Chapter 29: The Faked Murder

A true classic.

Another Classic Plot Twist that takes full advantage of a comprehensive, well-constructed narrative is The Faked Murder. In this twist, it turns out that the crime the Sleuths believe they are investigating never actually occurred.

To see how this works, we can look at the comic book series Fables, which is about characters from classic European fairy tales. They’ve escaped their mythical homelands due to an all-consuming war of conquest, and are now living in a small refugee community in our very own New York City.

In the first issue, a panicked witness runs to the community’s sheriff, Bibgy (AKA the Big Bad Wolf) with a tale of a terrible crime: Rose Red’s apartment has been ransacked, there’s blood everywhere, and Rose is nowhere to be found. Bigby investigates, and determines that no less than five pints of blood were spilled in Rose’s apartment—far more than she could possibly survive losing. Rose has to be dead, and someone in the Fabletown community must be a killer.

Except Rose is still among the living. She and her ne’er-do-well boyfriend, Jack (of beanstalk-climbing fame) wanted money to finance a tech scheme, so several months ago, Rose sold herself to Bluebeard the pirate as a bride. She insisted he pay her a large dowry upon their engagement. Rose hoped that by the time the wedding arrived, Jack’s get-rich-quick scheme would have paid huge dividends, and she could buy her way out of the marriage contract.

But Jack’s never met a dollar he couldn’t lose, and so as the date of the nuptials arrived, Rose faked her death so she could avoid marriage to the murderous pirate.

Anatomy of a Faked Murder

The person who fakes her own death is sometimes the Villain of your story—but sometimes not. Sometimes she’s trying to get away from a Villain, or sometimes she falls prey to a Villain once everyone thinks she’s dead. So for the sake of clarity, let’s call this character “the Faker.”

As with Frame Jobs, there are a number of reasons a person might wish to fake their death. They might want: