The Mystery Writer's Secret

• Mahera Haque, Grade 7, Lauriston Girls' School
• Poetry
• 2000

3rd in the 'Watch Out! 2000' competition

(Used by Agatha Christie, Arthur Doyle and me)

To write a good mystery,
You don’t have to be,
An Agatha Christie,
Or drink English tea.
You just need a setting,
Some characters too,
A foreign detective,
Plus a vital clue.
A character is murdered,
She is stabbed to death,
The detective is brought in,
To unscramble the mess.
He thinks and looks and interviews too,
All around one vital clue.
He works it out and it turns out to be…
The person you least expected it to be.