Is Interactive Crime Fiction Coming?
Every crime novel is interactional. Readers know they are trying to solve the mystery before the solution is revealed. The puzzle contained in the plot is one of the reasons for the genre’s endless popularity. But some books make the puzzle more explicit. Some books find extra-strength ways to engage readers.
The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin’s 1978 Newbery Medal winning novel, follows sixteen residents of a Chicago apartment building as they seek the murderer of wealthy Sam Westing, just as his will instructs them to do. The person who solves the mystery will receive Westing’s fortune and control of his company. Here the mystery puzzle doubles: the reader tries to figure out who killed and how while the characters do the same.
The 1985 film Clue, an adaptation of the board game, appeared in theaters with one of three endings. This novel structural twist supposedly contributed to the film’s initial flop. The streaming and download versions of the film now contain a compilation of the three endings. Viewers can choose which one they prefer. Voila – a touch of viewer participation.
The precedents for interactional mysteries go way back. ‘Cain’s Jawbone” appeared in 1934 in The Torquemada Puzzle Book by Edward Powys Mathers, who used the pseudonym Torquemada. The first reader to solve the puzzle would receive a cash prize. This required ordering one hundred unsorted pages of a murder mystery manuscript that was packed with word games, puns, references and more. Then both victims and murderers had to be named. British comedian John Finnemore solved the puzzle in 2021. He said the only reason he found the solution was because he was stuck indoors during an extended Covid lockdown
.From 1947-50 The Five Mysteries Program, a syndicated thirty-minute radio show, invited audience members to solve five short crime plots dramatized by actors with organ music and sound effects. A panel of listeners and studio guests would suggest solutions. In a similar vein, Amazon offers five-minute mystery compilations in book form, so the format remains popular
.Who Killed the Robins Family?, by Thomas Chastain and Bill Adler, is a 1983 mystery contest novel. All eight members of the Robins family die during the story. The original hardback edition provided no solution to the murders. The reader who presented the best solution would receive a prize. Later editions included possible solutions.
Simon Brew’s 2021 Could You Survive Midsomer? places the reader in England’s most murder-plagued locale where you’re asked to solve a murder. This plot is interactional not only by having a reader-detective but also through a branching plot. The reader must make decisions at various turning points. The path chosen instructs the reader to jump to a page where that sequence of action proceeds. If you read through multiple times making different decisions, you will read different narratives.
This branching plot structure recalls gamebooks of 80s popularity. The most successful was the Choose Your Own Adventure series which sold over 250 million copies from 1979 to 1998. In these children’s novels, a protagonist must choose his or her next action (with help from the reader). Readers’ choices create a particular narrative sequence. The narratives offer from seven to forty-four endings to correspond to all possible paths.
This structure also resembles video games. Although not the highest earners, a handful of video games use the murder detection set-up. For example, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney follows a defense attorney protagonist who carries out investigations and goes to trial to gain acquittals for his clients. Heavy Rain is a 2010 mystery video game where players must solve clues to catch a serial killer before he kills a boy. And Immortality made a splash in 2022. The pretext is that a film star went missing and players can watch scenes from three of her movies to gather clues and solve the mystery of her disappearance.
Reader interaction is fueling huge subscription rates for some serial novels posted on sites like Wattpad and Royalroad. Maybe crime fiction writers should pay attention. Do you think it would work for serious mysteries and thrillers?