Fantasy Investigation?

[Creed]

My question concerns creating an investigation plotline in a book. It's something I've known I would add to the story's background but have yet to face or plan for. One reason for that is simply this; I don't know how. I've never done it before and I don't know where to start.*
I intended to read Nights of Villjamur to show me how one author did it in a fantasy world, but I don't own the book. I just went through my Witcher Game Guide (because the game is awesome and during Chapter 2 you conduct an investigation) but it didn't really help and I don't have the time to play the game again- also I'm not sure how much that would help.*
My investigation takes place in Underworld, the organisation that runs the capital's slums and brothels and taverns in the background. Very secret, of course. And when a man is hired by the crown to look into some suspicious happenings… well, he sticks his nose into Underworld's business, and that's not okay. So I have one investigation to conduct from that point of view.
But the shady leaders of Underworld itself know that this is going on, and are trying to prevent as much damage as is possible. So I need to direct another investigation being played out by a small group of thieves, thugs, and assassins inconspicuously searching for an informant in the hopes to kill him before he lets loose too much information.*
Any tips, ideas, or suggestions to help? Also, is that last comma allowed in the previous sentence right before the "or"?*

 

[ThinkerX]

I spent some time on grand jury duty years ago - where cases get heard to see if there is enough evidence to warrent trial.

Apart from the small stuff: DUI, traffic offences, that sort of thing, there were two central elements to look for:

1) geography of the crime scene, be it a single room, a stretch of woods, or a city block. Actually being there, understanding exactly where everything is, how and why people take path X to go to point Y is of immense value, even if you don't find any clues. It lets you know what is feasible or what would be required to do thus and such at that location.

So, your investigator is going to want to get a good look at the crime scene, see how its laid out.

2) chronology of the crime and the major players. Who was where at what point in time? Did they have time to go from (verified) point X to crime scene Y and turn up at location Z?

Your investigator gets this by talking to witnesses, suspects, and people in the area. Bill runs a vending cart a stones throw away. Maybe he sold a suspect or victim an apple. The old widow in the house three doors down obsessively keeps track of everybody.

None of the cases I was a juror on were homicides - though a couple very easily could have turned out that way, but if a homicide is involved here, your investigator will want a look at the body and anything found with it - clothes, pocket change, bottle of booze, that sort of stuff, checking for mud, hairs, and unusual stains. Bill had black hair. Whats with all these blond hairs all over his jacket? And where did he find green mud at?

This tells your investigator to look for somebody blond who was real close and personal with your victim...and try to find a place which has green mud.

 

[TWErvin2]

If you're looking for a fantasy novel to read with an investigation/mystery, to give ideas and a solid example, consider Yendi by Steven Brust. Actually, unless you get it as an audiobook, it's part of a three-in-one book, The Book of Jhereg by Brust. Actually, many of Vlad Taltos's stories/adventures involve a mystery he solves.

 

[Jamber]

Hi Creed,
I like the sound of the cross-genre intention here. It's really my cup of tea as a reader.

Have you looked at the 'Dead Witch Walking' etc series by Kim Harrison. There's a strong detective fiction voice at work in them, even though the material is kind of romance influenced as well. I wouldn't say they're my favourite cross-genre works but they're not too bad in terms of showing how you can work between a detective-influenced storyline/voice and a macabre (though in this case tongue-in-cheek) fantasy setting.

Personally I love the detective fiction greats like Hammett and Chandler, but they're maybe too old to be very useful with what you want to do. Still, for economical language, deft writing and scene-setting as well as the sheer ins and outs of narrative they're terrific, and might give you some ideas for how to bank up clues as well as the ever-necessary red herrings (if that's the stuff you're unsure about).

Perhaps this is unlikely to help, but the Sam Vimes character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld books often does some classic investigating, though his methods and conclusions (as well as the characters he falls foul of) are generally amusing rather than serious, and there are perplexing gaps in the storyline at times. But basically Vimes follows a standard routine of going to crime scenes, meeting odd characters, picking up on a word, gesture, scratchmark or other telling clue, being pressured to accept an unsatisfying 'solution', continuing to nose around, getting hit on the head (or elsewhere) a few times, losing a witness, regretting his stupidity in not putting two and two together earlier, finding a villain close to him, interrogating someone who might have been the villain but wasn't, following a new lead, rooting out evil somewhere high up, just managing to escape death by the skin of his teeth, revealing the true villain... etc, all within a more-or-less fantasy setting (though again it's for humorous purposes, not serious ones).

If you're looking for more seriously-written material, I'm not sure what there is as far as fantasy, but Michael Connolly writes quite well about police procedure with his Bosch character, while the character's gut-instinct determination and attitude to police bigwigs always takes them somewhere away from police procedure, so they're interesting for their mix of elements. Other people could probably recommend some much more apt books to start with, but these are the ones that spring to my mind, from my limited reading.

best wishes
Jennie

 

[Creed]

Thanks Jamber and TWErvin2 for some examples to read! And thank you to ThinkerX for some murder tips (that sounds suspicious without context)!