Period Mystery Idea
Dec. 6th, 2018 08:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alias_sqbrThis occurred to me in a dream I had last night (which was mostly pretty incoherent because my subconscious loves STARTING mystery plots but has no idea how to finish them)
So! The story starts out seeming like a sort of Christie/Sayers pastiche. It's set in the 1930s or whatever, and has a Brilliant Detective who tries to be unassuming but has a remarkable ability to ferret out secrets and understand people's motivations. He is also very progressive for the time, expressing exactly the sort of attitudes a modern reader would expect/like from a hero.
BUT. This is all because he is a time traveller, who is relying on knowledge and attitudes he learned in the future (probably around our modern day). While he's progressive for the thirties he's got more subtle modern blindspots and can be a bit obliviously smug about what are more like cultural differences. And as his actions trying to solve the mystery affect the timeline, his knowledge becomes less and less useful, and he finds it increasingly difficult to solve the mystery/deal with the bad guy.
It's a bit like To Say Nothing Of The Dog from the point of view of one of the Victorian characters, I guess.
In my dream he also noticed anachronisms that would only stand out if you recognised them from the future, and realises he's not the only time traveller.
Another option is that he be a modern reader who never quite finished the novel but I personally like time travel :)
I'm not sure what would happen after that?? I guess he solves it with the help of the plucky female protagonist or something? He could also ACTUALLY be the villain but I like the idea of him being sincere.
This would be a lot easier to write for someone with like...a history degree or something, and the ability to construct mystery plots. So I am throwing it out into the world.
So! The story starts out seeming like a sort of Christie/Sayers pastiche. It's set in the 1930s or whatever, and has a Brilliant Detective who tries to be unassuming but has a remarkable ability to ferret out secrets and understand people's motivations. He is also very progressive for the time, expressing exactly the sort of attitudes a modern reader would expect/like from a hero.
BUT. This is all because he is a time traveller, who is relying on knowledge and attitudes he learned in the future (probably around our modern day). While he's progressive for the thirties he's got more subtle modern blindspots and can be a bit obliviously smug about what are more like cultural differences. And as his actions trying to solve the mystery affect the timeline, his knowledge becomes less and less useful, and he finds it increasingly difficult to solve the mystery/deal with the bad guy.
It's a bit like To Say Nothing Of The Dog from the point of view of one of the Victorian characters, I guess.
In my dream he also noticed anachronisms that would only stand out if you recognised them from the future, and realises he's not the only time traveller.
Another option is that he be a modern reader who never quite finished the novel but I personally like time travel :)
I'm not sure what would happen after that?? I guess he solves it with the help of the plucky female protagonist or something? He could also ACTUALLY be the villain but I like the idea of him being sincere.
This would be a lot easier to write for someone with like...a history degree or something, and the ability to construct mystery plots. So I am throwing it out into the world.
