Detective story Essays

Detective story Essays Detective story Essay Detective story Essay Essay Topic: City Lights I needed a new case fast. Sitting in my dump of an office was not going to earn me money. It had been a while since I was in action, and my office looked like a huge tornado had walked through it. The wallpaper was beginning to peel off and turn yellow. My desk looked like it had seen better days and my floor didnt even exist due to the sea of papers. I was beginning to get a headache thinking about the state of the place. One glass of whisky should solve that problem.As I sunk into my leather chair, I turned and looked out of the window. That was the only positive aspect about being in this office. The view was magnificent, especially in the evening when the city lights were on. With darkness covering the city, all its flaws were hidden and for a few hours every night, London looked attractive.I was beginning to relax when a knock on the door ruined the peace. I muttered a curse and yelled Come in. The door slowly creaked open and my annoyance increased. For goodness sake, the door wasnt that hard to open and the area around it was actually paper free. But my complaints stopped short when I saw who stepped in. This one was a looker. Even just looking at her legs was enough to tell me that this was going to be an interesting client. My eyes travelled from her legs further upwards to find a tight-fitting black pencil skirt that wrapped itself snugly around her legs and hips and a pristine white shirt that clung to the top half of her body, outlining her wonderful figure.After staring at that for a while, I finally tore my eyes away to look at her face, I wasnt disappointed. Blessed with such a body, she even had the face to match. Golden blonde hair that was carefully styled framed a face that had a pair of big, crystal-blue eyes, a petite nose and round, full lips. I must have had my mouth hanging open as her luscious lips curved into a dangerous smile that told me she knew she had this affect on men.Her eyes scanned my shabby office, ta king in the peeling wallpaper and the avalanche of files. Youre needing a spring-cleaning here detective, she finally said, her voice soft but also with a playful edge to it. I grinned. Oh it needs much more than that, miss? Jeyman. But I prefer to be called Carla. Nice to make your acquaintance, Carla. Im terribly sorry, I would offer you a seat if there was Carla smiled. No its quite alright detective. This will only take a moment. Her eyes darted nervously around the room, as if she didnt want to meet my eye. Well she began hesitantly. For nearly a month now I have had someone stalking me her voice faded away and she glanced at me from under her long lashes. I nodded, signalling her to continue. But this person stalking me is nothing like the usual ones. You know, the ones who constantly call you, leave you gifts like flowers and chocolates. She seemed to turn pale as she told her story and she began to tremble slightly.You cant imagine, detective, the kind of sick and disgusting things this person leaves outside my door. She stopped and closed her eyes momentarily. When she opened them, tears were brimming at the edges. I was taken aback. My first impression of this woman was nothing like what it was before. She then reached into her handbag and pulled out a brown envelope. I hope you dont think strangely of me detective, but I took a picture of every gift he left me. I gave her a reassuring smile. Youve helped me immensely here Carla, by taking the pictures. I assure you that I will out who it is.I escorted Carla as far as the door then returned to my desk. I took a deep breath and poured out the contents of the envelope onto my desk. There were about thirteen Polaroids and another smaller envelope. I picked up the first one and nearly fell out of my chair. I was disgusted. The picture showed someones waste arranged to form the message Darling Love with several splatters of blood around it. This was something no lady should encounter. I was also curious a s to what the smaller envelope contained, and proceeded to open it. What slid out of it made me whistle. A cheque of five thousand pounds stared at me. Carla must have been extremely desperate, but what puzzled me was why she didnt go and report it earlier. I mentally kicked myself for forgetting to ask her.As I was about to look at the next picture, I heard a knock. Was it Carla again? Come in! I yelled. My facial expression must have been obvious as my old partner, Tom Hosp, smirked and said So glad to see you too. I pretended to not hear him and looked at the second picture instead. Oh Im hurt Matt, wheres the welcoming of an old friend? Have a seat, I said. If you can find one. I looked down at the next picture. This one was a horror. It looked like someone had butchered a whole generation of pigeons and chopped off their heads and this time the message was Love You. Suddenly the Polaroid disappeared from my hands and I looked up in annoyance to find Tom examining it, his mouth the shape of an o. I sighed. About half an hour ago, a pretty lady came to me about a nutcase who leaves her gifts. Not like ideal thing to give a lady huh. Oh man, Ive seen something like this before. I perked up. You have? Sure.About two months ago I had complaints from a few women and a man that they were had all sorts of rubbish arranged into a message. What? Men as well? Yeah. Seems like this one swings both ways. Oh Lord. Did you guys ever find out