Daryl Smith | Updates

How to write a good murder mystery?

Daryl Smith — Sat, 23 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I haven't written a lot of mysteries, but I've read and watched a ton of them. How to write a good mystery?

It's really important to know where you're going. For me, I start with the end. Who did it and why? How did they do it? Who will they try to frame? How will they be caught?

From there, you work backwards. Figure out how they got to this ending.

Then you add the red herrings. The persons with motives and or opportunity who really didn't commit the murder. Often these will be criminals themselves with something real to hide, a reason for lying to the police or the inspector. You need at least 5 of these to have a good compelling mystery. It's less interesting unless you have a plethora of suspects.

A mystery needs to be solvable, so you need to provide sufficient clues that a discerning reader will be able to solve the mystery, but it can't be obvious, what is often called sign posting. Ideally if you do it right, something about the case of the red herring suspects will not quite align like the actual killer's does, and if the reader gets this, they will have a genuine sense of satisfaction in being able to solve your mystery.

Lastly, you need an interesting setting, but more importantly one you can make come alive. We writers tend to write what we know. Ideally you like to write about a place you've been, but it certainly needs to be a place that excites you the writer.

You do all this successfully and you should have a good mystery. I did this with my book The Christie's - A Christmas Murder 1984. I intend to do it successfully again with Murder in the Amazon.

I shall probably continue to do it as long as I am motivated and enjoy it.

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Death threat

Daryl Smith — Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I thought I'd post this. In a previous post in mentioned unbelievably I'd received death threats that had come about as a result of my authorship and trying to market my books. I wanted people to be able to see I wasn't kidding. I wasn't making it up. This is how low people can really go.

Don't worry about me. I'm not. The is in some ways laughable and pitiful attempt to make me afraid. That' all this is, I don't consider these threats serious or anything more than just that. The only thing I think whoever wrote this could pull off would be to review bomb me. I'm not completely sure that wouldn't be a good thing. More reviews are better, and if they bought the book or read it on kindle, please review bomb the hell out of me.

Seriously, if whoever wrote this is reading this post. I'm terrified.

Some people need to really get a life!

So, to any other reader, if you buy my books and read them, if review them, if you post about them on Goodreads, Bookbub, Booktok, or any other forum, you are taking a positive step against this kind of intimidation. You are saying we won't tolerate it.

Stand with me today against the forces of tyranny, suppression, hate, and intolerance. Promote my books in any way you can and tell these people "we're not going to take it," to quote the great 80's philosopher Dee Snider.

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I was once a Jedi the same as your father.

Daryl Smith — Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite lines from Star Wars.

Yes, many years ago I was a Sheriff's Reserve Officer. Wore a badge, carried a gun, the whole works. In the Sheriff's Reserve, we were unpaid volunteers. Yes, this meant that we took on some of the duties of full-time paid staff, as well as the risks for free!

Why am I writing this now? Some turkey in his critique on Amazon of my book accused me of "Stolen Valor!" as he put it. Stolen Valor is actually a crime. He asked me how many bodies I pulled out on 911.

So here I'm actually posting about my work in the Sheriff's Reserve office. 911 happened and I had applied to the Sheriff's Reserve Department. "What should I do?" I thought. President George Bush comes on and announces something to the effect of this is going to be a different kind of war, it's going to involve law enforcement and other agencies as well as the military.

So, I think if I join the military, this whole war maybe over by the time I was actually able to contribute. Plus I reasoned I was as likely to see real action in the Sheriff's department as I was the military. I grew up in the late 70's and 80's when people served 4 years or more and never saw a real deployment. Frankly a nice time that time period. Who needs to see real action?

Well, I never claimed to have pulled out bodies on 911. I did interview. Yes you had to interview for a volunteer job, you had to go in front of a panel. They asked you a lot of hard questions, wanted to make sure you were up for the challenge. I didn't start reserve academy until Jan 2002. Graduated and sworn in late April 2002. First day on the job Cinco De Mayo in Clark Park 2002. Chased a low-level perp my first day.

What stands out that day is there was a g something economic summit in Detroit. We were on standby in case some kind of real trouble broke out, a riot or something. I learned that day the role call thing that you on old cop shows at least then and I assume now is really real. We had an organizational meeting, the whole department, in advance of that day.

I spent much of 2002 supplementing the US Border Patrol on the Ambassador bridge. Among other things trying to make sure the wrong type of people, like those who perpetrated 911, didn't get in.

Over my 5 years as a Reserve Officer, I did many details, from the very boring like some festival somewhere to the more exciting like a fugitive recovery operation. Yes I did those too. A whole bunch of law enforcement entities got together and we had a list of persons with known warrants we were picking up.

I liked it. It was interesting. It was boring at times. I worked with many people who joined for the same reason. 911 hit them hard and they wanted to do something about it. I saw several persons of middle eastern descent from my old high school who joined when I did.

My grandpa served in WWII in the Army, drafted when he was 32. My dad served in Korea in the MC. Diffused bombs, so he told me. I served for 5 years in Sheriff's Reserve.

Why did I get out? I never planned to make a carrier out of it. I always planned on serving 5 years, but as it was I got married in 2007, and I felt as a married man I had a duty to my wife to focus on work that was paid.

That was almost 20 years ago, and there were guys older than I am now in the Reserve, but being a street cop, which is what I was, is for the young. I think I'm probably a little old for that now, besides, I served my time.

Don't tell me I stole any valor though. How many people put their butt on the line, yes on of the first thing they teach you is you are a target, all the time. A police uniform is like having a bullseye on you, working a thousand plus hours, or free?

