The Stolen Tea Ceremony Vase
Set your mystery in Tokyo during the crowded Cherry Blossom Festival. A renowned but controversial ceramic vase is stolen during a prestigious tea ceremony. The detective, a visitor from another country, has to rely on non-verbal cues and cultural nuances to solve the crime.
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.
- Plant the key clue in the first scene, in plain sight.
- Limit it to one location and one night.
- Let the most helpful witness be the one with the most to hide.
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 Multicultural Mystery prompts
- The London Shop BurglariesDevelop a plot around a series of mysterious thefts in a multicultural area of London, where family-owned shops of different communities—Indian…
- The Jiu-Jitsu WitnessThe teen prodigy of a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu dojo in a multicultural urban neighborhood witnesses a crime that threatens to expose a local politician's…
- Stolen Art in HarlemImagine a story that takes place in a vibrant neighborhood in Harlem, New York, during the Harlem Renaissance. A priceless piece of African art is…
- The Letter and the Stolen ArtifactThe daughter of a Japanese diplomat and a Mexican artist finds an old, cryptic letter in her late grandmother's belongings, pointing to an unsolved…
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