Reading task two: What makes a good mystery story

Explain what makes a good mystery story based on your understanding of:

‘The Red Room’ by H.G. Wells

‘Adventure of the Speckled Band’ by Arthur Conan Doyle

And ‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens

To me, the setting of a mystery story is very important. It sets the scene, and can enhance a story a lot. A good setting for a mystery story can be set anywhere, but they are normally somewhere that sound either, frightening, bleak, creepy, haunted, or old. I found that all three stories had good settings. The Signalman was set by a lonely railway, with a big dark tunnel. Here is an extract describing the story. ‘His post was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw.’ The place is described to be extremely bleak and isolated. The Red Room is set in an ancient castle, looked after by three very queer, and very old custodians. ‘The long, draughty subterranean passage was chilly and dusty, and my candle flared and made the shadows cower and quiver.’ The Adventure of the Speckled Band was set mainly in an old manor, called Stoke Moran. ‘The boards round and the panelling of the walls were of brown, worm-eaten oak, so old and discoloured that it may have dated from the original building of the house.’

A good plot is also very important in mystery stories. A good mystery plot should keep you guessing, and doesn’t have an obvious ending, or answer to the mystery. It should keep you hanging, stumped, and waiting to read what comes next. You should not get bored. Building up tension, and suspense is very important as well. Throughout the story you should be wondering what's going to be happen, and the story needs to get its readers interested right from the start. There was suspense in The Signalman, and The Red Room. I found there was not much suspense at all in Adventure of the Speckled Band. There was also not much tension in the story, apart from a little at the end. The Red Room and The Signalman had quite a bit of tension throughout the story.

Good characters are essential to a good story. Dynamic, round, or protagonist characters are a lot more interesting to read about than flat, static, or protagonist characters. If the main characters is relatable to yourself, or if you feel for them, it can get the reader more involved in the story. Characters also need to be believable. The characters in the three short stories were all different, but were all enjoyable and added interest to the story, especially the signalman from The Signalman story. He was very quiet, dutiful and fearful, solitude man. The narrator in the story appeared to be very curious and practical minded. The main character in The Red Room was quite sure about himself, and was also practical minded. At the end he was extremely nervous and tense. In The Adventure of the Speckled Band the main character was Sherlock Holmes, who remained calm throughout the story, even when someone came in and threatened him. He was practical minded, and was VERY intelligent.

In all three stories, old english was used. I find that is more effective than writing normally in mystery stories, even though I normally dislike reading it. All writers were very descriptive, and set the scene right from the start, except from The Signalman. The stories all had a range of sentence starters, apart from The Red Room. They were all long or medium. There was hardly any short sentences, but there were lots of different sentence starters.

Overall, I believe that there are many things that make a good mystery story. You need an appropriate setting, good characters, a decent plot, suspense, tension, and good language and description.