroner, Dr. Modero: Chip’s lungs were full of water. According to the evidence, he drowned in mid-air.

While Monk investigates, several attempts are made on his life. At the end of the episode, we learn that Dr. Modero is the killer. He wanted revenge against Monk for testifying against him in an insurance scam case (in which the two men never met face to face, allowing Modero to go unrecognized by Monk). Modero lost his license, and has been living in Mexico ever since, bitterly resenting his loss of status.

He arranged for Chip to win the skydiving trip, then tampered with his parachute, so the boy would die. Then he filled the body’s lungs with water, to simulate death by drowning. He reasoned that a baffling death, linked to a prominent San Franciscan, would draw Monk to Mexico, where Modero could take his revenge.

The faked evidence of the water in the lungs is a twist that undermines everything we thought we understood about the case. This plot is is also, incidentally, a Casualty of War murder!

That’s an example of a Climactic Plot Twist that turns on faked evidence, but you can also use Evidence Tampering as a great Midpoint Twist. In Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn, beautiful housewife Amy Dunne goes missing, and her husband, Nick, looks like the most likely culprit. Throughout the first half of the book, we’re treated to excerpts from an exceptionally juicy piece of evidence—Amy’s diary, in which she chronicles their once happy, now loveless and abusive marriage. After reading a few entries, we can’t help but think of Nick as a snake who deserves whatever he gets.

Midpoint Plot Twist! The diary was a false piece of evidence, born entirely of Amy’s imagination. Amy has learned that Nick has been cheating on her, and she wants him to go to jail for her (faked) death. Toward that end, she’s manipulated a lot of evidence, including a fake crime scene that suggests she was murdered, and the diary, which she’s certain will seal Nick’s fate.

Classic Plot Twist: Evidence Tampering

Summary: Someone tampers with a significant piece of evidence that sharply alters our perception of the crime

Violated belief: The evidence presented to the Sleuth is legitimate

Other examples: Chinatown, Monk, “Mr. Monk and the Voodoo Curse”

Mistaken Identity

In a Mistaken Identity twist, the Villain intends to kill one person, who we’ll call the Intended Victim. However, they miss their mark, and the Victim they attack is someone who they never intended to harm.

In an episode of Murdoch Mysteries called “Let Us Ask the Maiden,” Nathan Siebold, a young man who works in a sweatshop, dies of arsenic poisoning. The investigation focuses on his secret relationship with Devra Begelman, the daughter of the sweatshop’s owner. There are two people with a motive to keep Nathan away from Devra: her father, Isaac Begelman, and her fiancé, Dr. Simon Goldberg. Another person of interest is Nathan’s friend, Sam Fineman, who has been trying to start a union at the sweatshop.

It’s not until Murdoch figures out the method of murder that he realizes a terrible mistake was made. The Villain intended to kill Sam, by introducing arsenic to the steam press he operated. The poison became aerosolized when the machine produced steam, and this would be inhaled by the operator.

Only Sam wasn’t manning the machine. On the fateful night, he switched shifts with Nathan in order to work on his unionizing project. Once the Intended Victim is known, the motive is clear—shut down the union. And the Villain is just as obvious: it’s Isaac Begelman, the sweatshop’s owner.

In “Let Us Ask the Maiden,” the twist is revealed right at the end, but it’s also possible to use a Mistaken Identity twist for a solid midpoint. In another episode of Murdoch Mysteries called “Rich Boy, Poor Boy,” Bobby Brackenreid, the son of Murdoch’s boss, Inspector Brackenreid, is playing in the park with another boy. A man approaches the two and offers to whisk Bobby off on an adventure, an offer that is quickly accepted. Brackenreid and his wife are alarmed to find their son missing, and the investigation begins to center on the possibility of an ex-con who might seek revenge against Brackenreid.

