The Mystery Machine

The Mystery Machine is a modular toolkit for building the basic structure of a good mystery. It comes out of a structural analysis of some of the most popular and enduring mystery stories, and the elements that repeat underneath them. It isn’t a one-shot approach or a cookie-cutter template. It’s a guide to the building blocks great mysteries have always used, set up so they combine in nearly endless ways. It won’t write the story for you, but it will help you build the skeleton that holds up the story you want to tell. Eight major tables make up the toolkit, and you can choose from each one manually or randomly:

• Meta Structure: the underlying pattern of the crime and the case built on it
• False Surface: the explanation everyone believes until it falls apart
• Emotional Force: the motive that drives the killer and makes the crime make sense
• Setting Archetype: where the story takes place, from locked manors to small towns
• Midpoint Twist: the turn that changes how everything before it is read
• Character Types: the suspects, sleuths, and bystanders
• Red Herrings: the false leads that point readers the wrong way
• Style Variation: the tone, from cozy to noir and everything between

Pick the parts you like. Swap out the ones you don’t. Break them on purpose. The crime is yours to commit... within reason. We don’t condone committing crimes, actually. Be good.

Preorder Details

Ebooks will be ready in mid-November. Physical books ship in January 2027. Preorder now to lock in launch pricing.

• Ebook Basic: $0. The core toolkit.
• Ebook Premium: $5. The core toolkit plus bonus sections on creating detectives and culprits.
• Physical Book Premium: $20. Everything in the ebook, as a physical copy.
• Ebook Premium + Physical Book Premium: $20. Both the ebook and a physical copy.

After launch in January 2027, prices will be:

• Ebook Basic: $1
• Ebook Premium: $10
• Physical Book Premium: $25
• Ebook Premium + Physical Book Premium: $25

Preorders are charged as the books ship, and no later than January 2027.