How to start a detective novel

I’ve spent my career writing detective stories of one sort or another. They’re fun to write, but they’re even more fun to read. As a freelance editor, I work on more police procedurals and PI novels than I do any other genre, and I see many of the same problems repeated in the first chapter. To help remedy that, I thought I’d write a blog post. Before I get into anything else, though, let me say this: the best way to learn how to write a good novel is to read good novels. If you’re an inexperienced writing trying to learn the craft, you need to read. If you’re not reading, you’re doing it wrong.

All that out of the way, let me get to the clickbait: there are only three acceptable opening chapters to a detective story.

It’s not as controversial as it seems. A writer can [1] open with the antagonist committing a crime, a writer can [2] start with the protagonist investigating that crime, or [3] he can do something else.

In this series of blog posts, we’re going to look at all three possibilities. I’ll include links to examples from bestselling novels, I’ll discuss the keys to making these types of openings work, and then I’ll discuss the pitfalls of these approaches and how you might apply them to your own work.

As time goes on and I actually write these posts, I’ll update this page with links.

1.     Open with the crime

2.     Open with the investigation

3.     Do something else