Until, that is, the father of Bobby’s friend arrives at the station, bearing a ransom note that has been delivered to his house. The Intended Victim was Bobby’s friend, Robert Stanton, the son of a wealthy brewery owner. This not only ratchets up the danger—int he Villain learns he’s got the wrong boy, he may simply kill him—it also forces the investigation to go haring off in another direction, as Murdoch digs into Mr. Stanton’s business practices and the possibility that someone might wish revenge upon him. Ultimately, he zeroes in on the real reason for the kidnapping—the Stantons adopted Robert from a woman who gave him up only because of her desperate circumstances. Now she wants him back. The request for ransom was the addition of her brother, whom she had enlisted to help her retrieve her son.

When using the Mistaken Identity twist, usually the Intended Victim must be known before the true Motive—and thus, the Villain’s identity—can be deduced. In “Let Us Ask the Maiden,” that deduction happens very quickly, since Sam Fineman’s unionizing, and the ire it had earned him from Mr. Begelman, have already been established. So placing this plot twist at the end of the episode makes a great deal of sense; once we know Sam is the target, it’s a quick hop and a jump to understanding whodunit.

In “Rich Boy, Poor Boy,” however, once we know Robert Stanton is the Intended Victim, there’s still a lot of deduction to do. We haven’t yet learned anything about his family, or been introduced to the possibility that the kidnapper might have a motive other than ransom or revenge. Placing this twist at the Midpoint makes sense, because we need the second half of the episode to unravel all this information.

Classic Plot Twist: Mistaken Identity

Summary: The Villain accidentally attacks the wrong person.

Violated belief: The Victim is actually the Intended Victim.

The Not-So-Mistaken Identity

Like Too Close for Crime (Chapter 10), Mistaken Identity is a twist that mystery writers like to tease readers with, only to reveal that no mistake was made—the Villain knew what he was doing all along. When our Sleuth operates on the assumption that the Intended Victim was someone other than the actual Victim, only to learn that he’s wrong, we have a twist called The Not-So-Mistaken Identity.

In the pilot episode of Monk, “Mr. Monk and the Candidate,” a mayoral candidate named Warren St. Claire is holding a campaign rally when shots ring out. St. Claire escapes unscathed—but one of his security guards, Jason Ronstadt, is shot and killed. Throughout most of the episode, the police operate on the assumption that this is a case of Mistaken Identity—surely the Villain intended to eliminate St. Claire. After all, he’s wildly wealthy, and poised to win a major campaign. Potential motives for killing him abound.

But at the end, we learn that Ronstandt was the Intended Victim all along. St. Claire’s campaign manager had been embezzling from him, and is forced to kill Ronstadt as part of his coverup. This revelation gives us the same zing of surprise we would expect from any plot twist. We had a belief—Ronstadt was killed by mistake—which turns out to be false: Ronstadt was killed on purpose.

Just as in the Mistaken Identity plot twist, we generally need to know who the Intended Victim was before we can deduce the motive and Villain. And just like in the Mistaken Identity plot twist, you can position this twist at either the Midpoint or the climax, depending on how much investigation will be needed to unravel these facts.

Classic Plot Twist: The Not-So-Mistaken Identity

Summary: The Sleuth operates on the assumption that the person who died was not the Intended Victim. However, they are wrong: the Intended Victim and actual Victim are one and the same.

Violated belief: The murder was a case of Mistaken Identity

Other examples: Murder, She Wrote, “The Death of Sherlock Holmes;” Columbo, “Candidate for Crime”

I hope the last few chapters have you feeling excited about the possibilities Classic Plot Twists provide. Far from being stale, these classic twists provide a framework on which you can display your own creativity. The way that you reveal a Mastermind, or pull apart The Tangled Web, or engage in a bit of Evidence Tampering, will be totally your own.

But, at the same time, I want you to know that there’s more to twisting the plot than just relying on Classic Plot Twists. In the next chapter, we’ll be talking about how to design a plot twist that is unique to your book’s individual premise.