Mystery Monday – Too Many Suspects?

In AMC’s fantastic series The Killing, there are 24 suspects. 24. That’s a lot to keep up with. 24 personalities, 24 storylines, 24 motives. In fact, AMC has a website devoted to not only keeping track of each suspect’s bio, but they also allow fans to vote on which suspect they think is the actually killer. Which, by the way, is a great way to keep fans interested in the show. If there was a way to do something similar with a book, that would be awesome. But back to the dirty 24. So the question must be asked: is 24 suspects too many?

In my latest suspense thriller, The Brink, the major complaint was that there were too many characters introduced in the beginning of the book. Some people had to take notes to keep them all straight. So, for the next book, there won’t be this character dump right at the start. They will get introduced throughout the book, but there won’t be 24 suspects. Not nearly. I don’t even think I could keep that many straight. I don’t think there are 24 plausible reasons for wanting the same person dead. Unless you’re a really, really, bad person.

What are your thoughts? Are 24 suspects too many in any one story? Not enough? Just right? To the keyboards!

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Mark Fadden is a freelance writer and author and here’s where he gets to toot his horn:

“The Brink is a hell of a read.” – Bestselling author Sandra Brown

“Mark Fadden is a masterful storyteller.” – Writer’s Digest

“He’s the next Dan Brown.” – Triple C Ranch Book Club, Southlake, Texas

 The Brink is now available as an eBook for Amazon.com Kindle  and Barnes & Noble nook for only $2.99!

 Check out The Brink and Mark’s other books at www.markfadden.com.