Marie/Elise: An Introduction

It's been a long time coming, and I'm finally getting around to introducing my murder mystery novel-in-progress, Marie/Elise! I've actually spoken about this a little bit before over on my Tumblr blog, but that was a long time ago and I'd put it away on hold, so I don't think there's anyone around that remembers all of that! 😂 

I wanted to write a post that goes into the evolution of the story, but I figured that - you know - actually introducing it might be the way to go for now. Alright, so, without further ado, here's an introduction to my WIP, Marie/Elise!

This was a very old WIP intro graphic I made back when I was introducing this WIP the first time around on Tumblr. A lot has changed since then. Including what I want the design to look like. I'll make a new one soon!

The story follows Adrian White after he moves to the affluent and gated town of Blackwood. All he wants is a fresh start - to leave his turbulent past behind him - but as soon as he arrives, he finds himself implicated in the murder of one of the daughters of an extremely powerful family. 

When he realizes he's one of the main suspects - owing mainly to his past and his less than solid alibi - he makes it his goal to find out as much as he can about the deceased, and begins his own investigation alongside her sister and childhood friend.

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With twists and turns aplenty, this has been a super fun murder mystery to write. I'm wondering who readers will think is the murderer, because at some point, each character comes under suspicion, and it's a lot of fun to work with that and push the reader in lots of different directions before finally revealing who the real murderer is. 

Here's a little excerpt from the current manuscript:

The silence is heavy, but neither of us wants to be the first to speak. It’s official: we’re both wading through some pretty murky water. Here we are, two troubled young people, sitting in a diner in the middle of nowhere. I see it as though looking through the lens of a movie camera. But it’s a decidedly crappy movie.

There’s me, the guy in the hoodie and jacket, a cap pulled low over my face like that’s not suspicious at all. The guy suspected of murdering some girl I didn’t even know. In this movie, I’m the horrible actor that can’t seem to get his character right, can’t seem to make the act believable.

And there’s Helena, dressed in a newly acquired soft wool sweater and jeans that she would never deign to buy if she had alternatives. The girl whose father might just be some twisted lady’s next murder victim. She’s the beautiful actress that pulls the movie up through sheer presence, making up for all of my downfalls. The only reason anyone would watch this movie.

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As I've mentioned before, this story has evolved many, many times. Thankfully, the old versions have very different plots to the current version, so I feel quite comfortable sharing that evolution with you. One of the great things about how the story has changed is that there are more clues to go on - in past versions, it was more an exploration of the characters and less to do with the mystery itself, until a character notices a clue by chance and they're able to match it to the real killer. I've definitely improved that now, with quite a lot of different clues, alibis, accounts, and suspects. 

I'll get into more detail about how it has evolved on a separate post. For now, I wanted to give you an idea of what the story is about and what the main premise is. I hope that has intrigued, and you can expect more posts in future about not only its evolution, but also each character in the story! In the meantime, I'll be writing for it, so I'll have more excerpts to share as well. 

Keep an eye out for that!