Things I’ve used to kill people, successfully and otherwise * 

(*in my books )

It’s always fun/stressful to come up with new and inventive ways to kill people in crime novels – which, by their very nature, require a body or two. Occasionally, too, a protagonist finds herself in a fight to the death, which in turn generally requires a weapon of some sort. 

I tend to shy away from guns, for the sole reason that it’s way to easy to get something about them wrong and then you look like an idiot and readers cease to trust you.  

So, instead I’ve used for actual and attempted slayings: 

• A branding iron

 

 

 

 

 

 

• A Zuni fetish 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• A tarantula (not lethal, but scary as hell)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• A bomb (boring) 

 

• Pills (ditto) 

 

• An ax (so not boring) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• A pickup

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Boiling peaches (my favorite)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Most these required internet research into the types and efficacy of the injuries they’d cause. The photos accompanying that research would make the goriest slasher film look kindergarten-worthy by comparison. And, like every other crime writer I know, there’s always the fear of ending up on some weird watch list as a result. 

Anyhow, I’m about 15,000 words into a new manuscript and am already starting to contemplate the lethal weapon I’ll eventually need.  

If I’m honest, I’ll admit to some anticipation, too. Because what’s the strangest, yet most believably deadly thing I can come up with? One that’ll top the peaches? 

Stay tuned.