The Complexities of Heroes and Villains in Mystery

No one is all of one thing. In mystery novels, as in life, if you dig deep enough, heroes have flaws and villains have sympathetic traits. So how do you make them equally complex? Equally compelling? And how do you use them to your advantage when writing fiction, so readers know who to root for and who to root against without being didactic? Using techniques from mystery fiction, we’ll examine how to make these complex characters come alive in your work.