Murder at the Academy

Bonus Content #1

Here, we have an exclusive article on an interview with famed amateur detective and student Angela Liddel. We found some key insights to fighting crime according to Angela, as well as a lesson in deduction, and a lesson in human kindness found even in her chosen profession. 

There are a few key aspects that make one skilled at solving mysteries, I find three to be absolutely necessary. First off, one must be quick. Second off, one must have a drive for curiosity. Third, one must have skills in deducing. The quickness is having a sharp and precise mind. You don't have a lot of room for mistakes in this field, so you must catch the right person on the first go around. Your memory must be especially sharp and you must develop the skills to recall memories quickly, especially regarding previous cases. You never know what could happen so you must be prepared for any situation, including recalling details about previous cases. The drive for curiosity is necessary because in order to solve the mystery in it's entirety you must want to solve it. You are charged to solve it, and it's necessary to have a desire for knowledge, specifically the knowledge of who committed the crime. You have to be able to unravel things about a crime scene and about suspects rather quickly. These skills come with practicing speed and memory games. You cannot spend many days deciphering things in a crime scene. You have to be able to tell things about a person. Try practicing this on public transit. First, pick a person to watch. Watch them inconspicuously as possible. Answer these questions: 

1) Where are they going? How do you know?

2) Are they meeting someone? Who might they be meeting? How can you tell?

3) What does their body language say about their emotions? Are they bored, nervous, angry, upset, etc? How can you tell?

4) Do they have any oddly noticeable features? Anything like strange piercings or other identifying marks like scars or tattoos? If this was a suspect, you'd ask them about it

 5) Do they have any apparent habits or quirks? 

6) What does their tone say about what they're feeling? 

Many of these tips are connected. Let's try an example in deduction. Here we go: 

You are on the bus going to work. You look up and see an odd man sitting across from you. How can you tell where he's going? It's easy. 

Based on the tapping of his foot, he's feeling nervous. He's dressed formally, but we can rule out a date due to the time of day. No one would dress nicely like that for a casual breakfast date, and no one would go on a regular date in the morning.  Also, if someone we're nervous for a date they'd be checking their phone fairly often, but he isn't checking more often then a normal person on the public transit system. He has a briefcase, but it's mostly empty. He's reading a book about being in the workforce. Based on these, and the venti sized coffee in his hand, we can say that he's on his way to a job interview. No one already in the workforce would read a book on it. Anyone with a briefcase they use regularly would have it stuffed full of papers, not mostly empty. And his choice of clothing. He keeps looking down at his tie, clearly wondering if he chose the right one, and if it looks okay. (It does)

Typically, in many mystery novels, the protagonist detective finds himself or herself becoming hardened in their personality. This is seen in nearly all detective shows, novels and movies. It adds a level of drama to it. Somehow, for these detectives the victims (of murder) they encounter are simply that. A body. A victim. Nothing more, nothing less. This proves to problematic in a large confrontation with the "sidekick" character, as they remind the protagonist detective that their deductions prove to be cruel to those who don't want their whole life story to be deduced. The detective has a lapse of human kindness. It's obvious that this is because of their outlook on life has changed after a long time working such a depressing job. They start to only see the awful and negative side of life, whilst forgetting the part of life that makes life worth living. They forget why life can be wonderful and enjoyable because they encounter so much suffering on a daily basis. I have a plan to avoid this for myself, and hopefully this can help other detectives struggling with this negative outlook. First, I'd like to make it clear that this is not anyone's fault. It can sometimes come with the profession. It hardens a person's character to an extreme level at times. They might become irritable and even cruel at times. That is because they have seen so much cruelty to last more than a lifetime. A few ways to avoid this is to take time each day to do things that you love. Go out to a movie with friends. Have a night out and get ice cream. Or, stay in and order pizza. It doesn't matter, just be sure that you take the time to do these things.