Recaps in Mysteries

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Recently, I was looking over my customer reviews on Goodreads (I know…I rarely read my reviews there, although I always read them on Amazon) and one of them stood out to me.  A reader said that he especially appreciated the way that I handled recaps because he was able to catch back up when his Kindle malfunctioned and skipped ahead.

The Best Way to Recap:

I think the best way to handle recaps (especially in a cozy mystery) is to have them between the sidekick and the sleuth.  Otherwise, you end up in a situation where you have a lot of interior dialogue.  That makes your sleuth engage in too much thinking and not enough doing.  Even for the slower pace of a cozy mystery, that can slow the story’s pace down a little too much.

Although:

I find it’s also helpful for the sleuth to think private editorial comments  while interviewing suspects.  Especially if something a suspect says directly contradicts something that another suspect said. I keep it very brief and keep things moving in the interview. It’s the sleuth registering contradictions (which helps the reader notice them, too). 

How Often to Recap:

I don’t have my sleuth and sidekick together questioning every suspect because some of the interviews are impromptu.  Maybe the sleuth and a suspect ran into each other at the grocery store or at the park while walking their dogs. It makes it very natural for the sleuth to catch up his or her sidekick soon after.

I also recap at regular intervals whenever they sleuth and sidekick are just hanging out together, trying to relax from the stress of the case.  I feel as though it’s normal for them to hash the case out between the two of them.  I’ll frequently have the sidekick stuck on a particular suspect while the sleuth favors a different person.  Neither one will usually be the right killer, or, if they are the right one, it will be for a different reason, etc.

Always Being Careful Not To:

Draw too much attention to clues. And don’t beat the red herrings to death.

Don’t be too repetitive with the recaps.  Briefly state a reminder of old points and spend longer fleshing out newer bits of information.

As a Nice Bonus:

Recaps serve a great purpose for the writer, too…keeping it all straight in the writer’s mind.  Mysteries can be convoluted.

As a reader, do you like recaps? How do you handle them, as a writer?

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