Escape from Wonderland

Canmore AB is a town with a rabbit rampage – it’s riddled with a ridiculous amount of rabbit holes. If those wacky characters that live in Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland were to run up a random rabbit hole, chances are good they would end up in Canmore!

And that’s exactly what happened.

Do you remember The Queen of Heart’s tarts? The Knave (Jack) of Hearts was accused of stealing them. But really …. he was playing in a poker game in Texas. So who really pilfered those tasty pastries? The answer is at the Shop Local Canmore Trade Fair taking place this weekend.

Mysteries are infinitely flexible in their ‘cluetrail’. Mystery contests and parties can be tailored to fit any situation. Clues can be as tricky or easy as the participants. Investigating (oh that reminds me – What do you call an alligator wearing a vest?  An Investigator! Ha) can take as little or as much time as you want. Theme and prizes can be specific to any group.

Mysteries really are the miracle of masterful entertaining.

Murder of Crows

Why is it called a murder of crows anyways? Is it possible that our justice system was inspired by crow courts? In the book Marvels and Mysteries of Instinct or Curiosities of Animal Life published in 1862, author G. Garratt shares his research on crow communities and their laws and penalties. If some rule is violated an assembly gathers. Vast numbers of the blackbirds will come from far and wide.

Regarding minor offenses, Garratt states:
“The young rooks, or those of one year old only, often violate the rules of the rookery by pilfering twigs and other materials from the nests of the older ones, but the theft is always discovered, and never suffered to go unpunished. The rogues do not allow themselves to be caught in actual fact, for they seem to watch their opportunity, and commit their robbery only when both owners are absent.

Now the criminals are convicted in a very singular manner. They first seem to be suspected like a person who has made his fortune too fast to have done it honestly. Having their material close at hand, and already broken up for them, their work goes on apace, and getting so much ahead of the rest, the whole company act as if jealous of such proceedings, and envious of the quick success of their juniors. On these occasions some eight or ten rooks have been seen to fall upon the nest of the convict, and in a moment tear it all to pieces. “

More serious offenses, though what those might be are left to speculation, suffer much more serious consequences. For those Garratt refers to the research of Dr Edmonson and his observations in the Shetland Islands:
“No business must be transacted till the convocation is complete; the first comers, therefore, wait a day or two for the arrival of the several deputies. A particular field or hill of some character about it is selected, as befitting the importance of the session to be held upon it. When all the deputies have made their appearance, the court opens. What crime has been committed is not known, but criminals there certainly are at the bar. The charges appear to be made, and the evidences given, not individually but collectively, in a general croaking and clamour; and this seems to include the passing of judgement also, for it is no sooner over than the whole court, “judges, barristers, ushers, audience and all, fall upon the two or three prisoners at the bar, and beat them till they kill them. When this is accomplished, the court breaks up and quietly disperses.”

The Molly Maguires

Was the purpose of this secret society of Irish immigrants, The Molly Maguires, to fight oppressive mine owners in the mid 1800s in Pennsylvania – or were they a Death Squad? Killings by the Molly Maguires were as common as slagheaps in coal country. Twelve unsolved murders took place at the headquarters for the Coal and Iron Company in the first 8 months of 1867. Pinkerton’s Detective Agency was called in. Irish newcomer James McParlan, standing 5’7″  was assigned to the case. He got paid $12 a week.

Disguised as a clean-cut Irish dandy, McParlan rolled into Pottsville. A large bankroll in his pocket he headed to the Sheridan, a bar where the Mollies were frequently found. After buying drinks for everyone in the house he then took everyone’s last penny playing poker with them – then he announced “I kill an English bastard in Buffalo. And I play with counterfeit money. But you boyos needn’t worry – my counterfeit is perfect.” The bills, later carefully examined by a bank tell with a magnifying glass, were pronounced perfect. McParlan later commented “Of course it was perfect. It was good US money.”

After two years undercover as Jimmie McKenna, secretary for the secret society, the detective was distressed to find himself named as the leader of a three man execution squad. He hoped for circumstances that would prevent his carrying out of the orders – and he got his wish. The ‘fingerman’ James ‘Powderkeg’ Kerrigan got impatient waiting for their arrival and took care of the execution himself.  Powderkeg later turned stool pigeon and was the only one of the Mollies to walk away from a death sentence. James McParlan went down in history.

Clues Blues

One of the trickiest parts of writing a ‘fairplay’ whodunnit is creating clues. One way you can compose a clue is by using anagrams; a phrase or sentence formed by rearranging the letters of another group of words. Sort of a cross between scrabble and … um  … scrambled. So unscrambled scrabble. (There’s a bit of a tongue twister.) And in the creation of an anagram there’s a bit of sudoku thrown in too. But back to the clue.

Suspects, involved as they are in nefarious pursuits, can’t just leave straightforward messages lying around. That sweet young psychopathic teenager would be deceptive in her diary doodles.  The two-faced politician would be indirect in his daytimer. Maybe there’s a clue in the classified that’s begging to be decoded.

To create the clue you would start with the final phrase and rearrange it to make the phrase that the detective finds. Especially clever people can come up with phrases like these:

FORENSIC EVIDENCE:
When you rearrange the letters
SCIENCE OVER FIEND

COMPUTER STATION MELTDOWN:
When you rearrange the letters
WE LOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

ASTRONOMER:
When you rearrange the letters:
MOON STARER

DESPERATION:
When you rearrange the letters:
A ROPE ENDS IT

THE MORSE CODE:
When you rearrange the letters:
HERE COME DOTS

DORMITORY:
When you rearrange the letters:
DIRTY ROOM

SLOT MACHINES:
When you rearrange the letters:
CASH LOST IN ME

ELECTION RESULTS:
When you rearrange the letters:
LIES – LET’S RECOUNT

SNOOZE ALARMS:
When you rearrange the letters:
ALAS! NO MORE Z ‘S

A DECIMAL POINT:
When you rearrange the letters:
I’M A DOT IN PLACE

THE EARTHQUAKES:
When you rearrange the letters:
THAT QUEER SHAKE

But don’t worry if you don’t have time to be that clever. The scrambled letters can just seem like a bunch of jumble. Then it’s your detective that has to be clever figuring out there is a message hidden there and not just a bunch of nonsense.

