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Plotting Query?

Will Collins

Will Collins
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Hey guys,

Okay, so there’s a murder mystery in my current novel. I’m just a little worried with how the mystery itself will be received.

So, there’s two main characters who follow different leads. One MC investigates the city, whilst the other ventures outside of it. The city MC is on a false trail, however, and by the time he meets back up with the other MC he’s just found clues on two people he thinks are the killer. But they turn out to be red herrings, set up by the real killer.

My problem is that the other MC who goes outside the city is the one who discovers the vital info that leads both of the main characters to the real killer.

I might be overthinking it, as I know characters in mysteries have been sent on wild goose chases before. I’m just wondering if readers will think the city MC didn’t do anything, or it was a waste of time reading about it?

Thank you.
 
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Harlequin

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Not if he develops in other ways, or is learning about the killer's personality indirectly.

Sounds like a good way to keep tension to me (reader wondering who is on the right trail).

I believe most detective stories include a false lead or dead end in their structure.
 

Laer Carroll

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I’m just wondering if readers will think the city MC didn’t do anything, or it was a waste of time reading about it?

Not if he develops in other ways, or is learning about the killer's personality indirectly.

Good point. I think that's the key. Which means you have to decide what purpose the city MC's quest serves and perhaps heighten it a bit.

One possibility is that the work each MC does supports the other. Maybe (of several possibilities) the city MC discovers info about the killer's motives, and the country MC discovers who the killer is. Then when the two get together their shared info lets them capture and convict the killer.
 

Hbooks

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Can the false clues planted by the killer still provide key information that helps solve the case? Even if person B isn't the killer, maybe MC #1 notices this random clue, or this personality tic, or whatever that helps in the end in a way MC #2 (who is on the trail of actual killer) didn't pick up on and couldn't have solved the case without. That way they are working together even whe they aren't. My two cents.
 

Will Collins

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Thank you Harlequin, Laer and Hb.

The clues sort of tie up with each other, but only because the real killer frames two people close to them.

I forgot to mention city MC is also has a closer attachment to the case, as one of the red herrings is his girlfriend and the final victim is someone from his past.