As a crime writer it’s difficult to use a day like Valentine’s Day as a hook for a blog post. But then I thought about how much I – and millions of people – love crime (either fact or fiction) and what it is that drives the appeal.

I hit on one idea. In a world where horrible things happen to people every day, reading gives you some control. You know that you can make it all go away if you just shut the book. It’s a safe place to confront some horrors. Although there are some books that create images that stay with you for a while, I blame the individual’s imagination for that!

Here are my reflections on why crime fiction fans come back to the genre again and again and again.

A coffee cup sits alongside an open notebook and a tablet - clearly a crime fiction writer

The ‘why’ in crime fiction

In real life, crimes can be committed with no motive. We’ve all heard stories of killers who killed simply because the victim crossed their path. A driver who is under the influence of drink or drugs may not intend to kill someone but could easily do so. But a motiveless crime is unsatisfying, because the most important question – why – has not been answered.

I think it’s a human thing to want to know the motive. Of the five Ws (who, what, where, when and why) that last one is the question people really want answered. Why was that person killed? Why did they choose to walk down a darkened alleyway rather than stay on a lit street? Why didn’t they realise they were being scammed by a fraudster? In crime fiction there is almost always a ‘why’.

We might not like the motive, but I think it’s better to understand why something happened than not. In real life, as I said, there isn’t always a why. There are people killed by another person for no reason whatsoever. They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I hate that phrase in this context because it implies that the person being killed was at some fault for it, when they’re really not.

Solving a puzzle

Mystery readers love a good puzzle. The best mystery novels are a battle of wits between the writer and the reader as to whether the latter can solve the crime. The role of the writer is to provide as many red herrings as possible (within reason) to keep the plot a secret until the last moment.

Agatha Christie is my antagonist in this battle and I’ve never once beaten her. In fact, I love re-reading her books to work out the point at which I should have known whodunnit.

Whodunnit vs whydunnit

There’s also the comparison between a whodunnit and a whydunnit. I’m probably right to say that most mystery novels deal with the ‘who’ as well as the ‘why’. However, there are some books that are a whydunnit. I can’t say that I know of many – the book that springs to mind is The Book Club by CJ Cooper, where we’re told who committed the crime on almost the first page and we wait on the edge of our seats to find out why. In a crime novel, perhaps who and why are equally important, more so than in real life? Perhaps the emphasis is on ‘who’ initially, but once they’ve been identified and/or apprehended, the focus shifts to why.

And of course there is the amazing TV show Columbo. As an audience, we see the murder committed; we know the who, what, where, when and why. The entertainment is in watching the man himself solve the case and catch the baddy. What I find most satisfying is that I suspect Columbo knows from the outset exactly who has done it. Then he just toys with them, circling closer until he points the finger and wipes the smug look of their face.

So, what’s your reason?

As a reader, I’m a problem solver. I love a mystery and trying to work out who and why before the writer lets me.

In my books, ‘why’ is always a key feature. Obviously, you also need to do the rest of the five Ws, but it’s so important to explain why the killer did what they did. It never excuses their behaviour, obviously, but you can at least understand their reason for acting. A crime novel without a ‘why’ is unsatisfying to the reader. There has to be an explanation for everything that’s happened in the book, something that makes sense of the actions of the killer.

Without that there’s no resolution to the mystery, and we can’t have that, can we?

If you want to read more about the comparison between writing fact and fiction, you can check out my previous article.