Writing a Mystery: Crafting a Series

In the first part of this blog series, Writing a Mystery: Introducing Jade Riley, I introduced the protagonist for The Godfather of Dance. A journalist by trade, Jade hails from Melbourne and has a past tinged with the tragedy of her best friend’s death. Today, I share how I am developing the Jade Riley Mystery Series, and how I envision future books. Of course, this will almost certainly change along the way due to factors beyond my control or my evolving creative preferences.

As with most mystery series, each book works as a stand-alone – i.e. the mystery is resolved – but there is an ongoing thread about Jade’s life. This makes continuity between the books extremely important.

When I first drafted this series, I wrote a mystery set in each of the cities where I’ve lived in this order:

• Following Betsy Sharpe – the Middle East
• Lost in Lagos – Lagos, Nigeria
• The Godfather of Dance – Houston, USA
• A Killer Among Friends – Melbourne, Australia

Jade, originally called Tara Wells, was in her late thirties, married with two children. The first two books didn’t get picked up right away, so before I pitched The Godfather of Dance, I rewrote it as the first in the series. I aged Jade down and made her single. This worked beautifully because her family wasn’t required in the story, so I could remove redundant characters. It also invited a romance thread. I signed my publishing deal with Wings ePress for this novel.

Moving to Book 2, one option was to rewrite another of the original books with a younger Jade. This worked for A Killer Among Friends, so I tackled another major rewrite. The feature photo for this article is of Southbank, Melbourne, a view that Jade admires in this book. The story is now set eighteen months after the end of The Godfather of Dance. When Jade’s friend Nick is murdered, she turns to the rest of her circle for answers, only to uncover a web of lies. I am hoping to release it on December 1, 2024. Stay tuned for updates.

I am now working on Book 3. The obvious plan was to rewrite Following Betsy Sharpe or Lost in Lagos but Jade’s life partner is critical to the plot in one, and her children are critical to the other, so neither lent themselves to a young Jade as the protagonist. Another option was to have a ten-year time jump, but I was reluctant to do this so early in the series. Instead, I’ve chosen to write a new book to bridge the gap. This will give me a trilogy when she’s in her late twenties, then I’ll do the time jump and have a second trilogy when she’s late thirties/early forties. This new book, working title, The Man in the Dam, is set in Mansfield.

So here’s the plan:

• Book 1, The Godfather of Dance – Houston, USA
• Book 2, A Killer Among Friends – Melbourne, Australia
• Book 3, The Man in the Dam – Mansfield, Australia

Time jump, then:

• Book 4, Title TBC – the Middle East
• Book 5, Title TBC – Lagos, Nigeria
• Book 6, Title TBC – Location TBC, current options are Fiji or Antarctica

It will be fun to see how this plays out over the next few years.

The beauty of writing a series is each book offers the opportunity to develop Jade’s character and divulge more about who she is. In The Godfather of Dance, she’s young, ambitious, and cautious about getting close to people. She’s moved to Houston in part to run away from the aftermath of her best friend’s suicide. Her character growth throughout the book is to recognize the need to return home and face the past.

In A Killer Among Friends, while solving the murder of one of her friends, Jade uncovers a raft of lies from people she loves and trusts. Her journey is about learning who she can trust. We’ll see how Jade evolves in Book 3 and beyond.

A strong sense of place is another distinctive feature of each book. In my writing process, besides the protagonist being Jade, it’s the first decision I make. I love setting each mystery somewhere different as it keeps things fresh and gives each story a unique mood. It also influences the themes I explore, which often emerge and develop as the book progresses. In some cases, the mystery itself is driven by the setting.

The central plot for each book revolves around the mystery, which needs to have a complex clue trail and enough action to keep the pace moving. Devising the mystery is one of my favorite parts of the novel-writing process. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle with thousands of pieces that need to slot together. (I also love jigsaw puzzles and Sudoku.) I’ll write more about this in a future blog.

In the next Writing a Mystery blog, I’m going to discuss how I’ve used song titles as chapter headings. If you have any other questions you’d like me to address, please let me know in the comments and I’ll try to address them in future blogs.

Next time: Writing a Mystery: Chapter Titles