Letters from the Hometown Past
After receiving troubling, anonymous letters hinting at buried secrets in her hometown, a detective returns to uncover the truth. What starts as a personal journey quickly turns into a troubling investigation into decades-old cold cases that someone powerful does not want reopened.
Suggested length: A short story: 1,500 to 5,000 words, or flash fiction under 1,000
Start the clock
Pick a sprint, press start and keep going until it stops. Momentum beats polish on a first draft.
Make it yours
Three ways to take this prompt somewhere nobody else will.
- Let the most helpful witness be the one with the most to hide.
- Tell it from the point of view of a suspect who is lying about something else.
- Give the victim a secret the reader learns before the detective does.
Writing mystery books
Who did it? You get every clue and a fair shot at the answer.
A mystery opens with a puzzle, usually a death, and closes with the solution. In between, a detective (professional or not) gathers clues and suspects while the reader tries to get there first. A mystery looks backward, at a crime that has already happened.
What readers expect
- A crime or puzzle early on
- Clues, suspects and red herrings
- A detective the reader follows
- A solution that is surprising but fair
A tip before you start
Play fair. Every clue your detective uses should appear on the page first, ideally hidden in plain sight.
More Female Detective prompts
- The Attic Cold CaseIn a quiet coastal town, a woman detective returns to her childhood home to care for her aging father. She soon stumbles upon old police files hidden…
- The Women's Museum HeistWhen priceless works of art start disappearing from a new women-only museum, an acclaimed detective renowned for her art theft recoveries is brought…
- The Beach Town PostsSet in a small beach town where everyone knows everyone, a woman detective specializing in digital forensics finds her skills put to the test when a…
- The Novelist’s Robbery CluesA seasoned detective fighting to prove herself in a predominantly male police department is tasked with solving a high-profile robbery case. The…
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