Frances White on Writing a Fantasy Murder Mystery

Why a fantasy murder mystery? This is the most common question I am asked when introducing my novel, Voyage of the Damned. 

I wish I had a clever inspired answer which critically considers the properties of both genres and why combining them works so well. But the truth is I wrote it because I thought it would be fun.

I faced a lot of rejection before writing Voyage of the Damned (7 years and over 200 rejections but who’s counting?) and I found myself for the first time no longer enjoying writing – especially when trying to write what I thought others would want me to write or what was popular. This called for a dramatic decision – I needed to enjoy writing again, so my next book would be one that combined all the things I loved. 

Those two main things just happened to be fantasy and murder mysteries. Fantastic, I thought! I would combine my two favourite genres and the rest would be smooth sailing, right?!

Wrong. Very wrong. 

Sometimes there’s a reason while some genres rarely cross paths, and it turns out fantasy and traditional style murder mysteries make unusual bedfellows. 

One of the major challenges when combining murder mystery and fantasy is the differing reader expectations of the two genres. Murder mysteries often get into the meat of the action rapidly. They’re shorter, pithier and bodies appear quickly (sometimes before the book has even begun.) Meanwhile fantasy books are amongst the longest of any genre and tend to be denser. The reason fantasy books are so big is because of all the work they have to do introducing unfamiliar worlds and the places and people within them. If murder mysteries are a short train ride, fantasy books are a long-haul flight, and readers board accordingly.

So, the biggest challenge I faced when writing Voyage of the Damned was balancing that expectation of complicated and vivid worldbuilding fantasy readers love to immerse themselves in, without losing the mystery lovers in the abundance of unfamiliar names and places. 

Many people, when reading a murder mystery, want to be able to work out what is going on before the detective – it’s part of the game of murder mysteries that hooks so many of us. So, it was very important to me that those new to fantasy would be able to easily understand the rules, people and places in this book which are all essential to working out the key mystery at the heart of it. 

My solution came from an unlikely place – Cluedo. For anyone unfamiliar, all the pieces in a Cluedo board represent a character and their colours directly link to the names of those characters. We have Miss Scarlet for the red piece, Colonel Mustard for the yellow etc. 

I took inspiration from Cluedo when developing the 12 provinces and the 12 main characters of Voyage of the Damned. Every province and character has several key signifiers for readers to latch onto. They all have individual colours, which are not only their province colours, but also their hair colours. Additionally, all provinces have a representative animal, which also corresponds to the characters’ surnames. For example, Eudora Draco comes from Dragon Province, and has green hair. 

Not only did this give something simple for readers to follow, it also had the added benefit of providing my 12 main characters with a fantastic kaleidoscope of colourful hair! 

With 12 vastly different provinces all with their own cultures and history, there is plenty of depth for fantasy lovers to explore, but those key signifiers, like pieces on a Cluedo board, are available for those who care more about solving murders than deep diving into 12 varied provinces. 

Similarly, almost the entire novel takes place in one location – a luxury ship. This is quite unusual for fantasy books where exploring a vast world is expected, but very usual for murder mysteries, especially closed circle ones. Because of this, it was important for me to make the world feel vast through the characters, their interactions and references to their history, even if we never step far beyond the ship.

In this way, just as Voyage of the Damned is two genres, I also hope the worldbuilding is two things – simple and intricate, depending on the tastes of the reader in question.

But it’s not all challenges, there are also benefits to crossing the genres. Unusual bedfellows they may be, but I also believe fantasy and murder mystery can be a marriage made in heaven. 

Murder mystery is a very well-trodden genre. Mainly thanks to the Queen of Crime herself, Agatha Christie, usually if a twist or murder method can be thought of, she has already done it. But one thing Christie never did was add magic. 

I thoroughly believe that adding magical elements to a traditional murder mystery set up can open up a whole new realm of possibilities of twists and plots that even Christie never tapped. 

In fact, it was a twist that propelled Voyage of the Damned from a vague idea to ‘I MUST WRITE THIS.’ No spoilers, but this twist would not be possible if I was writing a murder mystery set in our world, and all the rules that come with it. Magic is the key that opened up the door to this twist, and the rest of the plot formed around it.

This is one of the reasons I adore fantasy. It’s such an exciting genre because the only limit that exists is the extent of your own imagination. Murder Mysteries are the opposite, dominated by logic and rules. Bringing down the wall between them is both a terrifying and exhilarating challenge, and most importantly, just darn good fun.