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This semester we’ve experienced a range of detectives in the mystery world, including last week’s clever, street smart Sam Spade. Our next couple of mystery take us into the more realistic realm of the police detective.

We’ll read our first story from the Best Mystery Stories of 2024, “Beat the Clock” by Michael Bracken. When you consider the writers we started with (Ottolengui, Doyle, Christie), we’ll observe another generation of writers who took bits and pieces of past mystery style to create their own clever tales… and add their own touch with characters like Detective Highlander.

Bracken spins a good yarn. As we will learn, he holds himself to a mighty high standard of productivity, striving to complete one short story each week of the year. Read on to learn more about Michael Bracken, and “Beat the Clock.”

He wrote through high school, developing a niche in sci-fi and fantasy. He also began submitting his work for publication while he was in high school (with some moderate success).

After high school he worked for publishing and printing companies in typesetting departments, even completing an apprenticeship journeyman program. This eventually led to work in desktop publishing. He wrote company newsletters and other marketing material—as he continued to write fiction in any available off-hour.  He has continued to edit and write non-fiction, but his love and passion is mainly for fiction (Michael Bracken Interview, 2018).

He earned his Bachelor’s in Professional Writing at Baylor University, and lives in Hewitt, Texas.  He also teaches writing and does public speaking about his craft.

Bracken described his writing process in this 2016 interview. He starts with 30-45 minutes of fiction writing. Then he shifts gears and works on his freelance writing and editing (he is marketing director for a performing arts group, and he also takes on other freelance gigs). He returns to his fiction in the later afternoons or evenings.

He likes to start a story by imagining an enticing scene. Then he brainstorms about how to develop the plot. He fills in his draft with “bits and pieces.” Because he revises as he goes, he only needs careful editing before he submits.

He says he likes to bounce around between projects, so he always has several stories in process. The length of time varies from months to days.

Bracken said he likes to manage projects not by setting word or page count goals, but “finished project goals.” His goal (incredibly) is 52 short stories per year—one story per week. It seems average out pretty well for him (some weeks less, some weeks more).  He has published more than 1,400 short stories (Ranks of the Rejected, 2016).

Bracken has won awards too numerous to list. He has published in numerous genres. When he’s not publishing stories in mystery magazines he writes thrillers, science fiction, and erotica.

And when he is not writing thrillers, science fiction, or erotica, these are some non-fiction places where he publishes articles:

• Texas Gardener

• Inside Higher Education

• The Writer

• Fathering

• Columbus Single Scene

• Parent to Parent

• Brides

• He also writes radio scripts  and song lyrics.

I wonder if there is anything he DOESN’T write…

Still, the concept behind "Beat the Clock" continued to nag at me until I realized it was idealfor a subgenre I'd never previously written: a traditional murder mystery in which the detective gathers evidence by interviewing all the suspects and then brings them together at the end to describe his investigation and to reveal the killer.

I tossed in a bit of modern technology-without which the story doesn't work--gave Detective Robert Highlander a spouse and a new partner, and put him to work solving the murder of Hugh Dennett.

Because expanding my writing into previously unfamiliar crime fiction subgenres has worked so well, I hope to continue.  Let’s see… which subgenres haven’t I tried?

Do you think Michael Bracken ever read “They Can Only Hang You Once?”  [spoiler alert!] I see some uncanny similarities with the greedy nephew motif… though in this case the culprit really was a greedy nephew (who ended up killing more than once).

Follow the clues!

As we learned, Bracken introduced several of these characters in earlier stories, so we’re entering their lives somewhere in the middle of their fictional existence.  I rather enjoy the mystery of not knowing much about Detective Highlander’s previous partner, or about dealings he might have had with the victim, Mr. Dunnett.

In many ways, this is good old fashioned mystery told in modern times (and that’s just what Bracken intended).

The Setting:

At the crime scene, in Detective Highlander’s home, at the police station, questioning witnesses and suspects.

Point of View:

Third person.  Notice the amount of detail and dialogue. How does this work for you? How would you contrast it to other writers we’ve read or watched? [Doyle, Christie, Columbo, Greenwood, etc]

Details: time.  Bulova watch, broken clock from the mantel, Daylight Savings, clock on mobile phone.

Cars. [I have a feeling Bracken likes them] Classic car (1957 Chevrolet Nomad, car show, Gary’s garage and knowledge of auto mechanics)

Characters:

• Experienced senior Detective Highlander (and wife)

• Rookie Detective Jessica Simpson

• Victim wealthy Mr. Dunnet, who lost his beloved wife in a suspicious car accident the previous year.  She was killed along with her sister—mother of the three suspects.

• Agnes the cook who discovers the body and gives the detectives a first impression of the family

• The Widowers Club

• The nephews—all need money

Andy (ailing wife)

Gary (playboy; owns Rods and Restorations)

Larry (divorced)

Also:

• Police photographer Wentzman

• Mysterious redhead

• Who else?

Plot

#1) The main plot is, obviously, figuring out WHODUNNIT—who killed Mr. Dunnet?  Notice Detective Highlander’s inquiry process. 

How does Bracken lead us through the crime scene?

Some clues:

• Victim shot at close range (curious angle)

• Time discrepancy

• Nephews, their lives, their alibis

Suspicious death of Mrs. Dunnit and her sister in an auto accident the previous year

#2) Subplot: Learning to be a detective.  Consider the role of rookie Detective Simpson.  This is also a story about honing our own skills of detection.

Theme

Greed…. Covering up a crime… what other themes do you detect?

Other comments about Bracken's approach and writing?

When I chose this story I didn’t realize how well it fit with last week’s selection by Dashiell Hammett, “They Can Only Hang You Once.”

I guess there are only so many plots you can craft with greedy relatives.  Do you have a favorite mystery with a similar theme?

Guest Interview: Michael Bracken. (2021). Retrieved from https://www.cam-writes.com/blog/2021/02/02/guest-interview-michael-bracken/

Interview with Award-Winning Author Michael Bracken. (2018). Retrieved from https://thrillermagazine.org/2018/12/27/interview-with-michael-bracken/

Michael Bracken Interview. (2018). Retrieved from https://larquepress.com/2018/05/17/michael-bracken-interview/

Michael Bracken Website. (2022). http://www.crimefictionwriter.com/

Ranks of the Rejected. (2016) Rejectomancy. Retrieved from https://rejectomancy.com/2016/01/13/ranks-of-the-rejected-michael-bracken/