Ebay Safe Has Hidden Cash

Buyer beware is the usual code for online shopping but not so long ago, James Labrecque from Bartlett, California, learned the hard way that the opposite is also true; seller beware. Labrecque was flipping a combination safe he couldn’t open. (Might make a nice end table I’m thinking, so what the heck.) He did take the precaution of shaking the thing, heard nothing, assumed it was empty and sold it on Ebay for $122.93.
The fellow who purchased the merchandise went to be bit more trouble and took the safe to a welder to cut open.
SURPRIZE! $26,000!!!!!    (That amount is worth breaking the one exclamation point rule)
I guess the buyer must have blabbed because before long he got a message from Labrecque saying it would be a nice thing if he shared the spoils. The buyer didn’t see it that way and quoted Labrecque’s selling policy back to him “What you see is what you get, no returns, and no money back.”

MYSTERY BONES Writing Workshop

“Mystery Bones”

How to Plot A Murder Mystery
With  Juanita Rose Violini
20 years experience writing Murder Mystery Entertainment Scripts
Author of Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible and the Ignored

“Fair Play Whodunnits”

Mysteries where the author “plays fair” and gives the reader all of the clues necessary to solve the mystery. Fair play cluetrails can be used in:

• Mystery novels, short stories or scripts
• Murder Mystery Parties & Games
• Mystery Contests for promotion entertainment
• Murder Mystery Fundraisers

Love reading mysteries? Want to be a writer? Working within a structure makes it easy. Juanita Violini takes you through the dirt, bones, muscles, heart, mind and soul of a mystery plot.

For more information or to register contact College of the Rockies
Invermere Campus:
Phone: 250-342-3210, Toll Free: 1-866-489-2687 ext 7110 or email: Invermere@cotr.bc.ca
Kimberley Campus:
Phone: 250-427-7116, Toll Free: 1-866-489-2687 ext 3752 or email: Kimberley@cotr.bc.ca

Snobbery with Violence

Mayhem Parva is a fictional village setting, coined by mystery historian Colin Watson. In his book A Snobbery With Violience; Watson reviewed mysteries by writers from the first half of the 20th century – why they were popular and what their books say about the prejudices of the time. But all of that sociology aside Mayhem Parva is:

“The setting for the crime stories by what we might call the Mayhem Parva school would be a cross between a village and a commuters’ dormitory in the South of England, self-contained, and largely self-sufficient. It would have a well-attended church, an inn with reasonable accommodation for itinerant detective-inspectors, a village institute, library and shops – including a chemist’s where weed killer and hair dye might conveniently be bought.”

John le Carre adds this about setting:
“If you describe a Secret Service and impose upon it the same ground rules of behavior as you would upon an English country house, you quickly get the reader with you. So these are bits of ammunition that are available to an English writer, and properly used, are pure gold, in my experience.”

And finally Diana Rigg (Remember her as  the marvelous Mrs. Peel from the Avengers?) while hosting Masterpiece Theatre had this to say:
“A cozy mystery refers to stories that take place in closed, often serene settings. An unexpected act of violence shatters the peace. A small group of characters falls under suspicion and a heroic detective arrives to solve the crime. Are usually solved within a short period of time, a week or two at the most.   In general the solution is usually in plain sight from start to finish. And the killer has been onstage throughout. Motives are clear and simple. Somebody hates fears or envies somebody else or else stands to inherits a lot of money. One by one suspects are considered and eliminated, although the detective will occasionally find himself in a blind alley.”

Books titles that make you wonder how they ever got published (35 Photos)

Reblogged from theCHIVE:

Read more… 5 more words

Locked Room Mysteries

After having immersed myself in locked room mysteries I have come to the conclusion that most of the deceptions involve an accomplice – who usually ends up dead. In one entertaining story, The Triple Lock’d Room by Lillian de la Torre – the locked room had been searched prior to leaving the terrified victim alone to sleep and no one was found to be hiding. No one full size that is as the murderer turned out to be a dwarf type person masquerading as a child. Spaces a child could fit in where not searched and therefore the killer escaped detection. This picture, from a 1926 Chatterbox reminded me of the story, though it has nothing to do with it.

On the subject of locked rooms, I like what Michael Collins has to say in No One Likes to Be Played For a Sucker. “The locked room is an exercise in illusion – a magician’s trick. Otherwise it’s impossible, and the impossible can’t be done, period. Since it had been done, it must be a trick, a matter of distracting attention, and once you know what you’re really looking for, the answer is never hard.”

 

How to Size Someone Up

That Edgar Allen Poe sure knew how to size up a guy. Here’s a marvelous quote from his famous short story The Purloined Letter.

The speaker is an eight year old boy who is always winning at a game of marbles where you guess whether the person is holding an odd or even number of marbles in their closed hand. He figured out how his opponents would play based on their astuteness. When asked how he identified the other’s intelligence he replied :

“’When I wish to find out how wise, or how stupid, or how good, or how wicked is any one, or what are his thoughts at the moment, I fashion the expression of my face, as accurately as possible, in accordance with the expression of his, and then wait to see what thoughts or sentiments arise in my mind or heart, as if to match or correspond with the expression.”