CAN ONE OF MY DETECTIVES ALSO BE THE VILLAIN?

morzook said:

i have this story i just started, it is about a serial killer that will be known by the readers but not by the detectives searching for him.
he will eventually be killed but then, it will be discovered that he wasn't able to act alone. another round of investigations will begin and it will be discovered that it was one of the detectives originally working the case that connived with him.
what i want to know is this;
1) is it realistic.
2) won't it be a killjoy, a cop working with a killer?

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Dexter.

Can it be done? Yes. Is it realistic? I don't know of any such thing happening in real life. Won't it be a killjoy? Maybe.

Done well, it's a pretty good twist... otherwise, it can be derivative (like gothicangel pointed out - Dexter). The trick will be to not foreshadow the reveal too much and weave substantial red herrings into your plot.

You might try giving your compromised detective a semblance of plausible deniability - he doesn't know his confidential informant is the real killer until it's too late... capisce?

I like it. I think though a clear motive for why a killer became a cop in the first place would help. I can see a serial killer becoming a cop to get an inside view, learning what not to do. In which case, this conniving is probably not the first.

This character from James Patterson springs to mind; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyle_Craig

This, although done over several books, was an unexpected twist that worked really well.

Maryn said:

Done in Dexter, The Bone Collector, and eighty bazillion TV shows, some predictable, some not.

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You're forgetting Heavy Rain for the PS3.

CatharsisChild said:

You're forgetting Heavy Rain for the PS3.

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That was my first thought as well.

There's also Zack Addy on Bones.

Dexter? Agatha Christie did it first.

I can think of four Christie stories where the murder in the story is committed by someone we consider the detective. It's not really the same as Dexter, because the reader has to figure out who the killer is, and once caught the character isn't heard from again. Two of them confess in letters read after their own death.

The original post is more like this than like Dexter. To have a series about a serial killer, you have to know going in what the person is capable of, and there has to be an element of sympathy. Dexter kills people who "deserve it." Hannibal Lechter helps Clarice Starling catch another killer.

The additional element in the OP is determining how involved the law enforcement person is. Are they actually committing crimes, or an accessory, or are they sabotaging the investigation?

yes, I think it can be done, it sometimes adds a nice twist

Alright, so, I live in Boston where the Irish/Italian/Russian mobs used to roam free, so maybe I'm biased, but in my city? This is absolutely a possibility. You just need to play it right in the plot.