A Quick Start Guide To Writing Crime Fiction

A Quick Start Guide To Writing Crime Fiction

In this post, we explore how to write crime – with examples. We’ve created a quick start guide to writing crime fiction.

Read the other posts in our Quick Start series:

  1. A Quick Start Guide To Creating Characters
  2. A Quick Start Guide To Writing Fantasy
  3. A Quick Start Guide To Beating Writer’s Block
  4. A Quick Start Guide To Writing For Children
  5. A Quick Start Guide To Writing YA Fiction
  6. A Quick Start Guide To Writing A Memoir
  7. A Quick Start Guide To Writing Descriptions
  8. A Quick Start Guide To Writing Romance
  9. A Quick Start Guide To Writing Science Fiction
  10. A Quick Start Guide To Foreshadowing
  11. A Quick Start Guide To Writing An Inciting Incident
  12. A Quick Start Guide To Writing Dialogue
  13. A Quick Start Guide To Writing Crime Fiction

A Quick Start Guide To Writing Crime Fiction

Before you start writing a crime novel, you need to decide what kind of crime your book will encompass. Will it be a police procedural, medical crime, nine-people-marooned-on-an-island, a locked room, or an unidentified body in a cabin crime? There are as many different ways of labelling crimes as there are ways to write about them.

Thrillers, mysteries, and even horror fall under crime. Thrillers are when a crime is going to happen, mysteries are when a crime has happened, and horror is when a crime is happening.

Must-Read: Mystery, Horror, Thriller – What’s The Difference?

You also need to do a lot of research.

Different Country, Different Crime

No matter where you set your book, deep research into what legal definitions and categories crimes fall under in that country. You should look into the cultural, socio-economic causes, reporting levels, and punishments meted out for those crimes. For example, drug-related crimes often get the death penalty in South-East Asia, whereas in Western countries, they can be classified as misdemeanours or a sentence in jail.

Different Countries, Different Police Action And Legal Representation

Don’t assume that what you see on television or film is how the police and the courts actually work. They are completely different in each country. British police don’t carry guns, for example. Even training periods for the police differ. In Germany, the police have to undertake a three-year program including a combination of theoretical and practical training, while police in the USA only undergo a three to twelve months training. Try to interview a police officer or a lawyer in the country or town where your novel is set.

Who Is The Biggest Audience For Fiction Crime Novels?

As with true crime, women are the largest audience for crime novels. It is enjoyed by voracious readers for their psychological twists of human nature, morality, as well as the excitement of solving a mystery. People love crime novels for the intellectual workout they provide – trying to figure out who the villain is before the detective and reading to the end to see if they are right.

Two Important Things To Remember When Writing A Fiction Crime Book

  1. As the author, you get to decide on the depth of gore you reveal in the execution of, and result of the crime. But remember your audience. Readers of cozy mysteries don’t want gore. However, readers of the horror-filled Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris, or the noir Mystic River author Dennis Lehane can be relied on for brutal, disturbing descriptions. Depending on the depth of gore you choose, you may want to consider having a clear trigger warning, or a reader age-appropriateness indication on your back cover.
  2. Unlike with most genres, crime authors need to control their readers. To manipulate what they’re thinking and when. They need to use foreshadowing and plot twists. A good plot twist requires buildup. So if you want to write one, make sure it’s not only dramatic, but also ‘earned’. To do that, you need to use the interpretation of character’s relationships, and toss clues into incidental, throw-away lines of conversation or descriptions. You need, for example, to use macguffins and guns.

How To Write A Fiction Crime Novel

1. What Would Agatha Christie Do?

A good way to learn how to plot a crime story is to read them. Read as many as you can by authors of the kinds of crime novels you most enjoy. That way, when you are stuck you can ask yourself, ‘What would Agatha Christie do?’ Or James Patterson, Anthony Horowitz, Elmore Leonard, Ann Cleeves, Josephine Tey, Harlan Coben, or Val McDermid. Don’t copy but do draw on and learn from the greats!

2. The Plot And The Crime

The plot revolves around the crime. You don’t necessarily need to start the book with the crime, but you should start your plotting with the crime. Mind mapping is a good way to plot a crime novel. You can also use linear plotting. Mind mapping lets your imagination free reign and will highlight what you will need to research, as well as any holes in your plot. Once you have settled on the crime, you can decide whether you’re going to start (mystery) or end (thriller) with it. Or will your crime happen in the middle of the book?

3. Who Is The Best Narrator

Who is telling the story – the criminal, the detective, an omniscient narrator, an unreliable narrator? Will there be different narrators throughout the book – if so, be very careful of head hopping and keeping the voices distinctly different.

