Any Mystery/Who-done-it Winners?

I guess not. It's hard to give your detective a choice at the end since she has to solve a crime. Also difficult for the detective to experience major growth for the same reason. An emotional connection to the MC and her having something significant on the line can be challenging as well. All these are important factors in a winning story. You could set the killer on the detective but that takes a whole lot of words. I think.

Just peeked again at In Apprehension How Like A God (V. 27 Golden Pen Winner). First paragraph - mentions of bodies. MC is a detective. Penultimate paragraph, the MC resigns and goes on a "sleeper mission to the stars".

You and I both wrote detective stories that take place on a ship, we both got silvers. I think both our stories are pretty good, but in my skipping of In Apprehension, I'm remembering how huge this story is. It's longer, yes, but there's AI and not AI, a missing or dead daughter, a space needle, an academy, more AI, orbs... Although I did have a sentient tree...

So it can be done, but I'm thinking it has to be a part of a story, and not the story itself?

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Reuben is password locked out of the forum. He e-mailed and asked me to post this:

Of the volumes I've read, the first story of of vol. 33 is a mystery of a model couple on the moon; the wife wakes up one morning and finds her husband dead. Soon she's blamed for the murder and enlists the help of her former boyfriend (a cop turned novelist).

Also, it depends on what you call a mystery. Switch, in vol. 31 is sort of a mystery, a cop is faced with a crime that makes no sense and tries to find the perpetrator. I don't remember about the former, but the latter is definitely a character story as well.

I'll check out the Vol 33 story tonight!

Moonlight One by Stephen Lawson is a murder mystery and one of my favorite winners.

Oh, I see someone beat me to it!

Reuben is password locked out of the forum. He e-mailed and asked me to post this:

That happened to me a while back. I sent a message to the forum moderators and Joni responded. After that Wulf and Martin Shoemaker gave me a password that got me back in and I'm still here.

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Reuben is password locked out of the forum. He e-mailed and asked me to post this:

Of the volumes I've read, the first story of of vol. 33 is a mystery of a model couple on the moon; the wife wakes up one morning and finds her husband dead. Soon she's blamed for the murder and enlists the help of her former boyfriend (a cop turned novelist).

Also, it depends on what you call a mystery. Switch, in vol. 31 is sort of a mystery, a cop is faced with a crime that makes no sense and tries to find the perpetrator. I don't remember about the former, but the latter is definitely a character story as well.

I'll check out the Vol 33 story tonight!

I have Vol 33 but I think I skipped over that story. I'll go check it out.

Oh. It's good. (Duh. It won.). It definitely focuses more on the MCs than does mine. Their personal story is hung around the crime as opposed to the story being mainly about the crime and its resolution.

Oh. It's good. (Duh. It won.). It definitely focuses more on the MCs than does mine. Their personal story is hung around the crime as opposed to the story being mainly about the crime and its resolution.

Exactly. In both our stories, at least that I could detect, the plot drove it and the characters went along for the ride. Again, our stories are pretty good and could get picked up, but didn't win here...

I've been waiting to hear replies to this post. Would be nice to know.
My Q4 is a mystery.

Oh. It's good. (Duh. It won.). It definitely focuses more on the MCs than does mine. Their personal story is hung around the crime as opposed to the story being mainly about the crime and its resolution.

Exactly. In both our stories, at least that I could detect, the plot drove it and the characters went along for the ride. Again, our stories are pretty good and could get picked up, but didn't win here...

Yup. Agreed.

I've been waiting to hear replies to this post. Would be nice to know.
My Q4 is a mystery.

Read the Moon story and I think you will see it is, as Dustin said, character-driven as opposed to the crime and its resolution dominating.

I've been waiting to hear replies to this post. Would be nice to know.
My Q4 is a mystery.

If it's under 10k I'll review it if you want. I seem to be embroiled in mysteries at the moment.