Over the past year, I have noticed that most crime novels I have read follow almost the same structure. Presented below is that structure. Follow it, and you could become a best selling crime novelist.
1) Title
Crime novels should always have "The" as the first word of the title. If you have a title in mind for a crime novel and it doesn't start with "The", rethink the title. A crime novel title should also make reference to an animal or a woman (or better yet, an animal which is being used to REPRESENT a woman). Recommended, but not essential is to have a location in the title as well. This can be a place, like London, or just a setting such as a forest.
Example: The Woman In The Woods.
2) Set-up
Crime novels must always feature a protagonist who has recently gone through a TRAUMATIC LIFE EVENT (TLE). This can be anything from the breakup of a relationship, to the death of a child or a failure to catch a serial killer.
The usual way to achieve this is to have the protagonist be a grizzled old detective, who is somewhat down on his luck. It is absolutely imperative for the protagonist to harbour some sort of guilt or complex about the TLE. This will be important later.
Example: A grizzled old detective, who since his daughter drowned in an icy lake has been unable to concentrate properly at work. He has been drinking heavily, his wife no longer speaks to him and he is now deathly afraid of swimming, reminding him as it does of plunging desperately into the aforementioned icy lake to save his poor daughter.
3) The Case
There are two set-ups which can be used with regards to the case which the novel will focus on. Either the protagonist is a detective (private or otherwise) who is assigned the case OR the protagonist stumbles onto the case through work (for example, a man goes to work in an amusement arcade, and hears about a murder which happened there many years ago, which remains unsolved.)
The case should always be about a killer or serial killer. If you make it about a paedophile people will just find it weird. The case should always pertain to somewhere familiar to the author. It could be set in your home city, a cherished childhood holiday memory location (a beach front town for example) or a place of work.
The killer should always have some sort of DISTINGUISHING FEATURE, such as a scar or tattoo, identified by a victim or a witness.
Example: A grizzled old detective, who is somewhat down on his luck and struggling with guilt over the death of his daughter is assigned to solve a series of murders in the local nature park. The only clue is that the murderer has a large burn on his neck, identified by a woman who he attempted to kill, but who escaped.
4) Solving The Case
This is the most important part of any crime novel. The first thing which has to happen is for your protagonist to get to the location of the case. The first friendly person they meet when they get there is the murderer. This person is the GUY YOU WOULD NEVER SUSPECT (GYWNS). The GYWNS has a quirk. They should also come into contact with a DECIDEDLY SINISTER INDIVIDUAL (DSI) at this location. Casually toss in that the DSI is wearing something which is not appropriate for the weather, which could conceal the DISTINGUISHING FEATURE. This will make the reader suspicious, but they will also think themselves clever for noticing this detail. Because they could be a detective if they weren't an insurance salesman (or woman. Free your minds, yeah?).
Example: The grizzled old detective makes his way to the nature park. He is greated by a tall thin man, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. He shakes the hand of this man, and the two share a coffee, where the man tells the detective about the journal he keeps every day. The grizzled old detective looks out of the window, and he notices the man chopping up the trees is wearing a scarf, despite the hot weather.
Some time passes. The protagonist observes the DSI. The DSI is generally chippy and unpleasant. In contrast, the GYWNS is always on hand to say something reassuring like "oh don't mind that fellow". The DSI does many things which cause the protagonist to believe them to be the murderer. The reader thinks "ah, I knew it" and pats themselves on the back. Eventually, the protagonist confonts the DSI only to find... THEY DO NOT HAVE THE DISTINGUISHING FEATURE!
Example: The grizzled old detective tears the scarf from the throat of the park worker... and sees no scar!
Oh, you've got them intrigued now! At this point, the protagonist should either give up, or be taken off the case. They should confide in a significant other. This does not necessarily have to be a wife or husband. It could be a retarded kid, or a colleague.
Having confided in a significant other, the protagonist should now start thinking about the case. This is when they realise... it was the GYWNS! All the protagonist needs is one last little bit of evidence...
Example: The grizzled old detective realises... the tall, thin man must be the killer! He's been covering his scars with makeup! Now, if only he could get a hold of the journal the man writes in, he could solve the case!
Sadly, at the same time as the protagonist has figured out that GYWNS is the killer, GYWNS has taken the significant other hostage. GYWNS tells the protagonist to meet him at a location, or he will kill the significant other. This place should be related to the TLE.
Example: The tall, thin man calls the grizzled old detective. "Meet me at the frozen lake in the park," he says "Or I will kill this retarded kid."
The protagonist has to overcome their complex to save the significant other.
Alternate ending: The protagonist is taken hostage, and the significant other solves the case independently and rescues the protagonist at the last minute.
The killer (GYWNS) dies. They always die. That's very important. Tack on a happy ending.
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Ok, that's basically it. Feel free to add some names into this plot and publish The Woman In The Woods. Remember to put something in about a woman in the woods. Should be pretty easy, just make the victim female and in the woods.
Here is a list of the Top 100 Crime Novels Of All Time: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Top_100_Crime_Novels_of_All_Time.
Have a read of the plot synopses. Observe the titles. The theory works.
EDIT: This also works for Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone.
