: Re: Is it possible to write about failed detective novel? All detective novel ends with the killer caught, right? Is it possible to write a completely bad ending detective novel? Imagine the Titanic

@Sent2472441

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Is it POSSIBLE? Of course. You just write the story with that ending.

"Is it a good idea?" is a more realistic question.

Most fiction stories have a neat, happy ending: The lovers get married and live happily ever after. The adventurer finds the lost treasure. The criminal is caught. Etc. But not necessarily. Romeo and Juliet do not live happily ever after. The Sheriff of Nottingham kills Robin Hood. Irene Adler escapes from Sherlock Holmes without him recovering the photograph his client wanted. (Hope those weren't spoilers for anybody.)

There are many catches to NOT having the "normal", "happy" ending.

Readers generally want a happy ending. If the story doesn't end happily, there has to be a good reason. Either you're making a point about fate or futility or the horrors of evil, or it's a surprise twist ending.

Readers normally want an ending that wraps everything up. They don't want an ending that leaves them wondering, "So what happened next? How did this end?" A friend of mine once said, "Some stories don't end. They just stop."
Most readers find this very frustrating. Like, I've read all 300 pages of your book, and then you don't tell me how everything ended up.

In the case of a detective story, normally you are building up the hero as a brilliant solver of mysteries. If he fails to catch the criminal, then apparently he wasn't so brilliant after all. The whole premise is undermined.

If you kill off the hero in the middle of a story, then you need a new hero to replace him, and you have to begin the process of introducing a character and getting the reader interested in him all over.

In your case you say you're killing the hero at the end of the story, so you avoid that problem. But it does mean that you've caught yourself off from a sequel. Detective stories are often written in a series: In each story the detective solves a new crime. Presumably once the detective is dead he's not solving more crimes.

But can you do it? Sure. I can see the ending that you're describing working.

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