To Kill or Not to Kill

Mulling over the plot line of my next novel I casually wondered does it have to be a murder? Does somebody have to die?

In every good crime fiction novel, TV show or film, yes, somebody dies or at the very least their life must be in peril. Why? Is it as authors we need that, a death at anothers hands, to provide tension, suspense or intrigue in the worlds we create in our novels?

The imminent danger of murder

Can we provide that heart pounding fear, make our readers hold their breath and keep reading, unable to put our books down without someone dieing or be at almost inevitable risk of that being their fate?

We're all going to die sometime. Is that what makes it scary? Or if we died now that fear of what we miss or who we'd miss that makes that the scariest thing people can imagine and hence when our heroes and the characters in our books are in peril and risk that loss of life, that is what creates the adrenaline and stress reaction in our readers.

I am struggling to bring to mind any crime fiction book, TV or film where somebody doesn't die. Can you name one?

Whole series are based on the death of someone by anothers hand whether from a pathologists view, specialist investigation or crime scene units, sole detectives or teams, special victims or otherwise they all grip us because someone has died or is in danger of being killed. That danger is only present and believeable because somebody is already known or believed to be dead or that is the threat being made.

Crime scene investigation

As authors it's needed for a detective or a team to investigate it without all the answers from the outset because the one person that could tell them what they need to know isn't there anymore.

Even those that touch the violent and abuse related crimes that in real life don't always lead to or are investigated because of a death, in dramatisations they almost always have that possibility. We have this need for the ultimate price of a life to give the suspense, intrigue or thrill of reading a crime fiction book.

Invariably, in crime fiction where the peril is in being killed the intensity of that peril the fear and the suspense when someone's in imminent danger is when we already know somebody else is dead even if the killer and the intended victim are the only two that know that. As a reader I guess we need that knowledge to create the suspense.

So I may have completely missed a crime fiction sub genre or not thought outside the box enough yet, but can a crime fiction novel capture the reader, thrill and keep them in suspense without a death, albeit one that could be barely mentioned, or at least the extremely high possibility of one?

I'd love your thoughts, please comment below. And for some exclusive content continuing on with the discussion of my novels sign up to the newsletter. My genre is crime fiction/murder mystery so in my case, yes I think someone has to be killed!

Have a great week,

Helen x