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April’s article from the September, 2002, issue of Writers Digest:

CLUES MAKE THE MYSTERY: HOW TO MISDIRECT AND SATISFY YOUR READERS AT THE SAME TIME
By April Henry

n any novel, you have to make sure you get the characters, setting, plot, and narrative voice just right. But the mystery contains one more element, without which it wouldn't be a mystery: clues.

As a mystery writer, it's your job to plant clues, water them with speculation, fertilize with a few red herrings, and finally harvest your crop of suspicion.

You need to plant enough clues that the reader could solve the mystery. You must also cleverly hide these clues so that the reader sees them, but doesn't recognize them for what they are. Done right, at the end the reader is still surprised. It's not easy - but it's also half the fun.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FORESHADOWING, RED HERRINGS, AND CLUES
Don't confuse clues with foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is common both in mysteries and in mainstream fiction.

Foreshadowing is the writer hinting to the reader. It's not a clue your main character can use to unlock the puzzle. A common use of foreshadowing is in the weather: a character who will later be revealed as evil will arrive at the height of a midnight storm.

Another way foreshadowing is used is in choosing a name for a character. It's no coincidence that in the current bestseller, Peace Like a River, the good-hearted character's last name is Land and the object of his budding romantic feelings has the last name of Orchard.

A third kind of foreshadowing is when the narrator speaks directly to the reader, the "had I but known" school of writing that risks bordering on cliché. Ruth Rendell, writing under the pen name Barbara Vine, and normally an admirable stylist under any name, had far too many instances of foreshadowing in Grasshopper, with lines like "I went home... having no premonition, of course, of the strange events that were to take place the next day." By the time this particular twist occurred, it had lost any element of surprise.

Red herrings (the phrase is thought to come from an old practice of dragging fish across a trail to throw hunting dogs off the scent) are a distraction. Your sleuth and the reader may think they've found a clue, but it's a false one. Often these red herrings are supplied by the real murderer, who is wily enough to try to throw in some misleading evidence of his or her own. A red herring is a clue that may or may not be a fact - but even if it is, it doesn't lead to the truth. . In Scott Turow's Presumed Innocent, the red herring is what appears to be the murder victim's rape. The police eventually figure out that the rape might have been staged and arrest the victim's old lover, Rusty. They never realize a woman was responsible for both the murder and the red herring.

In my third book, Heart-Shaped Box, the killer turns up the heat in a hotel room where he has left a body, then later returns to the scene of the crime to set the thermostat back to normal. As a result, the coroner's estimated time of death is wrong - and our murderer has successfully used a red herring.

As opposed to foreshadowing or red herrings, clues are facts your sleuth can use- some of which point to the murderer. So, how do you plant a clue without giving away whodunit? Let me give you some examples.

CLUES FROM CHARACTER
A mystery is more than just the puzzle. To hold a reader, it should show interesting people in interesting situations. The best kind of clues come naturally from character. For instance, the sleuth realizes the clean-freak ex-wife is the killer because she couldn't resist making the bed after killing her ex-husband. In Presumed Innocent, who would be both angry enough to frame Rusty for murder - and have access to his sperm?

Before you begin writing your mystery, it's best if you know who the killer is. I've known several mystery writers who don't know until they finish the book, and who then have to go back and re-write, adding in clues and red herrings, and taking out clues that didn't work out. This method takes longer, and you still may end up with an ending that jars the reader, because you didn't plant enough clues along the way.

CLUES FROM PEOPLE'S SECRET LIVES
In a mystery, nearly everyone has a secret. It's just not THE secret. They are not the murderer, but they also don't want anyone to know about their secret lives as gamblers, drug users, embezzlers, cross-dressers, etc. All these secret lives plant clues that may flower into suspicion. Not only that, but because the characters have something to hide, they may act suspiciously, lie to your sleuth, steal important documents, and generally strew around red herrings that will keep the reader guessing.

CLUES FROM RELATIONSHIPS
There are not only physical clues to the murder, but psychological clues as well. Who has reason to dislike the victim, perhaps enough to kill them? Not only enemies, but friends, family members, and co-workers can (and probably should be) suspects as well.

