Anatomy of A Murder: Murder Mysteries Under Investigation

[RuAsRuAnAu]

What makes a good murder mystery? To me, it’s the build-up, the climax, and the aftermath. All three parts have to engage the viewer with elements of surprises, intrigue, and horror.

Y&R received a lot of flack over the who killed Carmen Mesta story & because they submitted the episode for consideration at the Daytime Emmy Awards. Their latest one involves the murder of Ji Min Kim. Many are already calling it a bust.

James E. Reilly was praised for the who killed Kristen DiMera story on DOOL. Ratings skyrocketed during the story’s climax (ranked in 2nd place).

AMC’s most recent murder mystery, helmed by disgraced Megan McTavish, was the Satin serial killer and that fizzled- creatively and commercially.

ATWT’s ode to the teen slasher flicks got more laughs than screams in August 2006. Though, it was not enough to run Jean Passanante out of Oakdale.

Robert Guza Jr. botched the who killed Dr. Rick Webber story on GH.

OLTL had their fair share of murder mysteries over the years (many would say way too much). Michael Malone’s & Josh Griffith’s The Music Box killings were disappointing, while Dena Higley’s & Ron Carlivati’s who killed Dr. Spencer Truman story rendered viewers indifferent to the outcome.

Here’s what SOD wrote about Port Charles’ General Homicide mystery (Note: Lynn Marie Latham was head writer at the time, and this was the period in which Kay Alden called PC "unwatchable".): “Sorry, but this story has one on way too long, has not developed enough of a following and hasn’t claimed a single popular core character. “Scotty’s the killer!” “No, it’s Julie!” “No, it’s Eve!” “Wait, it’s Victor!” How about this: “It’s over!” (SOD, 9/15/98)

[EricMontreal22]

Loving's final murder mysteries were exciting and compelling--but none of Brown and Esenstein's later attempts to bring back that magic have reallyw orked (it was particularly a huge and awful mistake to do a similar story on The City 6 months later--)

McTavish struck gold with WHo Killed Will on AMC in the early 90s (AMC had long had a reputation for not being the best with murder mysteries) and it seemed she tried to recreate it with the Who Killed Michael mystery when she got back to the show with diminishign results 9though it was gold compared to the Satin Slayer story)

[poohbear19]

I actually liked Port Charles’ General Homicide, or at least parts of it. Sunset Beach's serial killer one when they were all on an island was okay too. Overall, I can't even remember the last decent murder mystery I saw on soaps.

[RuAsRuAnAu]

The General Homicide story was more engaging b/c of the crossover b/w GH & PC. The crossover gave both shows an added spark. The writers for the GH story were Guza Jr. & LML.

[Quent]

ATWT had two great murder mysteries: who killed Tad Channing? and who killed James Stenbeck? Of course, Stenbeck never dies, but all the major characters had a legitimate reason to kill him. Barbara (who went to prison for it), Lucinda and Emily (then played by the voluptious Melanie Smith) were the main suspects. The best murder mystery I ever saw was on Edge of Night (OK, I was just a kid!), the Stephanie Martin murder. So well done, but so different from today. Back then, each suspect had their day on the witness stand, usually for the whole episode.

[RuAsRuAnAu]

I think the show that created and executed the best murder mysteries was The Edge of Night. The stories, the acting, the music, the mood; it was very well done.

I must say that the music during DOOL's Salem Serial Killer story was perfectly gothic. I loved the scene where the lights go out at the pub & the expression on Maggie's face. That's what you call chilling.

[dm.]

SUNSET BEACH did great with the Terror Island storyline.

[Shawn]

Loving had one of the best serial killer stories. Christine Tudor played Gwen with terrifying brilliance, and the reveal of her as the killer before sticking a syringe in her own neck, man oh man, that was INCREDIBLE! She was robbed at Emmy time.

Also, during DAYS' SSK storyline, Maggie's "murder" really did make me cry. Suzanne's portrayal broke my heart.

[quartermainefan]

Agatha Christie is said to have written all her solutions first and then write the rest. What makes a murder mystery work is the solution and nothing but the solution I think. It can be silly and ridiculous all the way through, but if the ending makes sense, the clues were in front of you and you still couldn't figure it out, you will immediately forgive everything and judge it on the ending. If the ending is obvious, and just dumb, you will remember how silly it all was. And if it's GH and the "who killed Faith?" mystery where they never revealed the killer, all you remember is they never revealed the killer.

[sungrey]

You could never beat Edge and its murder mysteries. They always made sense, even when Lee Sheldon took over in the final year.

Brown and Esensten are among my favorite writers, thanks largely to the Loving Murders. That story was so well done and the Loving cast was robbed that year of Emmy consideration.

[JackPeyton]

The Loving Murders were great, i was pretty young when they happend but i member my great grandmother was into it. lol.

Days was amazing with the SSK storyline. IMHO, best eppy ever was when the killer killed Maggie. Suzanne Rogers > Anyone else on Days (or daytime..). She was so robbed of an emmy.

oh and SuBe Terror Island. I was obsessed!!

Spyder Games did a great oen as well.

[RuAsRuAnAu]

Other good murder mysteries were: Who killed Damian Smith (GH-1996) & Who killed Luis Alcazar (GH-2002)

Halfway through writing any Who Killed...? story, the killer should already be decided upon. I dislike MIUAYG stories. Because of that, Lindsay Rappaport is Spencer Truman's murderer on OLTL. I'd like to know who his original killer was supposed to be. Some say Dr. Paige Miller.

I hope the who killed Leticia on GH isn't another MIUAYG story.

[Paul Raven]

The Salem Strangler story deserves a mention here.

I think it was the first of its kind on a soap.It included the famous killing of Marlena(actually her twin Samantha)

Mary Anderson was also killed,Renee was strangled but survived.It wasn't just minor characters who were threatened.

However,it was pretty clear that either Joshua or Jake was the strangler.That being the case,there was suspense as to which of them was going to be the killer.

I always thought that Evan Whyland would have been a good suspect as well.He was fairly new to the show and it was srated that his wife was dead- it could have been revealed that she was strangled!

Pat Falken Smith started this story and Margaret DePriest/Sheri Anderson continued it.

Days(never a show not to repeat stories)tried again with the Salem Stalker and Riverfront Knifer stories.

Margaret DePriest tried a similar story on Another World with the Sin Stalker but it didn't have the same impact.

[RuAsRuAnAu]

Well, the Sin Stalker had a huge negative impact. It led to DePriest & JFP being fired from Another World and ratings declined (and remained stagnant) for the show. Many critics of the story said Frankie's death was unnecessary and extremely violent. Although, the way she was murdered is the same type of thing which occurs on many primetime dramas.

What type of reaction would there be if GL's Vanessa was murdered? AMC killed off a major character in Dixie Cooney this year, and yet they are not the lowest rated daytime show.

[Paul Raven]

Actually,The Sin Stalker story occured in 86 /87.Victims included Quinn Harding,Maisie and Greg Houston.The stalker was Alan Glaser.

Fax Newman was Frankie's killer.That story occurred about 10 years later.