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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/2736
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/2736
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

In a murder mystery, most of the story is generally focused on figuring out who the murderer is; in "Fair-Play" mysteries, it's assumed the murderer is a significant character in the book, and the fun is in figuring out which of them it is.

This being the case, readers familiar with the format generally try to second-guess the investigation. That is, not only do they try to solve the case along with the sleuth and the unfolding information within the story (which is fine, that's something I want); **their guesses are often based upon their knowledge of the structure and conventions of mystery stories** - along the lines of "Mr. X can't be the murderer, because he's the first guy the detective suspects," or "It's got to be Little Miss Innocuous, because she's being portrayed as being innocent and trustworthy - so she's the one the author doesn't want us to suspect!".

Now, plenty of mysteries can withstand this sort of meta-interrogation, and some intentionally subvert these conventions. But I'm interested in avoiding this reaction altogether, or at least minimizing it - I want my readers' wits engaged in a duel with _the mystery,_ not with genre-savvy one-upmanship.

How can this problem be addressed - how can I maintain suspense and suspicion towards a wide range of suspects, and encourage the reader not to second-guess the story?

(Note that I'm not looking for suggestions which will surprise the reader _despite_ his genre-savvy. I'm looking for suggestions which will keep him from relying overwhelmingly on genre-savvy to begin with.)

Original score: 11