Novelist, Playwright

Choose your weapon

In Lying in Judgment, my first novel, the murderer uses a tire iron to end the victim’s life. In The Mountain Man’s Dog, the would-be murderers use arson and poison. In The Mountain Man’s Bride, the killer uses a gun.

Why these weapons? Why did none of them use a knife, for example?

The choice of weapon boils down to three factors:

  • Who the murderer is;
  • Who the victim is, and their relationship to the murderer;
  • The circumstances of the murder, including the actions that triggered the violent response.

The character of the murderer is most important. The weapon used tells us a great deal about the character. Guns are powerful, and usually require direct confrontation with the victim, particularly if the killer is using a handgun. Despite what you see on TV, handguns are terribly inaccurate at any sort of distance. Handgun murders tend to be emotional, often spontaneous, and very personal.

By contrast, rifles are accurate over longer distances, but are terribly awkward up close. Killers who don’t confront their victims directly are more likely to choose rifles. It’s a cold, impersonal kill. Men, it is said, use rifles. Men, more often than women, use handguns.

For that matter, for the most part, men commit murder. Women are far less likely to kill using just about any weapon. If they do, it’s often said, they’ll choose poison. Why? Poisons enable the killer to avoid confrontation. They allow the killer to be sneaky, patient, even absent. They usually require premeditation. Often the killer isn’t even present at the time of death. This less-aggressive approach is more strongly associated with women than men.

Knives? Almost always opportunistic. On TV, you’ll see women grab sharp knives from a drawer to fend off an attacker. In reality, this is a bad option. To be effective, knives require strength, speed, and agility. Most men can easily overpower most women before she’d be able to do what’s needed:  split his ribs, slash a vein, take out an eyeball, skewer his groin. When killers use knives, they combine it with strength to first overpower and subdue the victim. In fact, murder by knife points straight to a character with a hunger for power.

Blunt instruments are an emergency-only option for a would-be killer. They’re only effective if the assailant can land either repeated blows, or one really good one. They’re almost always the weapon used when the killer is stuck with no other options, and would otherwise be overpowered by the victim. When used in self-defense, the assailant typically stops once the victim is subdued. I break this rule in Lying in Judgment due to the circumstances – and it creates a great red herring for the prosecution, leading them to accuse the wrong man with the crime.

The last resort murder weapon is the killer’s bare hands. This is the most personal and confrontational weapon of all, and the one requiring the greatest physical or situational advantage of assailant over victim. The most common form of hand-to-hand murder combat, strangulation, requires the killer to literally hold his victim while they die – literally, to choke the life right out of them. Again, this almost always points to a male perpetrator, and one with a strong motive to kill – strong enough to risk leaving fingerprints and DNA, and to risk getting close enough to give the victim a chance to fight back.

When writing a murder mystery, then, consider the type of characters you are creating for both the murderer and the victim – and any other suspects you wish your investigator to chase. Then consider the circumstance of the crime. Often, when all this is done, the murder weapon presents itself.

 

 

Gary Corbin • April 21, 2016


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