In the book I'm working on now, Buried Diamonds, a woman's body is found hanging from a knotted rope. Suspects include her jilted fiancé, the neighbor who had a crush on her, the workman who watched her day after day, and even her sister, who went on to marry the former fiancé.

The rule of thumb is that the character with the clearest motive isn't the murderer, or, if she is, the motive is not the obvious one. One of the easiest traps to fall into is to have the killer be the least likely suspect. You can solve many Agatha Christie novels by guessing that the least likely person is the killer. You may not know why or how - because this isn't revealed until the very end - but you will be right. This takes some of the guesswork - and some of the fun - out of the puzzle.

CLUES FROM THE BODY
These can range from the simple, such as strands of brown hair, when the victim was blonde, to clues that don't take on any meaning at first. For example, people who wear glasses and commit suicide usually take their glasses off beforehand. But what if a man
jumps from a bridge and leaves his jacket, his wallet and a note in a neat little pile on the railing - but wears his glasses for the leap? This seed of doubt may not bear fruit until later.

Another example: dead people don't bleed. In Buried Diamonds the fact that a cut on the victim hasn't bled will emerge as an important clue.

Readers are fascinated by forensic science, as shown by the popularity of TV shows like Crime Scene Investigation, or books by Patricia Cornwall or Kathy Reichs. To gain an understanding of what investigators look for, read books like Dead Men Do Tell Tales, Unnatural Death : Confessions of a Medical Examiner, or What the Corpse Revealed : Murder and the Science of Forensic Detection.

CLUES AT THE SCENE
These can be as gruesome as blood spatters, or as everyday as a Starbucks paper cup with a fingerprint on it. Remember that one principle of crime scene investigation is that everyone at a scene, wittingly or unwittingly, takes something with them and leaves something behind when they go. These can be as small as grains of sand, or as large as a bloody shovel.

CLUES FROM DIALOG
What does your sleuth learn from talking to people - or even overhearing conversations? The neighbor who was awakened by the slam of a car door at 4 in the morning provides a clue. The woman who says she hasn't talked to the victim for two months provides a clue - especially when another witness says he saw them arguing the day before the murder. Even an overheard threat or endearment provides a clue. Whether these clues are true or red herrings is another matter.

THE CLUE THAT WASN'T THERE
A clue can also be what's missing: a diary, a framed photo, a blanket that's normally kept in the car trunk, even the dog that didn't bark, as in the classic Sherlock Holmes story.

THE OBVIOUS CLUE
One trick for planting a clue is to make it all too visible, a showy orchid in the middle of a field of dandelions. Your reader will spot it right away, then discount it because it's "too easy." You can only pull this off once, though, or your reader will be right to object.

PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN
Misdirection is key as you plan your garden of suspense. Spend a lot of time on things that aren't really important, and give the important clue a one-sentence mention. It's less about concealment than it is about distraction. If you do it right, the reader is so caught up in the conflict and drama of the story, she is unaware of being misdirected. If the bottle of nail polish in the victim's purse is the important clue, have your sleuth dwell on the matchbook, restaurant receipt and Palm Pilot that are also in the purse.

Or reveal a clue that seems meaningless. In Presumed Innocent, one clue is the pathologist's testimony that the sperm found in the victim's body had been killed by diaphragm spermicide. Yet it is later revealed that the victim didn't need to use birth control. It seems that the pathologist has made a mistake and mixed up two samples. But has he?

THE IMPORTANCE OF PLAYING FAIR
Don't cheat. Don't buy a potted plant, stick it in your garden, and say that it grew there. Don't introduce the murderer on the last page. It's not fair to have the solution depend on luck or coincidence or information that the sleuth knew but the reader didn't.

Play fair with your reader by providing enough clues that it might be possible to puzzle out the solution. Dean Koontz says you should have at least three legitimate clues to the killer's identity. Read Presumed Innocent knowing the solution and you'll see the clues are all there. A female hair found on the body (which rates one-sentence). A call to the victim made from Rusty's house the night of the murder. Even the two-word mention that one of the many odd topics his wife has been studying is artificial insemination.

Now that you know more about clues, your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to read a mystery novel. Make note of each clue as it turns up. When you're done, go back and look at how the author used one. Which turned out to be red herrings, which were distractions, and which pointed directly to the killer?

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