Have Your Say

Miscellaneous

Please use this area for any Topics you feel don't fit in with other areas of the forum.

Fave Murder Method

TheButlerDidIT 10 Jan 10 at 7:31 p.m. GMT

Mine strangulation or maybe good old fashion poisons. Whats your fave and why.If your fave is poisoning can you name the poison? The reason this topic sounds random becaue I am using the answers given for research for my next book. Thanks

Login or register to add posts and reply

29 replies

Reverse order

ampman 11 Jan 10 at 2:22 p.m. GMT

My favourite is stabbing. I know it takes a bit of effort but it must be very satisfying.Also you can creep up behind them and take them by surprise. There is a lot to be said for poison but you have to get hold of some first and then find a way of getting the victim to take it. You also have to make sure that they are cremated because exhumations can be very revealing.

I don't think that I would make a good murderer because I would not be able to resist !bragging to someone about how clever I had been

Puffinjill 11 Jan 10 at 3:14 p.m. GMT

Ampman, I'm horrified at this newly-revealed bloodthirsty side to your nature!!! Bless you, your post did make me giggle!!

Rubyy321 11 Jan 10 at 10:53 p.m. GMT

@ Ampman - i agree that i would not make a good murderess because i too would have to brag how clever i had been.

I suppose muder "style" would be something clever like in the book "Crooked house" or "And then there were none" but ill decide on specifically what when i need to use it!  Just joking - dont take that seriously :)

ampman 12 Jan 10 at 7:57 a.m. GMT

I surprised myself when I re read my post today. I probably enjoy murder books because in real life I wouldn't say boo to a goose so I have a sneaking regard for  fictional murderers who get their revenge.

I never read murder novels set in the present day because they are too near reality. I like a murder mystery to be a puzzle not the real thing. No consequences or upset relatives. Wonder what AC would have made of the present day ritual of the televised plea by the victim's relations for help in solving the crime? Would she have used it in a novel ? One ex policeman told me that they encourage these press conferences to observe the behaviour of the nearest and dearest because 9 times out of 10 they did it. Apparently there is an unofficial ratio between the more tears shed and the likelyhood of the tear shedder to be the murderer.

Nofret 12 Jan 10 at 4:13 p.m. GMT

I'm not very keen on murder by strangulation in a whodunnit. Because the murderer would need a man-sized pair of hands to accomplish this, it immediately cuts the number of suspects by half!

With poison it's more tricky to pin down a culprit - a doctored capsule could be added to the victim's cod liver oil with the result that the perpetrator could be on a different continent by the time the fatal dose is taken. Also, are there really so many poisons which allow the victim just sufficient time to gasp out a cryptic clue before expiring?

Shooting? Too American! Stabbing? Yuk, all that blood!

No, the most successful murder method was the one employed by the guilty party in Curtain. Extremely ingenious, and the crime could never be brought home to its instigator. But does anyone think that in practice it would be possible to commit even one crime in this manner, let alone a series of killings?

go_leafs_nation 12 Jan 10 at 5:13 p.m. GMT

Strangulation is nice and jolly. Not so much blood, and you don't need the hands. Just fly into a rage and use the victim's tie. Poisoning is tricky, but AC seemed to keep managing it nicely. I love impossible scenarios, but there are only so many that you can have with a poison!

But there's something particularly chilling about a poisoner. It isn't like stabbing, strangulation, a blow to the head, or gunshots. It takes planning. You can't say that, in a rage, Mrs. Skiffington put arsenic into the bottle of brandy and waited for a week (by which time she should've calmed down) until Lord Boko drank the thing.

But if you really want a reader to feel outraged and WANT the murderer to be caught, there are few better things than an axe murder.

ampman 13 Jan 10 at 7:32 a.m. GMT

Killing someone with an axe is so messy and think of the energy it would require. The best way to get away with murder is to make it look like an accicdent. Go for a walk  with them on a cliff top and push them off etc. I suppose it doesn't matter what method you use as long as the body is never found.

go_leafs_nation 13 Jan 10 at 11:11 a.m. GMT

Disposing of a body is the hardest part, but I never said an axe murder was efficient. It's simply a good way to shock the reader into wanting the murderer caught (hanged and quartered and so on).

TheButlerDidIT 17 Jan 10 at 5:40 p.m. GMT

Imagine a body being put through a woodchipper (not a nice thought. Has anyone ever tried writing your own stuff? I have several times but only twice succesfuly! I am now however trying to create a character I could continue in a series of novels.

HeiseiHolmes 25 Jan 10 at 5:51 p.m. GMT

A blackjack full of coins. Burn the socks and spend the money, no evidence left for you...

Also you can use tricks to make a locked room for your murder. A chain lock can be cut through with a saw then tied into place with a piece of thread. It looks locked and in the heat of the moment the killer can break down the door "discovering" the body, breaking the string and it looks like their force broke the chain.

HeiseiHolmes 25 Jan 10 at 5:58 p.m. GMT

Oh! I thought of a stage murder trick, too. Using a match, stage lights, and rope, but I don't want to give it away, I intend to use this.

ampman 28 Jan 10 at 7:39 a.m. GMT

I read a story about a woman who killed her husband by hitting him over the head with a frozen leg of lamb and when the police arrived there was the grieving widow who had apparently just come home to find that hubby had been killed while preparing dinner and a lovely smell of roast lamb. However with the price of lamb these days I shan't be using that method. A pound of frozen mince wouldn't be the same.

HeiseiHolmes 28 Jan 10 at 3:54 p.m. GMT

"Lamb to the Slaughter" by Roald Dahl? We do that at school in English.

What if you sharpen the wire in a woman's bra and stab someone with it? It can get through metal detectors, and nobody will look for it... But since I'm a guy, that won't work for me.

Puffinjill 29 Jan 10 at 7:36 a.m. GMT

Do you know, ampman, I'm beginning to fear for your husband.....

As a vegetarian, I have no handy leg of lamb around the house so my partner is quite safe....for now.......

HeiseiHolmes 29 Jan 10 at 3:23 p.m. GMT

What about a tofurkey?  Do those even exist? Although I doubt the police would eat it as they did in the story. I'd eat your tofurkey for you- tofu rocks.

ampman 31 Jan 10 at 2:57 p.m. GMT

Puffinjill. You won't be surprised to hear that I am on my third husband.

Puffinjill 01 Feb 10 at 7:31 a.m. GMT

Blimey! I'm at a loss for words...... I shall remember to keep on the right side of you, ampman.

ampman 01 Feb 10 at 2:17 p.m. GMT

They didn't die they just had to go.

Puffinjill 01 Feb 10 at 3:11 p.m. GMT

Er...OK....I won't ask any questions!! Do you undertake contracts? You se, my other half and myself haven't been seeing eye to eye recently.....

HeiseiHolmes 01 Feb 10 at 4:29 p.m. GMT

Here's a good one! You're on a jet coaster, and you put an empty backpack between you and the back of the seat. You have also a handbag and piano wire attatched to a hook. When the ride starts, squeeze down on the backpack. There's now a space between you and the bar so you can get out, and in a dark tunnel, put a loop of the wire around your victim. Keeping your legs hooked to the safety bar, attatch the hook to the rails of the track, then get back in your seat. This chops the head off your victim... heh heh heh...