who did it? No. The harassments stopped after they were reported so were never pursued it. Now its back again. Was there any particular pattern? Hmm. They were all very good looking people and had money. I nodded. That matches. When they complained, how long had it been happening for? For nearly a month, they all said. They didnt report it straight away though, they thought it would stop after a week. That answered my question as to why Carla didnt do something about it as soon as she received her first gift. So thinking about it, t he gifts that Carla is getting should stop as shes reported it now, right? If her stalker is following her every move, then yes, it should stop. But that would mean that the perp would most likely find someone else to bother. I started massaging my temples. This case was turning out to be more complicated than I thought.Tom had finally managed to persuade me to come out for a drink. Come on! You being cooped up in here all day is degrading your looks, he joked. I ignored him and focused on my whisky, drinking it slowly and feeling the warmth spread through my body. I didnt want to drink too much. A clear mind was needed because I had misjudged how much work was needed for this case. I finished the drink and turned to Tom. Im heading back to the office. I need time to think about this case. Ill catch up with you later. Tom began to protest but I had reached the door, and the cold wind outside drowned out his voice. I quickened my walking pace, as the wind was beginning to get violent . Really, London weather was so unpredictable. One minute you have sunshine, the next a thunderstorm.From a distance, I noticed that something was not right. I clearly remembered switching off the porch light when I left with Tom. I slowed down my walking and made my steps silent. With Carla coming to me earlier about someone following her, I wasnt taking any chances. As I got closer, I felt a chill running through my spine. There on the landing in front of me, was blood everywhere and to me it looked like animal guts. I felt my blood run cold at the message: Youre Next.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia By Mark Nichol How do you represent various sounds in writing? The term for vocal (and written) imitation of sounds, onomatopoeia, means â€Å"to make names.† (The word, a Latinization of a Greek word, consists of the term that is also the origin of name, nominal, and the like and the one from which poem and poet are derived.) But making names is complicated by the fact that spelling of sounds is arbitrary. Various languages represent common sounds with uncommonly assorted words. What in English would be spelled chomp or munch is in Indonesian krauk and in Japanese musha-musha. Shh, or hush, is translated as psszt in Hungarian and cht in Spanish. Achoo! is spelled apchix in Bulgarian and achhee! in Hindi. Sometimes for instance, because a frog in one country is a different species from one in another country and therefore may actually make a different sound this variation is logical. But often (look up the various representations for meow around the world) the differences are perplexing. But even within one language, a writer is challenged by the ambiguity of sounds. How, exactly, does one spell a yell? That word itself is onomatopoeic, but â€Å"Yell!† is not a yell. A cry of anger is distinct from one of fear. And an exclamation of pain could be spelled starting with an a (â€Å"Aughhh!†), an o (â€Å"Owww!†), or a y (â€Å"Yeow!†). Some variation from what a reader may be accustomed to is reasonable: If I routinely spelled an archvillain’s triumphant evil laugh â€Å"Bwah-hah-hah!† I would be distracted but not derailed to see it treated as â€Å"Muah-ha-ha!† But â€Å"Myau† would not alert me to the presence of a cat; in English, either the spelling above or the British English preference, miaow (or mew, a variation suggesting a gentler cry) is standard. But how do I know that? The compositional catch-22 â€Å"How can I look something up in the dictionary if I don’t know how to spell it?† may come into play, especially when the word starts with a vowel. But that’s step number one: Look it up. Is a donkey’s bray spelled â€Å"Hee haw†? Type the word into Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary, and you’ll learn whether your guess is validated. (In this case, English is in the minority among languages, most of which begin spelling of that sound with a vowel.) Or rely on your reading whether your sources are science journals or comic books, some standard is likely to prevail. Neologisms or words not generally granted legitimacy in writing (fuggedaboudit, anyone?) can be a challenge, but try an online search if you’re not sure. You’ll likely get a response for more than one alternative, but apply the quality test, not the quantity test: Judge the preferred spelling not on which is most frequent, but which is used on the most authoritative (or least questionable) sites. But in the right circumstance, go ahead and take a chance. If you desire, for example, that a character respond to another’s cattiness, a flat utterance of â€Å"Meow† may convey the first person’s cynical understatement, whereas â€Å"Reerrrrrrrrrrr!† will, despite its lack of resemblance to the standard spelling, clearly evoke an unambiguous judgment about the second character’s provocative statement or behavior. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Fly, Flew, (has) FlownFlied?Ten Yiddish Expressions You Should KnowThrew and Through