Point of View in a Crime Fiction Story With Multiple MCs

[Calvin Lubowa]

Kind of excited to make my first post.

So, my question concerns point of view in a crime fiction story. I have an outline for a crime fiction story set in a fictional island country in the 1950s, and there are four main characters; an unscrupulous property broker, a private investigator, a shady businessman and a corrupt police detective. So, with the way I planned it, the story will switch between their perspectives, and end on the P.I. because the other three will be dead by the end of the story.

Problem is, though, that I'm not sure how I'll do the perspectives. I could go for first person present, like in my current mystery series which follows one character, or I could use third person present. Perhaps I should use past tense instead, but I tend to gravitate towards present tense.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Helix]

There's no definite answer to this! If it were me writing this, I would avoid multiple first person narratives because they will all have to have distinct voices and that's difficult to do. (Although a lot of authors have managed it. See Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible for multiple first person PoVs.)

I'd say try them all out and see which ones work!

 

[Lakey]

Though rather old, Vera Caspary’s Laura is a great example of a crime novel with four first-person POVs, each with an incredibly distinct voice.

As Helix said, there is no “right” answer, and you’ll have to figure out what works best for the story you’re trying to tell—first, third, or a mixture of the two.

If you’re aiming for an unreliable narrator situation, some people find that easier to do in first (though it can be done in close third too). Same for a very strong voice—easier to manage in first, though doable in both. First person can be confessional or defensive in tone, if that’s what you want, while third person can be extremely intimate, allowing you to reveal depth of interiority that the character herself might never choose to share with a reader.

Really, though, the possibilities with either POV choice are limitless. You might just have to dive in, start writing your story one way or the other and see how it feels. You can always change your mind later! Or try both, and see which works better.

 

[Norsebard]

(...) there are four main characters; an unscrupulous property broker, a private investigator, a shady businessman and a corrupt police detective (...)

Definitely a classic setup


Hmmm... if I was writing a story with this kind of structure (and I have, sorta), I think I'd go for third-person past tense, but that's just because it's my comfort zone.

I'll second the others in this thread by suggesting that you write a couple of test scenes in each of the four storylines to get a sense of how the particular techniques will work for you - and not least the characters.


Norsebard

 

[Janine R]

Kind of excited to make my first post.

So, my question concerns point of view in a crime fiction story. I have an outline for a crime fiction story set in a fictional island country in the 1950s, and there are four main characters; an unscrupulous property broker, a private investigator, a shady businessman and a corrupt police detective. So, with the way I planned it, the story will switch between their perspectives, and end on the P.I. because the other three will be dead by the end of the story.

Problem is, though, that I'm not sure how I'll do the perspectives. I could go for first person present, like in my current mystery series which follows one character, or I could use third person present. Perhaps I should use past tense instead, but I tend to gravitate towards present tense.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

If you write it in first person from the 4 points of view, will 3 of the voices each come to an abrupt end because they have been killed off?

 

[Calvin Lubowa]

If you write it in first person from the 4 points of view, will 3 of the voices each come to an abrupt end because they have been killed off?

Well, with the exception of the P.I., they kill each other. The businessman is killed by the property broker, who is in turn killed by the police detective, who offs himself after killing some other character he was involved with, and we're seeing this from the perspective of the killers. So yeah, it only ends abruptly for the police detective if I write this in first person.

 

[Janine R]

Well, with the exception of the P.I., they kill each other. The businessman is killed by the property broker, who is in turn killed by the police detective, who offs himself after killing some other character he was involved with, and we're seeing this from the perspective of the killers. So yeah, it only ends abruptly for the police detective if I write this in first person.

Multiple first person involving several bad guys could be interesting but might be difficult to pull off. As Lakey and Helix point out you need different voices for each character. First person puts us inside the head of each character and the reader may develop some attachment to the about to be deceased. The reader may feel betrayed when one character after another is killed off.

 

[Elle.]

Everything is pretty much possible in fiction whether it works or not is down to execution.

I would suggest reading Guy Morpuss's Five Minds. It's about five different minds sharing the same body, each of them 1st POV. They are being killed off one after the other and the they have to work out who's after them, and how to escape a killer when you might be sharing a body with them.

