© Yvette Prior
“Between the booze and the coffin nails, it’s like a monument to death, right Turner?”
Detective Gerard Harrington waved his hand over the desk of the deceased while nodding at Officer Dawn Turner.
“I guess so, Sir.” She wasn’t a fan of the flamboyant homicide investigator’s style, but everyone in the department knew he was the best in the business. “So this was a murder?”
“Nah. It’ll take an autopsy, but I’m betting these leaky cigarette lighters he collected did him in. Lung disease didn’t help, but it was the butane fumes that killed him.”
I wrote this for the Rochelle Wisoff-Fields flash fiction challenge. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a piece of flash fiction no more than 100 words long. My word count is 95. Do you know how hard it is to write a murder mystery in less than 100 words?
To read other stories based on the prompt, visit InLinkz.com.
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Dear James,
Death by butane. Now that’s a switch. To quote Artie Johnson, “Verrrry Interesting…”
Shalom,
Rochelle
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It was the only thing I could come up with on short notice. Thanks.
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Liked this take on the prompt – liked how you switched from the obvious: cigarettes and liquor – to butane instead!
. 🙂
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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It was tough coming up with a cause of death that wasn’t obvious but was in the photo.
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I would suspect a longer, more lingering death. That said, it looks preferable to that sort of life. As a recovered alcholic, I have seen this very thing many times. Well done
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Thanks, Josh.
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A stealthy end. I like the two detectives.
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Thank you.
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Great opening and an intriguing take.
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Thanks, yarnspinnerr.
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If I was investigating I would smell foul play – too many obvious clues – liquer, smokes, lighters – left to distract from the real cause of death!
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I only had 100 words to play with. Not enough to be subtle. 😉
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I believe he died of a broken heart
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I considered something like that, but I wanted the reveal to be a kind of clever. Thanks.
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It worked
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With a lungs full of butane, perhaps he lit a cigarette and there was a back blast down his throat. What novel way to go, self -inflicted addiction.
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Nice you didn’t take the obvious route.
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Thanks, Dale.
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You’ve written an ingenious take on the prompt. The ambitious Officer Dawn Turner might make quite a character for something longer.
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I suppose they both could, Penny. Thanks.
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I guess butane would do it, all right, if you played with enough lighters. And just to show you how innocent I am, I had no idea what those things in the bowl were until I’d read a couple of posts 🙂 No, I don’t smoke. Never have, never will.
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Mystery is thickening. Nice story.
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Thanks. It’s as thick as it’s going to get.
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Dawn and Gerard could make a perfect odd-couple detective pair.
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Perhaps, but I really haven’t thought them through any more than this story.
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Really good stuff, love the irony
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Thanks.
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Great take and I really liked the subtle suggestion of tension between the characters.
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Thanks, Jilly.
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Intriguing murder mystery, very nice! =)
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Thanks, Brenda.
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Massively intriguing.
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Thanks.
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