#1 [url]

Apr 15 07 9:33 AM

I've read structures like that a lot in crime.

One, there is the story in the present time, where the Private Eye (or other hero) has to solve the riddle and at the same time has to deal with a love affair, his boss, bad health, his wife, and so on.
Two, there is the story behind the crime, that has led to the murder (in most cases). In order to find out whodunnit, the PI has to "step into the past" (evidence, interviews, deduction, and other research) to find out what happened.
In the better stories, that what has happened in the past (a mystery shrouding the solution of the whodunnit) still works out in the present, as in the murderer tries to cover things up by sending a love intrest to the hero, bribe the boss, treathens wife and children, and so on.

This can be done at a large scale, especially when it is about large conspiracies as in The Da Vinci Code. The riddle of what happened 2000 years ago is working out in the past (okay, I never read the Da Vinci Code, but that's what I gather from it).

The problem of the HOW can be solved in many ways. Flashbacks, being told by the MC, frame story.