Motive V. Oppertunity

In this short story written by Agatha Chrisite, there is a sealed envelop containing a legal and signed will. However, when it is necessary for the will to be seen after being locked up in a safe for the past two months, the paper within the envelope, the will, is blank. Mr. Petherick, the charecter telling the story, recalls the scene in which the will was written and sealed, pointing out that only five people had previously handled the envelope. Two of the people whom had touched the will both had opportunity to tamper with it, however doing so would not benefit either because the will was in their favor. The other three people whom had handled it had motive but no opportunity. The story ends with Miss Marple, the short stories main character, stating that the pen used to write the will had disappearing ink. The maid whom had handed the writer of the will the pen did not agree with the dividing of the property and money, and therefore gave a pen containing disappearing ink so that those dividing would not happen.

Project Outline

For November, December, and the first half of January, I will be reading and analyzing a few mystery books. This will give me a good idea about the structure of how mysteries are written and presented.

During the second half of January, and all of February, my goal is to be outlining the plan for my short mystery story as well as watching some suspense/mystery/thriller movies.

For the last two months of my project March and April, I want to be using my outline and what I have learned from my analyzing to write my my short mystery story.

By May I want to have finished writing my story and have gained a deeper knowledge of the most interesting, in my strong opinion :), genre there is.

Agatha Christie

I have checked out the book Miss Maple: The Complete Short Stories written by Agatha Christie to see how murder mysteries were written in the early-mid 1990's. Agatha Christie is considered one of the best, earlier, mystery writers, and as our school librarian put it, "She created the structure for how murder mysteries are written." I will update you with my thoughts on the book.

Welcome To My Blog!

Hello Everyone!!

For my school project, I am going to research and "dive-deeper" into the topic about all things mystery (books, movie, history, etc.) This is going to be the place which you will (almost always) receive weekly updates about my progress on my year-long journey. I hope that along the way you are able to learn and explore with me.

Enjoy!! :]

Amara