Welcome! Since I write
culinary mysteries, “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” deals with food topics
and with mysteries. This month I am sharing ways to kill people—in your
mysteries, of course—and some tips on getting away with it! To avoid the
pronoun problem, I’ll use heesh (he or she), shis (his or hers), and shim (him
or her) throughout the entries. Tune in for murder and mayhem.
The words I have encountered while researching this month’s
theme are rather astounding. Wouldn’t I be astounding if I could remember them
all? The second-most fun of this challenge is the research. The first-most fun
is reading your reactions! Keep ‘em coming!
The goal of many killers is to fool the investigators so the
murder appears to be physiurgic (due
to natural causes) or a pseudoautochiria
death (murders disguised as suicide).
Then there’s pareschatology,
a doctrine dealing with matters of death but before the end of the world. Can’t
you see a cult where members agree to be killed so they can achieve the final
pieces for soul-development needed to attain sainthood? Your cult leader could
be a sociopath or perhaps a charlatan accruing money from his faithful.
Psychological and danger
terms abound in the P world, too. Phthartic
means deadly or destructive. A parlous
situation is full of danger or risk. Phonomania
is a pathological tendency to murder. Or consider periclitate. That means to endanger or jeopardize. Something pernicious is destructive, ruinous, or
fatal.
A couple of P words lend themselves nicely to plot points in
your mystery or signal potential victims. For example, pentheraphobia is fear or hatred of one’s mother-in-law. That plot
point is an obvious one. Can’t you just see your killer snapping after years of
M-I-L putdowns? Can’t you see the resentment building up at her controlling
behaviors, especially with money promised. Oh, yeah. That is so a killing that
I can picture.
We could have done pills,
but we already kind of have done that. Or parbreak
(vomit), but we did already with hyperemesis. Of course, poison has been dealt with in several ways. If you like poison as a murder method, you have to
own The Book of Poisons by Serita Stevens
and Anne Bannon. It is so helpful!
I was very tempted
until the last moment to use push off
(a building or cliff). That method requires a lot of research to make sure you
can push off the person and that the
victim will die. Even people who fall over the edge of the Grand Canyon can
survive.
But today Peavey and Pogamoggan are up for discussion.
Is your mystery set in the Pacific Northwest? Alaska?
Canada? Consider using a tool from lumbering. A peavey is a lumberman’s hooked and spiked lever. You can imagine
the damage you could do with that one! This is available on Amazon. But you don’t
want your killer to leave that trail. Better to buy it—with cash—from a
hardware store. Or steal it from the lumberman your killer is framing.
Another nasty piece is the pogamoggan, a wooden club with a piece or iron or stone on the end.
Yuck! Your killer could dispatch the victim rather quickly. Now, since this is
a tool once used by Native Americans, and not easily obtained these days (NOT
on Amazon), you can either set this murder as historical fiction or in contemporary
times with a theft of artifacts from a museum housing Native American relics.
P was fun, right?
Hmm. Bet you’re wondering how Q is
going to go down!
If
you take time to share this post on social media, I would be most
grateful.
Twitter
share:
#Mystery
writer, need killer ideas?P is for Peavey or Pogamoggan . Lots of tips this
month! #atozchallenge http://bit.ly/1STYkAo
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Looking
for new, fresh ways to kill (in books of course)? Check out Peavey or
Pogamoggan on “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” at http://bit.ly/1STYkAo
Check
out Sharon Arthur Moore’s culinary mystery, Mission Impastable
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