Murder Off the Books - Evelyn David

Murder Off the Books takes place in Washington, DC. Rachel Brenner lives on Rittenhouse Street in the Chevy Chase section of the district. She owns a heavily-mortgaged, small, three- bedroom brick house. There's a living room, dining room, kitchen, and den on the first floor; three bedrooms and two baths are on the second floor. A separate, small brick garage is located at the rear of the pie-shaped backyard, with an alley that runs behind the block of houses.

Mac Sullivan's office is located off New York Avenue, close to the Maryland line. You pass his second floor private detective digs when you enter the city from the Baltimore-Washington Expressway. The area is a mix of commercial warehouses and rundown small office buildings. This isn't the high-rent district. That's about two miles, and three traffic circles, away.

We can write with detail about Rachel and Mac's fictional lives in our nation's Capitol because the Northern half lived in Washington, DC for many years. Rachel's house is a much-improved version of the first home she ever owned (and only wishes she'd had the kitchen designed for Rachel).

Creating a realistic sense of place is critical to making your mystery work. You can use the town in which you live or you can invent a whole new city which you plop smack dab into a state you've never visited. But here are some guidelines to making the scene of your mystery believable.

1. Do Your Homework. If you are going to use a well-known city, make sure you use the correct regional terminology. For example, Mac Sullivan takes the Metro, if he's traveling by subway. But if a case takes him to the Windy City, then he hops the L.

2. Accuracy Counts. When using a well-known locale, assume your reader has been there - even if you haven't. If your hero is chasing the bad guy over the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey, don't bother to have him stop and pay a toll. The tollbooths are on the New Jersey side only. It's the little details that can take a reader out of the action, shaking her head that you clearly have never sat in traffic exiting from Fort Lee.

3. Be Consistent Even in Imaginary Places. It's fine to create your own town that seems to be full of murder and mayhem. Jessica Fletcher lived in Cabot Cove, Maine, a wonderful village where the death rate seems unusually high. But if you're going to invent your own setting, make sure that it's regionally correct. It's okay for your heroine to haul lobsters in Cabot Cove; running a cattle ranch seems less likely.

4. (Virtual) Maps are Your Friends. With the ease of on-line map programs such as MapQuest, Google, and Yahoo, you can easily take your hero anywhere in the world. You can find real restaurants for him to dine in Tangiers, Paris, or Little Rock, Arkansas. A couple of keystrokes, and you can even view a satellite image of the restaurant and find the best place for your killer to park to stay out of sight.

Wherever your location, may the mystery muse find you, inspire you, and encourage you to create much (fictional) murder and mayhem. We remain eternally grateful for your friendship and support.