4. When Is The Narrator Telling The Story?

Cozy mysteries are usually past tense, third person, omniscient narrator told from the detective’s POV (point of view). Think Poirot, Miss Marple. Or past tense, first person POV (point of view) from the sidekick’s POV. Think Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Dr Watson. Be mindful of your audience’s expectations and preferences, but don’t be afraid to change things up. After all, one of Agatha Christie’s best books was narrated by the killer.

5. The Good Guys And The Bad Guys Part 1

This group includes the police and the criminals – which may or may not be the same person! You need to create great villains. Think about whether you are going to hide them in plain sight, will the reader know who the villain is but the main character and or the victim be oblivious? If you choose to hide the villain in plain sight, make sure that you have left enough clues throughout the book to ensure that readers are surprised, shocked, but not cheated. Please don’t make your policeman or detective a divorced alcoholic. While they should be flawed, this is such a cliché.

6. The Good Guys And The Bad Guys Part 2

Both of these can be both guilty or innocent actors in the story. Whatever you do, make sure they are not just stage fillers. They must contribute to the solving of the crime in some way. For example, the char-lady dropping the information that after the post arrived the victim had thrown an ornament against the wall, could be a pivot in the story. Or the butcher who says that he was surprised when the victim bought pork chops because, despite having the name of Smith, he was in fact Jewish.

7. The Ingredients Of A Crime Novel

  1. The crime – it needs to be a significant crime, not stealing lunch money, unless that leads to murder.
  2. The villain/s – anyone can be a killer, depending on the provocation.
  3. The detective/s – official or sweet old lady knitting in the corner.
  4. Sidekicks – they are not always necessary. Miss Marple didn’t have any, but Sherlock Holmes and Poirot had them. You can also have a confidant.
  5. Red Herrings – these need to be strong enough to lead the reader astray. If they are too obviously red herrings there’s no point to them.
  6. Clues – all information that the detective learns must be given to the reader as well, usually at the same time as the detective discovers/learns them.
  7. Plot and structure – tension and conflict are essential ingredients.
  8. The story goal– essential for the shape of the novel. This is usually to find out who committed the crime.
  9. Pace – pacing matters. Too slow and you’ll lose your reader. Too fast and the book will feel rushed. A faster pace as the danger to a potential victim increases or when the police are racing to catch the villain before the ship sails.
  10. Setting – Agatha Christie was the Queen of Crime and knew the value of a locked room scenario – trains, boats, islands, aeroplanes, snowbound country houses, hotels etc.
  11. Atmosphere – Pace and setting are part of the atmosphere or mood. Well-written characters, like Hannibal Lecter, can also increase pace and atmosphere.
  12. Tension – situational, relationships, clues, and proximity to danger will increase the tension. Tension is a lot like a body – no body, no crime.
  13. Suspects – Unless you’re Daniel Payne and Glen Gers, the screenwriters of Fracture, you need more than one suspect. Around five is a good number. Our brains can only hold so much information at one time. We can remember the names, locations, connections, and motives of four people, but not five. Don’t have too many suspects or the reader will become bored.

The Last Word

It’s almost impossible to list the 10 best crime novels of all time. Every list you look at it littered with works by Agatha Christie, John Grisham, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Arthur Conan Doyle, Wilkie Collins, and James Patterson. There are other authors but these seven prevail. Does that mean you should only read them if you are starting out in writing crime? Certainly not. But each of them can teach you something important about the craft.

You can, however,  look at the titles below. We have included the top 10 novels from it. Click through if you want to see the full list of 100 books.

The MWA (Mystery Writers of America ) Top 100 Mystery Novels (From The Crown Crime Companion: The Top 100 Mystery Novels of All Time)

  1. Arthur Conan Doyle: The Complete Sherlock Holmes (1887-1927)
  2. Dashiell Hammett: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
  3. Edgar Allan Poe: Tales of Mystery & Imagination (1852)
  4. Josephine Tey: The Daughter of Time (1951)
  5. Scott Turow: Presumed Innocent (1987)
  6. John le Carré: The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1963)
  7. Wilkie Collins: The Moonstone (1868)
  8. Raymond Chandler: The Big Sleep (1939)
  9. Daphne du Maurier: Rebecca (1938)
  10. Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None (1939)

You will find many more resources here: 50 (or so) Fabulous Resources For Crime Writers

If you’d like to learn how to write great stories, sign up for one of the rich and in-depth workbooks and courses that Writers Write offers and get your book off to a great start.

Source for image: Pixabay

Elaine Dodge

by Elaine Dodge. Author of The Harcourts of Canada series and The Device Hunter, Elaine trained as a graphic designer, then worked in design, advertising, and broadcast television. She now creates content, mostly in written form, including ghost writing business books, for clients across the globe, but would much rather be drafting her books and short stories.

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Posted on: 7th January 2026
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