Mystery – October 5

On this date in 1892, the townspeople of Coffeyville, Kansas, shot the Dalton Brothers to pieces as the gang tried to rob C.M. Condon & Company’s Bank and the First National Bank. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must figure out which one of a homogenous mob of vigilantes did the dirty deed.

Mystery – October 4

Talmage Powell — who wrote more than 500 short stories and novels as Robert Hart Davis, Robert Henry, Milton T. Lamb, Milton Land, Jack McCready, Anne Talmage, Dave Sands, and Ellery Queen — was born on this date in 1920. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist discovers that a person of interest answers to several different names.

Mystery – October 3

“The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter.” -Sam Spade, as portrayed by Humphrey Bogart, in The Maltese Falcon, which premiered on this date in 1941. Writing prompt: Write a scene of nothing but dialogue between your protagonist and the person who committed a crime against your protag.

Mystery – October 2

“A murderer is regarded by the conventional world as something almost monstrous, but a murderer to himself is only an ordinary man. It is only if the murderer is a good man that he can be regarded as monstrous.” -Graham Greene, born on this date in 1904. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist discovers a good person committed a bad crime for the right reason.

Mystery – October 1

“A decision is what a man makes when he can’t find anybody to serve on a committee.” -Fletcher Knebel, born this date in 1911. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist’s superior forces your protag to make a difficult choice that the boss is too scared to make.

Mystery – September 30

“There’s got to be something wrong with us. To do what we did.” -Truman Capote, born this date in 1924, in In Cold Blood. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist confronts a a wrongdoer who insists something internal and inexplicable excuses the wrong.

Mystery – September 29

“I just get on better when we’ve got a body — a body that died from unnatural causes. That’s all I ask. And we haven’t got a body.” -Inspector Morse in Last Seen Wearing by Colin Dexter, born on this date in 1930. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist must prove a crime has actually occurred.

Mystery – September 28

“It takes a lot to wound a man without illusions.” -Edith Pargeter, better known as the creator of Brother Cadfael’s chronicles, Ellis Peters, born this date in 1913. Writing prompt: Write a scene in which your protagonist discovers that s/he has an illusion s/he didn’t expect.