Tag: The Last of Shelia

  • Countdown to Mystery: Locked Doors

    A woman enters a room. Closes the door. Then, from inside, a voice cries “Murder!” When her father breaks down the door, he finds her bleeding on the floor. She is alone. The windows are barred. There is no other exit. Yet the perpetrator is gone! And so begins The Mystery of the Yellow Room…

  • Countdown to Mystery: Zero Effect

    Some of the greatest detectives don’t work alone. Think of Holmes and Watson, Cagney and Lacey, Batman and Robin. You get the idea. Among the most interesting pairings are Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin, from the series that the members of Bouchercon (the World Mystery Convention) nominated as the “Best Mystery Series of…

  • Countdown to Mystery: The Last of Shelia

    One strategy for writing an effective mystery: plot backward. Determine the ending, build from there. I’ve heard that’s the strategy employed by actor Anthony Perkins (Murder in the Orient Express, Psycho) and Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim (A Little Night Music, West Side Story) in writing their only produced screenplay – the intricately plotted who-done-it The…