IWSG - Free Plot Point!

 

    Okay, dumb post title, but accurate.  Because I came up with a cool idea for one small aspect of a murder mystery.

    Only I don't write murder mysteries, and have zero interest in trying my hand at one (I don't even like reading/watching them!), so I thought I'd just share this small plot point.

    So, it's basically the "why" of a murder, without the who or the how.  Because whoever actually did it has zero connections to the victim--or rather, the victim is probably someone who seems like no one would ever want to kill them.  (Or maybe they seem like the ideal murder victim, hated by tons of people, but everyone with a motive also has an alibi.)

    What's going on is that there's this talk show where the host often gives out gifts to one or more members of the audience.  Things like new cars.  And some criminal organization (could be the mob, could be a spy ring, or anything else you can think of) uses those new cars as mules to get contraband from someone who's infiltrated the television studio to a courier that will take the item, whatever it is, to whoever it's supposed to get it in the end.  Only there was a mishap at the studio, and a car that was supposed to go to someone working for the organization went to a regular audience member, and when someone went to retrieve the item inside the car, things went wrong, and the audience member (or a member of their family? or a neighbor? or an employee?) ended up dead.

    All of this would be super-hard for a detective to figure out with just the murder victim, since the killer would likely have left very few clues, so it would make a good twist for a murder mystery, I'd think.  *shrug*  Just thought I'd put it out here in case anyone can make use of it.

    (I apologize if it's already been done.  As I said, I don't care for the genre, and therefore have little experience with it.)

    I know this isn't really related to insecurity as a writer, but...I mean, I'm sort of in a permanent state of "meh, I suck, but I enjoy writing anyway," so there really isn't any insecurity, 'cause I am actually quite secure, it's just a case of having some insecurity about if it's better to put my awful stuff out there or to just write for myself, which is not really something easy to deal with, and not something anyone else can help with, either.

    But on the other hand, it's supportive towards any mystery writers in the group who happen to see it and could use the idea, right?