Chapter 27: The Narrative Log

What your Villain wants everyone to think

In this chapter, we’ll be building a second component of your Clue Bank: the Narrative Log. Just as the Action Log is a list of every action your Villain took, the Narrative Log is a list of every narrative—that is, lie—your Villain is trying to maintain.

Thus far we’ve talked a good deal about narrative murders—murders in which the death is made to look like some event other than murder, such as a car accident or a robbery gone bad. This is one type of narrative, but it’s not the only kind. In fact, your Villain probably has a number of narratives at work, and figuring out exactly what they are will provide you with a fruitful source of clues. Once you know your Villain’s narratives, your Sleuth should be able to find disruptions to them, and thereby erode the picture of his innocence.

Here are some of the narratives your Villain may have:

• A Death Narrative. This is the kind of narrative at work in a narrative murder. It explains the death in such a way as to exonerate the Villain. In the case of our dastardly duke, the Death Narrative he’s tried to create is “The maid died by suicide.”

• An Emotional Narrative. This is a lie about how the Villain feels regarding the death. A Villain who happens to be married to, or otherwise closely associated with the Victim, may find it prudent to pretend that he’s devastated by the murder—when in fact, he’s secretly delighted. In the case of the duke, the Emotional Narrative is, “I’m saddened by the maid’s tragic death, but not deeply affected.”

• A Trigger Narrative. The Villain’s Trigger Narrative is, generally, that he has no Trigger. Remember that the Trigger for a crime is usually (1) the Villain is put under pressure, or (2) the Villain becomes aware of a new opportunity. In the first case, your Villain may want to pretend that there’s no pressure—so, a Villain in dire financial straights might try to hold onto the appearance of wealth. In the second case, the Villain may want to pretend that he was unaware of an opportunity to gain Money, Love, Power, or Relief from Fear through murder—so a Villain who just learned that he was his grandfather’s sole heir may want to pretend that he thought the fortune would be widely distributed. Our duke’s Trigger is the maid’s pregnancy, which is putting him under pressure to provide for her in a way that may destabilize his marriage. His Trigger Narrative will be “I didn’t know the housemaid was pregnant.”