How Does This Way Nobody Get The Blame Build Suspense

Suspense is a mental uncertainty or anxiety. It can also be defined as the state of being undecided or doubtful. Authors of mysteries include elements such as foreshadowing, red herrings, and closed settings to help create suspense. The short stories “This Way Nobody Gets the Blame,” “The Adventure of the Speckled Band,” and “Invitation to a Murder,” include these elements and are examples of well-balanced and well-defined mystery stories. The authors of these stories write interesting and suspenseful stories/mysteries. Elements such as foreshadowing, red herrings, time, and location help make a mystery story entertaining. For instance, Lesley Grant Adamson effectively uses foreshadowing in “This Way Nobody Gets the Blame.” An example of foreshadowing can be found in

“He was a terribly unconvincing actor, his irritation undisguised. She’d experienced a lot of it lately. Nobody would have dreamed the whole mess was his fault and not hers” (120-121). In this scene, Ella is upset because she is stuck in a situation just because Phil made a mistake. This demonstrates foreshadowing because it hints the reader of Ella’s motive for wanting to kill Phil and what may happen later in the story. Additionally, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle includes red herrings in the short story, “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” The use of red herrings can be seen near the beginning of the story when Helen Stoner tells Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson about Stoke Moran. “He had no friends at all save the wandering gypsies, and he would give these vagabonds leave to encamp upon the few acres of bramble-covered land which represent the family estate, and would accept in return the hospitality of their tents, wandering away with them sometimes for weeks on end” (111). In this part of the story, both the reader and Holmes discover that gypsies were always present on/in the lawns outside of