Can you predict the future?

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As a reader of mysteries, are you able to predict the outcome of the book? Do you know "whodunit" by the time you're halfway through?

I just finished a cozy by an author I've never read. There were so many obvious red herrings thrown in, by the time I finished I almost didn't care who did it. I couldn't understand the motivation of the main character, who has no connection whatsoever to the wrongly accursed murderer. She decides the person didn't commit the crime based on her "expertise" in reading people's eyes. What was somewhat amusing is the protagonist wasn't able to read her own boyfriend to know he was cheating on her, but was able to determine if a stranger was telling the truth or not.

If I can predict the end too easily then I find it difficult to finish the book. On the opposite side are those storylines which lead you down one path, only to completely reverse direction, without sufficient foundation, at the end. As mystery readers part of our goal is to predict the end, but I want the clues to be just hard enough that I have a suspect without being sure.

It is a very fine line. How to dangle clues just out of reach of the reader, without making it too obvious. It brings to my mind a burlesque performance, where the audience is teased by the dancer without actually seeing anything. Isn't the best part the seduction of the dance that is exciting and captures your interest? If you knew the end would you keep reading?

Happy trails,

Leslie


 

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