2 questions about wife catching a murdering husband

Foolonthehill

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I have a tricky question, I won't go into the details of the whole plot or it would take me ages, Anyway. Woman has lover, husband finds out and decides to kill him. He happens to kill the wrong man, a friend of the woman's lover's who has similar build and was in the lover's house. When he realises his mistake, he decides to get the wife's lover framed for the murder (I have this all worked out). The lover goes to jail and the killer and his wife decide to try and move on. Except----- the wife finds out that her husband is the true killer - so my question is, HOW does she find out? It would have to be serious enough for her to be able to prove it to the police. Computer files wouldn't work, he's not that stupid (and he's a dentist if that can be of any help)

Question number 2. I want the husband dead by the end of the novel. In the beginning I was thinking the wife could kill him, but that would make her look too evil to the reader and I don't want that (even self defence would be a bit of a cliché). I want his death to be an almost accident where maybe, just maybe the wife could have saved him, but decides not to at the last second.

Thanks guys
 

Marlys

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For the second question, it might makes sense that the lover gets out of prison and kills the husband. He resents being framed and sent to prison, the husband killed his friend (hell, make it his brother instead, and you'll both strengthen the animosity and give him a reason to resemble the lover), and he may still want the woman. That gives him lots of motive. And the wife could easily decide to stand by and let him do it. A fatal accident would be hard to pull off without it seeming too coincidental.

As for the first...well, the framed guy is the wife's lover. Maybe something doesn't make sense about the set up because she knows her lover too well. That would give her reason to dig around and find the evidence. Without knowing details of the crime and frame, it's hard to come up with what that evidence is. The murder weapon is one possibility, if he didn't use it in the frame.
 

Foolonthehill

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Thanks! The kiler frames the lover by placing his blood all over the crime scene. The lover is an ex drug addict and he (being a doctor) manages to inject him with drugs and of course then it's easy to get his blood and finger prints all over the crime scene. How can the wife catch him? I was thinking blood-stained clothes in the washing machine which she becomes suspicious of and puts aside.... but is that too obvious?
 

Foolonthehill

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Also, I would like thte husband to die in an accident which she might have saved him from..... so that she doesn't look totally cruel, but not 100% innocent either
 

Kregger

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Have the mistaken lover die from lidocaine overdose which causes convulsions and eventual death. Give the dude a history of epilepsy and you're golden.

Later on she can notice an elevated serum level of lidocaine that wasn't noticed at the time of death.

Note: Dentists no longer use Novocaine, lidocaine is real common.
 
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Debbie V

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Blood all over the place will appear odd to the investigating officer. There are experts in blood spatter. It has to be placed carefully.
 

debirlfan

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What if husband thinks he's been caught and is going to jail and instead decides to kill himself - wife finds him before he dies, but instead of calling EMTs she just turns around and walks back out.
 

stickyinspiration

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Could it be that the wife was with the real lover at the time of the murder? She battled with confessing and started looking for the real murderer herself. That's when she found the evidence that the husband murdered him.

I think you're going to have to be careful with the character of the husband. The reader may end up sympathizing with him based on the wife cheating. In my mind, he's going to have to be unlikeable to a degree. Him killing an innocent man is certainly unlikeable, however I don't know that it's enough for her to be able to let him die and the reader to still sympathize with her. GL!