The Beach Town Posts
Set 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 series of break-ins escalate to a kidnapping. The twist: the only clues are cryptic posts from the town's social media group.
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.
- Give the victim a secret the reader learns before the detective does.
- Start with the confession, and make the story about why it's false.
- Make the detective wrong at the midpoint, for a good reason.
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 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…
- The Missing HeiressSet in the 1920s, a sharp-witted woman running a private investigation firm takes on a case that society’s elite deem too scandalous to touch. She…
- The Unsent Love LetterA cold case heats up in a small coastal town when a novice female detective stumbles across an old, unsent love letter that hints at the motive for a…
- The Neighborhood BurglaryAssigned to a routine surveillance job in a plush neighborhood, a seasoned woman detective unexpectedly witnesses a minor but strange burglary. Her…
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