Mysteries

1
Mysteries
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2
What makes a good mystery?

• What do you think a mystery should be?
• When you think about mysteries, what comes to
  mind?
• What do you find suspenseful?
• How did the author make you curious?

3
Mystery vocabulary

• Alibi
• A plea offered by an accused person of not having
  been at the scene of crime.
• Clue
• Something that appears to give information toward
  solving the crime.

4

• Deduction
• Collecting the facts and drawing a possible
  conclusion.
• Evidence
• Someone or something that proves who committed
  the crime.

5

• Red herring
• A false lead that throws the investigator off
  track.
• Sleuth
• An investigator or detective.

6

• Suspects
• People who appear to have a motive to have
  committed the crime.
• Witness
• Person who has personal knowledge about the
  crime.

7
Can you get the clues first?
8

• Gilda videotaped Lance by their backyard pool. He
  had asked her to

• Lance was a fan of reality-based TV shows that
  use amateur videos.

• Gilda bashed her husband's head with a hammer.

• The videotape showed what looked like a diving
  board accident.

9
The solution

• Lance faked a submission to 'America's Funniest
  Accidents-' purposely slipping on the diving
  board and falling in. Gilda stopped the camera-
  then killed him. The police saw the tape and
  concluded he'd hit his head during the dive.

10
Solve it.

• Erica and Francine flashed their brightest
  smiles as they clinked their glasses in a New
  Year's toast. The crowd milled around the
  ballroom of the luxurious ocean liner as
  conversation hummed and dancers swayed to the big
  band tunes. The happiness of the sisters was
  almost a visible thing, shimmering and
  effervescent, like the tiny bubbles that sparkled
  in the champagne flutes they held.

11

• Everything had gone exactly according to plan
  and now Philip Winston, the father who had ruled
  their lives by his control of the purse strings
  was gone. Every minute that the huge vessel
  continued its westward path took them further
  from the point where he had met his watery end.
  The plan had gone off without a hitch

12

• Erica had lured him out to one of the deserted
  decks on the pretext of asking him for some extra
  money to pay off yet another gambling debt, while
  Francine had snuck out from her hiding place
  behind a lifeboat and hit him on the head. The
  sock that they had carefully filled with sand on
  the afternoon's excursion to St. Thomas had done
  its job without making a sound to alert anyone.
  Without missing a beat, the sisters had heaved
  the still form over the rail and then returned to
  the ballroom.

13

• As they toasted an end to his tyrannical rule
  and a beginning to the new life they would lead
  with their sizable inheritance, a tiny blonde
  drifted up.
• "Has anyone seen Philip?" she wailed, "He
  promised me we'd dance and I can't find him
  anywhere.
• "Maybe he went back to the cabin for
  something," Francine suggested.
• "No I already looked there."

14

• The nasal whine was like nails scraping down a
  chalkboard to Erica and she reflected smugly that
  it was just as well that they had gotten rid of
  Philip when they did. This latest girlfriend, no
  older than the sisters themselves, was beginning
  to have a disturbing amount of influence over
  him.

15

• It was just possible that he could take it into
  his head to make the alliance permanent,
  jeopardizing the inheritance that rightfully
  belonged to Francine and her. After all, it had
  been their mother's money that had purchased the
  first shares of stock that Philip had parlayed
  into the Winston fortune.

16

• Her attention was dragged back suddenly by
  something that Philip's latest, and last,
  girlfriend was saying.
• "Oh, it's so irritating of him to be off
  somewhere when we're supposed to be celebrating,"
  she pouted. "Well just for that I'm going to go
  ahead and tell you our news now. He wanted us to
  surprise you tonight at dinner, but I just can't
  wait anymore."

17

• Whats the surprise?
• Alibi
• Clues/Evidence
• Red Herring
• Suspects
• Witnesses
• Deduction

18

• She paused coyly as she waved her left hand,
  and the sisters noticed with horror the light
  reflecting off a new and very large diamond.
• "The Captain married us this afternoon. Isn't
  it wonderful, girls? I'm your new stepmother."

19
Ask yes or no questions to solve this
mystery..

• Shadow discovered Sandy lying on her side in a
  puddle of water and broken glass. When the doctor
  arrived, he pronounced Sandy dead. Since Sandy
  had no cuts on her body, how did she die?

Sandy died of suffocation. Sandy is a goldfish
whos bowl was knocked over.
20
Laptop time!!

• http//kids.mysterynet.com/
• http//www.mysterynet.com
• http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/murder2/tindex.htm
  l