Effective Use Of Conflict In Louise Penny's The Murder Stone

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Often in the cases of murder mysteries, each story has their own unique quality, granted no two authors or stories are identical. That being said, In Louise Penny’s The Murder Stone, there are many conflicts that are used to develop the story. Using dialogue, the red herring, and atmosphere, it will become clear as to why the use of conflict helps develop Penny’s puzzle game, uncovering motives along the way. To begin with, the conflict between Peter and his siblings is shown through dialogue. When He, Mariana and Thomas gather in Thomas’s room they try to get to the bottom of who the murderer could be, at first they suspect the remaining family members. Soon after they being to question each other, bringing up long past events such as how Peter had passed up his portion of his father Charles’ inheritances. Moreover, he claims that he does not want any money and certainly not that of his dearly departed sister Julia. Mariana and Thomas then begin to “gang up” on him by stating …show more content…

Right before Gamache announces who the murderer is, Elliot goes missing. Gamache’s investigating team send out a search party for Elliot, making the readers believe the murderer is in fact Elliot who is making his escape before he is taken into custody. Elliot does not have a good motive to kill Mrs. Martin, he was actually quite fond of her, suggesting he trade trays with one of his colleges to wait on her. “I know where Mrs. Martin goes for a smoke. You’ll be wandering all over trying to find her” (Penny 96) it is most probable that Elliot had a mere crush on Julia. As it turns out, Pierre, the Maître D’ confesses he told Eliot to run, creating a distraction. This distraction is known in literary terms as “The Red Herring” (Maida 33) which is a false clue given in this genre of writing to steer both the detective/sleuth and reader off track. This is how a red herring is used to create

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