How to Create a Believable Amateur Sleuth
Writing a mystery that an amateur sleuth solves saves you some research time in police procedures and crime scene technicalities. It's not always the best choice, though, especially if only a professional would be likely to stumble upon certain crucial details. An amateur, however, can create strong reader identification and build into the suspense. Here's how to create one who's believable.
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Instructions
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Decide on your amateur sleuth's occupation. This can be a great way to inject believability into how she manages to find clues the police missed.
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Give her some special knowledge from hobbies, her education or things she learned from others that are necessary to solving the case. That way, you can unobtrusively expand her crime-solving skills.
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Find a compelling reason for your amateur sleuth to be involved in the investigation. The most common is he's a suspect and has to clear himself. Another is he has to save his lover from being prosecuted for a crime she didn't commit.
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Make your protagonist intelligent, but not too smart. The main advantage to having an amateur solve the case is to create empathy. A genius takes away that advantage. Note Arthur Conan Doyle creates empathy not through the brilliant Sherlock Holmes but through his ordinary companion, Dr. Watson.
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Ensure your amateur is complex enough to have weaknesses. The flawless old lady who happens to have clues dropped into her lap won't make a very interesting sleuth. Even Miss. Marple drove everyone crazy with her stories of ordinary village people.
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Work on the logic of the crime so it doesn't take special knowledge, access to details or convoluted thinking to arrive at the solution. Agatha Christie, for instance, managed to avoid these problems by focusing on human nature.
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Create an amateur sleuth who is, above all, likable. Readers will find it easier to suspend disbelief for someone they can identify with through both their strengths and weaknesses.
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Tips & Warnings
Make sure there's a good reason for the professionals investigating the case to miss the solution so your amateur can believably solve it.
Don't make an amateur sleuth in a series have to clear herself as a suspect every time.
