Who is the the most important character in a murder mystery? If you answered "the detective" you're only half right. Certainly the detective, or hero is the central character. This is the one we spend the most time with. Often it is through the eyes of this character that we view the story. There is no doubt this person is the main character. But is she/he the most important?
A strong argument can be made that the murderer is the most important character. Think about it. His/Her actions are the foundations of the entire plot. He commits the murder. Your whole story hangs from that all important plot point. Without the murder there is no story.
Unless there is a murder Hercule Poirot has no exercise for the little gray cells. Miss Marple has no reason to put down her knitting. Dr. Gideon Fell has no reason to stop work on his monumental "History of Beer Drinking Habits of The English People". Even Betsey Devonshire has no reason to leave her needlework shop.
So as a reader I am particularly annoyed by two-dimensional murderers I just plowed through some sixty-five thousand words for a cardboard cut out.
For starters, how about we give him a reason to kill. Too many times I have seen two hundred pages of engaging plot end in "He did it 'cause he's crazy". Or the ever present "it was an accident!" Please! You know what you do in that case? You call the ambulance and the cops. You cry real tears and shout "mea culpa" all over the place. Ta Da, the story ends in an easy two hundred pages. Though now it a tragedy instead of a mystery.
Give him a reason to kill! Need; the need, to hide someting, the need to keep something. Love; the love of self, the love of another, the love money, (come on who doesn't love money?). And nothing drives an antagonist like good old fashioned revenge.
Give your murderer some depth. Make him likable. Give me a reason to be surprised he murdered six people with a spatchula and a rubber band. And please above all else do not resort to serial killers I loath a serial killer. As a plot twist it is singularly unimaginative.
All that I am asking for is a murderer with a little more depth than the paper he's printed on.
I agree, even Scooby Doo found reasons for, ok maybe not murder, but the found reasons to dress up like old ghost story characters and scare people. I also suppose it speaks volumes about me that I enjoy writing the murderer the most... >:) I would like to see a murderer that killed someone because it was the right thing to do... And then still goes to jail at the end.
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