26+ Ways to Kill: B is for Bludgeon and Boom

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 and her) throughout the entries. Tune in murder and mayhem.

While essentially death by bludgeon or boom might be the same--death by blunt object--they differ in propellant for the murder weapon. I could have done bullets or BBs shot through the mount into the brain, but that is so passe!

Blunt object deaths proliferate in literature. Blunt objects can stun, make the victim lapse into unconsciousness, cause traumatic brain injury, or concussion. They often are used to that effect to immobilize the victim so that heesh can be killed with another method. But with enough force, the blunt object can kill on its own.

To kill by blunt object, it helps if the force is enough to crush the skull or send bone fragments into the brain. The killer does not want the victim emerging from a coma and pointing a finger at shim. So pick your weapon: Bludgeon or Boom.

If you choose to kill by bludgeoning, know that you are either using a thick, heavy stick or some object that you use the blunt side of. A baseball bat fits the description perfectly, with the added advantage that you can swing it at the victim’s head, not necessarily bring it crashing down from overhead. You might have your killer pick up a heavy trophy as a bludgeon. Spoiler: That was the murder weapon in television’s season one of “How to Get Away with Murder”.

Learn some physics to make this method work for you. How much force does it take to crush a skull? What is the blood splatter pattern? How can you throw off the forensic scientists who can determine the height of the murderer from the angle of the blow?

Can’t you see the headline for your plot? Famous Slugger Killed with World Series Bat

Death by boom gives you three ways to go. And the boom itself is heavy, not lift-able to swing for murder, so this method relies on the weight of the object being swung toward the victim.

A boom has many uses. It is a long projecting arm used to move things, but the boom can be on a derrick, a stage set, or a ship. How versatile is that for killing options?

At a construction site, the derrick’s boom could be used to sweep the victim off the top floor of a building sending shim crashing to the concrete many floors below. Okay, so maybe actual death occurs by smashing into the concrete. True, but the boom on the derrick precipitated the fall. The killer can claim it was an accident. And accidents do happen on construction sites.

Or you could have a stage set boom holding lights or sound system fall onto the victim. This one can be tricky. How does your killer keep the tampered-with boom in place until the right moment? How do you get the victim to the right spot at the right time? Perhaps the killer knows the stage blocking well enough to plan for it. Or maybe the falling boom missing the victim (this time) is part of pattern of accidents that make the victim think heesh is cursed.

The boom on a ship pivots on the mast allowing the sailor to adjust the sail’s angle to take advantage of the wind for movement of the ship. If someone isn’t careful (Oops!), a passenger could get banged in the head and thrown into the drink. Being out to sea disposes of the body and the evidence (except for blood on the ship) rather easily. Ship accidents happen, too, so the murderer could claim accident and even bring the body back to shore where heesh confesses to the horrible accident because the victim didn’t follow instructions to duck.

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#Mystery writer need ideas to kill? B is for Bludgeon or Boom. Lots of killer tips this month #atozchallenge. http://bit.ly/22WNioK

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Blogging from A to Z Challenge offers a wide range of topics. If you want to kill someone (in books of course), check out killing with Bludgeon or Boom on “Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time” at http://bit.ly/22WNioK

Please come back on Monday (the A-Z Gods give us Sundays off) to see how I suggest you kill with C!

 

Check out Sharon Arthur Moore’s culinary mystery, Mission Impastable