An ABC Sleuth
Too bad I didn't think of it before someone else went ahead and wrote the book. Of course I did allow myself to wonder about creating a mystery series with a teacher as the prime sleuth. But I couldn't envision too many murders happening in the close vicinity of a school or in the school. Then again we have murders solved by the owners of tea shops, coffee cafes, and bookstores.
Certainly the reader suspends disbelief when reading about the twelfth murder solved by the proprietor of an inn or when a ranger who always happens to be in a park where some heinous deed occurs. So why not a teacher.
Every time I tried to come up with crimes in school I retreated into my own unsolved mysteries. One year I purchased a five pound bag of hard candies and stored them in my bottom desk drawer. Yes, that represented a lure for some with sugar cravings.
I began to notice that the bags bulk kept decreasing, but it happened slowly. Then one day only the bag remained. Every strawberry, grape, orange, and lemon flavored candy disappeared while several green hard candies remained in the drawer. The culprit when emptying the bag possibly discarded those pieces as unsuitable. Not favored favors.
I promised immunity to anyone who confessed. I offered a reward to anyone who gave me information. Nothing.
I wanted to shout: Open your mouth and stick out your tongue.
I held myself in check and said, " I'm disappointed." Actually that was a ploy. I hoped to get someone to experience guilt. Instead they held firm and suggested an outsider as a culprit.
Then I recalled the incident of the moving bulletin boards. Two sixth grade teachers, sticklers for an ordered classroom, bulletin boards and classroom walls were hit by the movers.
All papers were arranged in a military like formation and thumbtacked to the board-- nothing out of line. The movers attacked with precision and turned papers upside down, arranged them in a zig zag pattern. They then added torn bits of colored paper, streamers of colored tissue paper and pictures from magazines to the bulletin boards.
The Wildlife calendar, when turned upside down, featured a stalking lion with his paws in the air. Within an hour the entire seventh grade knew of the work of "the movers".
Lips sealed, snickers held in check when interrogated, the case turned cold and was forever unsolved. The " movers" gained a modicum of respect for their bravado and even the teachers unaffected by the brazen attack applauded the sheer bravado.
The other unsolved crime involved a teacher who lifted weights and ate tuna for lunch everyday along with a handful of desiccated liver tablets. His arm muscles bulged beneath his sports jacket.
A student author used the bathroom wall to scrawl the following two foot high magic marker words : Those aren't real muscles. Mr.B stuffs his sleeves with cotton.
You'd think Mr.B could let it go but he set out to solve the crime while wearing a short sleeve shirt.
Good luck to the teacher detective.
Certainly the reader suspends disbelief when reading about the twelfth murder solved by the proprietor of an inn or when a ranger who always happens to be in a park where some heinous deed occurs. So why not a teacher.
Every time I tried to come up with crimes in school I retreated into my own unsolved mysteries. One year I purchased a five pound bag of hard candies and stored them in my bottom desk drawer. Yes, that represented a lure for some with sugar cravings.
I began to notice that the bags bulk kept decreasing, but it happened slowly. Then one day only the bag remained. Every strawberry, grape, orange, and lemon flavored candy disappeared while several green hard candies remained in the drawer. The culprit when emptying the bag possibly discarded those pieces as unsuitable. Not favored favors.
I promised immunity to anyone who confessed. I offered a reward to anyone who gave me information. Nothing.
I wanted to shout: Open your mouth and stick out your tongue.
I held myself in check and said, " I'm disappointed." Actually that was a ploy. I hoped to get someone to experience guilt. Instead they held firm and suggested an outsider as a culprit.
Then I recalled the incident of the moving bulletin boards. Two sixth grade teachers, sticklers for an ordered classroom, bulletin boards and classroom walls were hit by the movers.
All papers were arranged in a military like formation and thumbtacked to the board-- nothing out of line. The movers attacked with precision and turned papers upside down, arranged them in a zig zag pattern. They then added torn bits of colored paper, streamers of colored tissue paper and pictures from magazines to the bulletin boards.
The Wildlife calendar, when turned upside down, featured a stalking lion with his paws in the air. Within an hour the entire seventh grade knew of the work of "the movers".
Lips sealed, snickers held in check when interrogated, the case turned cold and was forever unsolved. The " movers" gained a modicum of respect for their bravado and even the teachers unaffected by the brazen attack applauded the sheer bravado.
The other unsolved crime involved a teacher who lifted weights and ate tuna for lunch everyday along with a handful of desiccated liver tablets. His arm muscles bulged beneath his sports jacket.
A student author used the bathroom wall to scrawl the following two foot high magic marker words : Those aren't real muscles. Mr.B stuffs his sleeves with cotton.
You'd think Mr.B could let it go but he set out to solve the crime while wearing a short sleeve shirt.
Good luck to the teacher detective.
1 Comments:
My husband loved "Murder, She Wrote". I wasn't so sure I did. I couldn't figure out why everyone didn't move out of Cabot Cove before they ended up murdered. I envisioned the show would come to an end when Jessica Fletcher was the only resident left.
Cabot Cove may have been a large city with thousands of residents but a place can't contain the word "Cove" in it and be a huge city in my mind. At any rate, I would have avoided Jessica Fletcher like the plague. Same goes for Miss Marple. Come to think of it...I would have stayed away from Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew too.
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