Last night I played "How to Host a Murder." For those who don't know, this is a seris of dinner/mystery games for eight gender-balanced players. Slowly, over the course of four rounds, more and more of what happened gets revealed, in character, until at the end you make your guesses and find out the truth.

My husband and i have done three of these now. Last night, we did a Transylvanian setting that was perfect for the Halloween season. I was a witch, my husband played a Frankenstein Monster, the victim was a vampire...

Anyway, in the end we learned that the victim hadn't actually died, that there had been a body switching going on. Technically, this didn't precisely effect the "whodunit" aspect because I still figured out which character had killed the victim, whoever's soul it had in it, but I started to think about the twist and I didn't think it was fair. There was no real evidence to suggest that body switching was possible in this fantasy world. I did see, in retrospect, places where the game makers were trying to lay out some clues (a bird who didn't recognize its master, for example), but without that crutial piece of understanding about the system and the way the world works, there was no real way to predict the twist.

I'm honestly not sure about your last question, and after I've had time to consider it at length perhaps I'll change my mind, but I would immediately assume that the problem is no different from any fantastic milieu: you create the rules; make the rules clear; and then work the mystery around/within those rules. It seems to me that once the rules were known, then the clues properly fit to the rules, the mystery could be solved accordingly.

At first blush, I don't think that magic, in a world where magic is as real as the natural/physical rules of our world, would introduce problems that stretch credibility to the point of ruining the story. The plausability of the solution of a mystery set in our world is credible because it adheres to that which we believe possible, so we just have to believe the magic is natural and possible in the story world. It would take a delicate touch, carefully laying in what can and cannot be done in advance, and then using that to develop the mystery.

I'm not being much help, I know, but if you have the urge to give it a go, I encourage you to do so. I know I would love to read it.

(Edit: Okay, not five seconds after I hit the "Submit Now" button to post this, the first cup of coffee kicked in and my mind is working on the possibilities better now.

I think the human nature factor is still present regardless of the presence of magic. The characters, including the "sleuth" who has to work out the mystery, believe in magic -- or come to believe in it in due course -- so the reliance on good characterization is no different, no less critical, from any other story. We willingly suspend disbelief when reading a story in which the characters are well-developed and act/react credibly to the events in the story.

I still think it could work, given a coherent magic system that adheres to the rules you set for it and characters who believe and behave accordingly.

I think the characters might have to be a little more fully rounded out or developed, and have to show more growth or change, than what I think is the norm for most mysteries -- take that last bit with a grain of salt, perhaps, because I do not read many mysteries. I'd still be interested in reading something like what you're proposing.)

But the clue about the spell that altered his perceptions of bitter and sweet was laid right out in the open as one of the clues when the detective started his investigation.

The first book has several questions, centered around "Who's trying to get the Sorcerer's Stone?" We learn that the answer is Prof. Quirrel, and, in turn, Voldemort. Throughout the book, we are given clues and red herrings as to this, and the climax happens when we find out the truth -- the "who dunnit" (or rather, who's trying to do it). All the book work in a similar fashion. Clues, red herrings, answers at the climax. I'm almost always fooled, but when I look back, I can always see that the clues were all there for the right answer -- just like a good mystery has.

So yes, I think mystery stories can be done very well in Fantasy, even if you want to make it more blatenly a "mystery." Go for it.

It's a balancing act...atop a telephone pole, with a dense forest of pikes below. I see the use of mysterious plot dynamics alone to be a difficult proposition, and that's leaving magic out of the equation. When magic is involved, you have a whole other aspect of not only crime (and related motives), but also of abilities to solve said offenses.

I mean, if 'John' were to kill someone (Oh, let's say...his boss, who abused him at the workplace) with a snap of his fingers and a muttered spell, that would constitute a crime of magic. But what if he only intended to knock the guy over, and not through six walls? What if another creature/character intensified his abilities to actually kill his boss, while 'somehow' remaining in the proverbial shadows? What then would you, the investigating mage, do? How would you go about discerning the truth of the matter? In what way could you detect the influence of that malicious, hidden character and use such evidence in a high court of magical law?

See what I mean?

Conundrums and complexities beyond your average Hitchcockian drama. That doesn't mean I'm against the concept. I just find that many 'magical mysteries' I read are somewhat...unbelievable within the context. Largely because a whole new legal code must be formulated and applied, no matter how different it may be from our own, nonmagical statutes.

Inkwell
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"The difference between a writer and someone who says they want to write is merely the width of a postage stamp."
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