“B” is for Blackmail — A to Z Blogging Challenge 2022

For those who missed my Theme Reveal post, my topic for this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge is

Elements of Crime Fiction.

I am a great fan of detective novels. Cosy mysteries, police procedurals, psychological thrillers– you name it. For the month of April I am going to try and break up crime fiction into its components and see what makes it tick.

Today’s topic is :

BLACKMAIL

As a motive for many a crime, blackmail often finds its way into a detective story. The blackmailer threatens to destroy reputations, leading to broken engagements, annulled marriages and altered wills.

The victim of a blackmailer becomes desperate and is driven to desperate deeds like theft, forgery and murder. In Agatha Christie’s ‘Death On The Nile’, Linnet Doyle’s maid is murdered because she is extorting money from Linnet’s killer. In ‘Murder In The Mews’ (by Agatha Christie), blackmail leads a young woman to commit suicide. In Arthur Conan Doyle’s ‘Scandal In Bohemia’, Sherlock Holmes recovers an incriminating photograph from actress Irene Adler to safeguard the reputation of a royal personage.