 

[Kimseal]

Everything is pretty much possible in fiction whether it works or not is down to execution.

I would suggest reading Guy Morpuss's Five Minds. It's about five different minds sharing the same body, each of them 1st POV. They are being killed off one after the other and the they have to work out who's after them, and how to escape a killer when you might be sharing a body with them.

I've never heard of that one--it sounds really cool.

Obviously it's old, but Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None has multiple POVs, which are bumped off one by one.

 

[Cassiopeia]

I have read several mystery novels where the main character of the story is in first person and the others are third person. I tried to do that in one of my novels and I wasn't excited about the results so I'm rewriting all characters in 3rd person. I am not sure if this is genre specific? I've not read a fantasy novel that has switched between the characters.

Not sure if that helps.

 

[I murder my darlings]

Kind of excited to make my first post.

So, my question concerns point of view in a crime fiction story. I have an outline for a crime fiction story set in a fictional island country in the 1950s, and there are four main characters; an unscrupulous property broker, a private investigator, a shady businessman and a corrupt police detective. So, with the way I planned it, the story will switch between their perspectives, and end on the P.I. because the other three will be dead by the end of the story.

Problem is, though, that I'm not sure how I'll do the perspectives. I could go for first person present, like in my current mystery series which follows one character, or I could use third person present. Perhaps I should use past tense instead, but I tend to gravitate towards present tense.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I think you might be me. My current project is a SFF murder mystery with a suspect whom I introduce right at the beginning of the book. She's an unreliable narrator, and by the time we get to the actual murderers, she's looking mighty suspish to the readers but not (yet) the people trying to solve the case.

The weapon required a special kind of unique knowledge to create, and she's the one tasked to solve the murders because she one of the very few who can understand and fix what the murderer did before it kills a whole bunch more people. It takes the rest of the book for the people working with her to figure out what the readers already know, because I revealed that in the second chapter.

So yeah, it requires multiple POVs -- the culprit, the victims up until they die, the people in charge of the shadowy organization she's attacking by killing off its members. I'm trying to limit how many headshifts I do within a chapter because that can really weird out the reader. I'd rather weird them out in other ways than just confusing them IYKWIM.

So yeah. It's at 45,000 words and now almost as big as the tech manuals I used towrite. What am I doing with my life?

 

[Leeris]

Kind of excited to make my first post.

So, my question concerns point of view in a crime fiction story. I have an outline for a crime fiction story set in a fictional island country in the 1950s, and there are four main characters; an unscrupulous property broker, a private investigator, a shady businessman and a corrupt police detective. So, with the way I planned it, the story will switch between their perspectives, and end on the P.I. because the other three will be dead by the end of the story.

Problem is, though, that I'm not sure how I'll do the perspectives. I could go for first person present, like in my current mystery series which follows one character, or I could use third person present. Perhaps I should use past tense instead, but I tend to gravitate towards present tense.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

I imagine that going with your strength would be the thing to do. For me, trying new things kills my word count.
If you're talking 3rd person or 1st, those are common. Either could work.
I assume that if your writing in one POV has hit any development wall, it's just as likely to affect the other areas as well. Only with a new POV, the challenges are easy no-brainers, so you are not winning the right battles. I'm not going to ramble about it.

 

[JackieMcMahonWriter]

I've never heard of that one--it sounds really cool.

Obviously it's old, but Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None has multiple POVs, which are bumped off one by one.

I definitely suggest checking out And Then There Were None if you haven't already! That was my first thought, as it has a similar premise and includes different character perspectives in the 3rd person. I think it might help you.

 

[Trying To Be Good]

This is a question that I myself have been wondering about.

 

[BabyBoomer]

I had the same problem as you.
I solved it by writing the same chapter with different points of view.

Try all the points of view, so you know what is perfect for your story.

 

[dbsharpe]

This looks to be an old post, but I'll add my 2c here. I went with first-person multi-POV for a mystery/thriller and was hitting my head against the wall when I re-read chapters that just dragged. Over time, I realized exactly what other posters here have mentioned: to pull this off, you need multiple very strong characters with clear distinct voices. It can work (I think!) but if I started over I'd consider just going third person.

Writing in present tense also made things more difficult - lessons learned!