How do I kill thee? Let me count the ways.

JENN MCKINLAY: Seriously, having written more than thirty plus murder mysteries, I’m beginning to lose track of my homicides! Even doing simple math (not my gift) I figure I’ve fictionally murdered a minimum of thirty-six people and I have mostly forgotten how. Huh. I’m not really sure what this says about me as a person and I’m not sure I want to know, so let’s just move along, shall we? Excellent.

Pie Chart! Yes, to help figure out my most used methods of murder, I made a pie chart. Again, not really sure what this says about me…but look at the pretty colors! And, probably, you don’t want to hang out around me and sharp objects at the same time since stabbing people seems my most preferred method of murder. Who knew? Of course, poisoning, bludgeoning, shooting, and strangling are all throwing elbows for second place, so it’ll be interesting to see how this chart shapes up in another thirty-six books.

Once I realized I needed to do less stabbing and more pushing off buildings or drownings, I then wanted to see if I had a pattern for murderers and victims. Interestingly enough, my murderers are pretty much split down the gender middle in a fifteen to sixteen split, but the victims are a whole different chart with men being the victims three times more often than women.

After seeing this, the Hub may never sleep again, at least not unless he hides the knives!

So, what about you Reds? What’s your preferred method of murder if you have one? And what about your murderers and victims? Any patterns there?

HALLIE EPHRON: I'm afraid I'm an outlier here. My books often don't have murders in them... so I guess technically they're not murder mysteries. Having said that, when I do resort to murder it's usually (I had to go back to figure this out) a bop on the head followed by drowning (twice). If you count attempted murder, then fire. Insulin poisoning. Tylenol poisoning. And my victims are as often women as men... as are the perps.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I hate the part where you have to kill the people. I once said to Jonathan--maybe they could just get badly hurt? And J said: you are not writing badly-hurt mysteries, you are writing murder mysteries. Anyway, I am not much for weird or complicated causes of death. I go for matter of fact. Most of my victims..let's see.  Car accident. Pushed down stairs. (Not a reliable method.)  Drowning. Stabbing. (See how unpleasant this all is?) Head bopping then fire. Guns are loud, strangling takes too long. It's all very..difficult.

 And my victim-murderer ratio is about equal.  Although, wait. You know? More women as bad guys.  And about equal victims. 

Please pass the pie.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Pie chart!!! I LOVE it! I usually make lists in my notebook, which are not nearly as pretty. Let's see...electrocution (my very first murder!), bludgeoning, drowning, poisoning, shotgun, hit-and-run by car, grenade... But by my unscientific reckoning, I would watch out for blunt instruments around me. I never tend to go in for very complicated offings--I'm more interested in motive than method. And there have been murders that I really, really almost couldn't bring myself to commit.

I think I'm pretty good on the gender equality scale as far as perps and victims, but will now have to go make another list...

LUCY BURDETTE: I'm not pie-chart methodical, Jenn, but my hub tells everyone that if he dies suddenly they should demand an autopsy! Thinking back over the Key West mysteries, I'm remembering more clunks on the head than anything else. Though poison is up there too...there were many worried looks exchanged at a dinner party where I showed up with a key lime parfait. Apparently, they'd discussed the murder in AN APPETITE FOR MURDER ahead of time.

The good thing about writing lighter is I don't feel obligated to describe too much of the deed itself. However, I do have to clean up the mess...

INGRID THOFT: It’s hard to find a good way to kill someone!  Really!  So far, I’ve gone with drowning, bludgeoning with a blunt object, pushing someone so the victim smashes her head, and poisoning.  Stabbings are very messy and require the killer to be especially vicious and cold, and strangulation, as Hank noted, takes time and also strength.  I have a close to even split on men and women as both murderers and victims.  I’m very equal opportunity!

RHYS BOWEN: I don't think much about clever methods of killing. In real life I think murderers plan the easiest method. Usually it's done out of desperation or on the spur of the moment. So I've hit people over the head with a blunt object, I've stabbed, shot, poisoned, pushed off a cliff and out of a boat, strangled and shut one poor girl in a steam room with the setting on maximum. (Yes, that was about the most gruesome I've ever done)

I once took a train up a Welsh mountain to see where I could push somebody out and they'd fall to their death. I saw the perfect spot and said excitedly to my friend, "This is it. If he fell out here, he'd go down a thousand feet!" Then I looked up and everyone else in the carriage had moved as far away from me as possible.

HANK: Exactly Rhys! Once at a restaurant I said to Jonathan: "You can't just push someone off a bridge. You can't be sure they'd actually die."  And the waiter, who turned out was standing right there, was...unsettled. Anyway, what's your gender ratio?

RHYS: I think I have rather more male murderers but the females have been pretty creepy. But a pie chart? Can I see myself saying, "Oh, let's drown this one in the bathtub. We haven't done that for a while!"

What about you, Readers? Do you have a preferred method of fictional murder? When reading, do you find yourself noticing the gender of the murderer or victims?