Mystery Novel Conventions

This loads up conventions for mystery and detective fiction writing, with emphasis on fair play principles where readers get all the clues before the reveal. It covers clue placement timing (subtle vs. hidden in plain sight), red herring strategy, suspect management, and story structure beats like when to drop the inciting incident (first 10%) and the dark night moment (75-85%). The checklist approach is practical: it maps mystery conventions to novel-writer commands so you know what to validate during /analyze or how to structure reveals during /plan. Useful if you're writing whodunits and want to avoid the cardinal sin of pulling evidence out of nowhere in the final chapter.