Tuesday, January 12, 2016

some modern methods of murder for mystery writers

It's a little hard to read but here's a recap: poisoned by artisanal brioche, run over by self-driving car, organic, locally sourced cyanide, exploding e-cigarette, strangled with smart-phone charger cable, bludgeoned with sustainable firewood, scorpion hidden in Uggs, pushed off cliff while Instagramming. While my books are set in Paris in the 1990's I can definitely adapt several of these methods in an organic sustainable way. It reminds me of MacGuyver who was way ahead of all this using simple and at hand items for saving the world. MacGuyver would prevent an explosion etc by manipulating household items, remember? Even in France these items are easily obtainable at the quincaillerie, the hardware store or at the supermarket Franprix. Ingenious, sustainable and organic. Crooks, the smart and successful crooks, I was told by a French flic, keep it simple.
Here's two plots from the first season of MacGuyver: -MacGyver shorts out a missile timer with a bent paper clip causing the timer to stop, thus keeping the missile from detonating.
-MacGyver plugs a sulfuric acid leak with chocolate. He states that chocolate contains sucrose and glucose. The acid reacts with the sugars to form elemental carbon and a thick gummy residue (proved to be correct on Mythbusters). I can definitely do this with one of Patrick Roger's chocolate pencils, or his chocolate gorilla - he sculpts with chocolate.
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How about you? Cara - Tuesday

7 comments:

  1. Recently a neighbor gal helped me fix a broken windshield wiper and confessed to being known for "McGuyvering" things. Shame on me, I had no idea what that meant. Aimee should go for the wacky and weird--the sustainable crime solving methods and means of murder certainly are fun.

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  2. What fun, Cara! Now we have to make sure Sujata understands the pop culture reference. And maybe some of our readers also need a primer on MacGyver. Here is a place to start:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOEe1uzurKo

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  3. Nice to have a 'MacGuyvering' neighbor - handy, Sujata! I remember in an Audrey Hepburn film, Wait Until Dark, where she's blind, an attacker gets into her house, but she's outwitting him since she knows the layout by feel and has shut down the electricity. He's in the dark like her. She almost escapes until the resourceful villain opens the refrigerator door and the light goes on. That bit fascinated me, Cara

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  4. Even better:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfCa3wn37mU&list=PLobYvT80WMXbKzpnrofu2Tcydn3DM_IhS
    This one explains everything.

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  5. A good murder weapon is a laptop battery. Nice and dense and solid. Bludgeon the victim, wipe it off, back in the laptop and walk away. Now I have to modify that to use a cell phone battery. Hmm...

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  6. Frankly, I'm most tantalized by the chocolate solution. I wonder if I could apply it to the next time I have "stomach acid"--could call a McGodiva approach.

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  7. One could just hit someone over the head with an I-pad or else short-circuit the charger.

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