1. Thesis Statement: The murder mystery genre is a genre that is overly dramatic as compared to real life murders in order to help the readers feel like they are the detective; it is a genre that people go to when they’re looking for a thrill and a way for them to use their minds to solve something by themselves.

2. Question 1: How do Murder Mystery authors hook and hold readers?
Authors have to remember that the readers are playing a type of game. So they need to keep to the plot and not go to much into the back story.
("Ten Rules for Mystery Writing“)
They usually wait as long as possible to reveal the culprit.
("Ten Rules for Mystery Writing”)
They make the crime believable and do research and make sure the whole story matches up and not have lingering facts that confuse the reader. ("Ten Rules for Mystery Writing”)
Authors create suspense by making sure there are questions that need to be answered, also by using short sentences, it creates more of an action type of reading and gets the reader through action scenes faster and with more suspense. ("How to Write a Murder Mystery”)

3. Question 2: What truths are best communicated through the Murder Mystery genre?
You figure out what kind of brain you have, and how it works to figure things out.

4. Question 3: Is there a difference between real life murder cases and books from the murder mystery genre? If so, what are they?
Real Life Cases
Not always solved
Take longer to solve
More suspects
Not as much evidence
Real cases
Many people working on a case ("How Detectives Solve a Murder)
There is evidence gathered and preserved over time, there is testing and lie detector tests and interrogations‘. A lot more goes on in real cases than in books. ("How Detectives Solve a Murder)
Murder mystery books
Always solved
Usually solved within a certain amount of time.
Always stays on track
Always more interesting
Usually just one or two people trying to figure out the case
There is usually no outside people, no lab DNA testing, just one or two people who go through a series of events to get them (or the reader) to the murderer, collecting clues and storing things in there brains.
There is always a story behind the murder, like a movie ("Stephen Baldwin pens murder mystery”)
Mainly very dramatic deaths and how the victim was found ("Stephen Baldwin pens murder mystery”)

5. Question 7: Should the author reveal the Murderer at the beginning of the book or at the end of the book? If revealed at the beginning, does it take away from the mystery?
Authors should leave the revealing until the end. Or at least wait as long as they can. (“Ten Rules for Mystery Writing.“)
By revealing the murderer in the beginning of the book, you take away from the mystery and excitement of trying to figure out who did it. (“Ten Rules for Mystery Writing.“)
“They're reading to find out, or figure out, whodunit. If you answer this too early in the book, the reader will have no reason to continue reading” (“Ten Rules for Mystery Writing.“)
They also should not try and trick the readers because that will take away from fun of reading them, If there trying to figure something out and get confused, they might loose interest.

6. Books I’ve Read For Mike by: Shelly Sykes
Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life by: Wendy Mass