Newish listener, first time caller — I hope this is the right place for this question! I have an idea for a mystery that I really like but I’m hitting a brick wall when it comes to the final piece of the puzzle, and any suggestions/ideas would be incredibly welcomed Brief summary of the plot: in the modern day, a young woman is invited to take part in an prestigious artists residency that she had previously been turned down for. The residency is already in progress (a couple of months in to a six-ish month total), but one of the originally chosen residents had an ‘accident’ and our protagonist has been given her place. Surprise surprise, it wasn’t an accident — she was murdered, and now our curious protagonist is on the case! I have this part of the story more or less figured out (how she died, red herrings etc.), but I’m struggling to tie it in to the other part of my idea, which is essentially this: the stately home where the artists residency takes place was once the home of a semi-famous Romantic poet (although I’m not 100% attached to his era, so he can be from any time up to the 1920s) who wrote one particularly famous piece about the death (spoiler alert: possibly also a murder) of his wife, in which he draws a parallel between her and the Greek goddess Astraea, who’s return it was said would usher in a new Golden Age. The Residency is in his honour, and is run by the Trust who looks after his work. I kind of want to have the ‘real’ reason (aka not what the red herrings are going to initially suggest) behind the present-day murder be to do with the poet in some way — maybe the dead resident (let’s call her R) found out something scandalous, or maybe there is some secret society/cult related to the Astraea myth, or... and that’s where I hit my brick wall. I’ve toyed with maybe sticking in another timeline — maybe there was a fire at the house fifty years ago during another artists residency and that’s also in some way connected back to the Big Secret around the poet, but I can’t tell if that would be a good bridge between the two ideas or just another distraction from actually deciding what’s going on. TL;DR: what would make someone commit a murder to protect/on behalf of a writer who’s been dead for at least 100-200 years...?
The dead writer has obsessive fans, as well as a following who are passionate believers in the spirit world. For whatever reason, they don't think that he and his wife are happy together in the spirit world (maybe the dead writer's ghost mopes around the place bitching about his wife, saying he wished he could send her back to the land of the living. Perhaps he's haunting the living world just to get away from her) and his fans want to sacrifice a young woman to join him in the spirit world, and be his new love.
The famous writer/poet was a complete fraud/plagiarist. The entire society that follows her is sham. The murdered artist found out about it... goodbye prestige if anyone finds out! It's a secret people would kill to protect. Boom. Done.
The dead poet's wife had an affair so he murdered her. Maybe his wife was a lesbian and he killed her and her lover to keep the shame from ruining his reputation. Someone discovered the dead wife's love letters and put the pieces together, but if the true story ever got out it would tarnish the image of the prestigious institution, so the previous resident had to be silenced.
Nice one. But rather than an affair, what if the wife was the one who really wrote the poems, and was murdered when she threatened to tell the world? Now we have a good reason for the trust to keep the secret, especially if their endowment would be reassigned in light of the new information. If the murder was by a relatively slow-acting poison, the wife may have written that last poem and added some subtle clues in it.
Oh wow, I had considered the wife having written some/all of the poems but wasn’t sure where to go with it, think you’ve just put the last piece into place for me, thank you so much! X
Read the book: "the window at the white cat" mary roberts rinehart I really liked how the mystery was twisted in this story. Maybe this will help you come up with something in your story.
Isn't this plot from a movie? Not recent but it sounds so familiar. Protecting the trust the "building" not the actual poet. Whoever is running the place probably wouldn't like it if something could shut it down. Perhaps the real writer was the wife who was murdered and the husband took credit for her work.
Honestly, any reason would be good. From an Adam's Family esc buried treasure to ill gotten fortunes/property, a city inspector/councilman trying to demolish the site for their plans to improve the city. Plenty of cliche and unorthodox reasons to kill a person. It really depends on what you're knowledgeable about. Trt thinking of someone you hate more than anyone else and why you'd wish them dead. Your plot should be far easier to fill from there.