I would bet some former officers would caution me against even making a post like this.

I've petitioned Amazon about this personal attack on me in the form of a book review for Stolen Valor. I as of yet haven't even heard back from them regarding this complaint.

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Buy two of my books, and I can tell you how I made this kind of a return in the stock market.

Daryl Smith — Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Hey all, I thought I'd post this picture so you can see that I wasn't kidding when I said I'm better than 98% of all money managers. That's a self-managed Schwab account. Notice the current 1 year return as of this morning. It's going to vary on the day, but it's been about 40%.

Honestly, most money managers, check this out and google it, research it elsewhere, don't beat the S&P 500. I whoop it's ass. It's 23.95% the last year as of this moment. I nearly double that.

So, I can't promise you anything, I'm not a professional, but my returns speak for themselves. The 2-year return would look pretty similar, slightly less, 71.3% this moment. I've seen it as high as 85% on a given day. You want to know how I made these kind of gains? Buy a couple of my books.

And just in case someone's thinking about, I'm not looking for a financial professional. I've got a friend who does better than me I bounce idea's off of. Why would I want some pro who can't beat me?

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You need Jesus!! Why I write.

Daryl Smith — Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My books have profanity. My books have serious sexual situations. My books have murder and rape. My books have women's self-defense and ball busting. I write to entertain. I write to provide some of my own wisdom I've learned in life. I write to teach things and highlight certain historical facts.

But more than anything, I write in the hope that people will be led to Jesus Christ. I am a Christian first and foremost. There is no higher calling for the Christian than to see others come to salvation through Jesus Christ, the only way to salvation. There is no other name under heaven and earth by which one might be saved, that mean go to heaven when you die, that means spared from Eternal damnation and being burned for eternity, then the name of Jesus Christ.

His name saved me. In my latest book, the Christie's, a great murder mystery by the way, I insert myself into the narrative as James, and I proceed to describe some real-life events in my life that led me to be the Christian I am today. If you read the Christie's, most of it is fiction, the experience of James, the near-death experience from drugs, the being set free in the name of Jesus, is all absolutely true and just as I remember it. Go ahead and enjoy the fictional portion of the Christie's, but when you read about James, it's just as I remember it.

My books are basically tracks. In most of them, the preface is an exhortation to accept Jesus. This may turn people off, this may cost me sales. I don't care! I will proclaim the name of Jesus if it costs me everything.

The one thing I can say to the Christian, if you buy one of my books, you are helping elevate books that share the gospel. Even the more risque one's like Jungle Jen, which makes a great gift for a non-Christian who love romantic adventure.

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The Life of an Indie Author

Daryl Smith — Sun, 17 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Greetings.

Any non-author probably has no idea what it's like to be an Independent Author. First of all thank the Lord Jesus I currently have a good paying job. My family would starve on what I've made as an Indie Author. I do not in ANY WAY recommend it as a primary source o income. You spend money advertising and get next to no sales. It's basically all expense and no income.

Then, what's even worse is the constant stream of con emails and phone calls you get, people promising you the world. It can't say for sure there all a con, but I've got enough experience to reasonably think so. Someone wanted $250 just to do x-ray enablement and A+ contenting. So I did it myself, and did it well, better than someone could do who didn't know my book. Do you know how many sales I got...$0. That's right zero, didn't even move the needle.

You get men writing you from Africa, pretending to be women, going by the name of Rose or Elizabeth Karen on Fiverr from the UK, and they are men. They can barely speak English. They probably use AI to even communicate with you. This person who could barely speak English wanted $250 per month to market my book. I seriously wouldn't pay them 250 cents to do any marketing for me. I'd seriously rather give it to a bum in the streets.

These people all use gmail accounts. I've started seriously telling some of them find something other than gmail. Nothing says Shyster like a gmail account.

Some of them pretend to be famous authors. I've seriously got emails from Daniel Silva, James Patterson, Evie Woods, and others. At least Evie Woods warns people she's being impersonated on gmail. Thanks Evie, appreciate it, for real! What these lying dufuses don't realize is even a complete moron isn't going to believe that several famous authors like their work.

The, on top of that, for real, come the death threats. I can't say all Indies get them, but I started getting them, I told some of these guys who I was actually considering that I'm not doing business unless I can do a lie video conference, get a business address, see a LinkedIn account or something that makes them more than just an anonymous email address. I laugh at them.

Some of their threats are ridiculously over the top. Of the many things this scum of the earth threatens, the only one that's mildly plausible is to flood me with bad reviews. I would love if they did that if they at least bought a book to give a verified purchase. Maybe they reason they haven't done this yet is they be helping if they starting doing that by giving me enough reviews to get noticed. I'm wildly speculating here. More likely is these cowards are too lazy to actually follow through on any of there threats.

So, I now say to you out there, if you got some kind of scheme, don't bother. whatever new marketing service or scheme you have, I'm not interested. I may ask you a question. I'm just fooling around with you. I'll try to catch you in a lie just for fun. I will NEVER do business with you. If you want to waste your time, go ahead. Maybe I'll delete it, maybe I'll respond.

One last thing these turkey's do. They'll try to tell you they read your book, but it's obvious they are just quoting the blurb. I love to mess with these guys. Then they say "oh, you caught me," as if I'd really do business with a liar. Hallaroius. Not only that, but what these turkeys may not even know is as any author, you've got access to reports so you can see what you've sold! Some liar comes and says I just read your book, and I see no kindle pages read or no sales in 2 weeks!

At least it's not been boring!!

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