Happy Monday! It’s time for a pop quiz! Ah, come on, play along here. It’s only one question. First read the paragraph below, then the question. Take a minute to consider your answer, then check your answer against the answer below:
A woman, while at the funeral of her own mother, met a man she didn’t know. She thought this guy was amazing, so much her dream guy, that she believed him to be just that! She fell in love with him right there, but never asked for his number and couldn’t find him. A few days later she killed her sister.
Question: What is her motive in killing her sister? (Give this some thought
before you answer).
So, do you have your answer? No peeking until you think up your answer!
Answer: She was hoping that the guy would appear at the funeral again.
If you answered this correctly, you think like a psychopath.
This little test of my sanity came to me over the Internet, and supposedly it is a test
by a famous American Psychologist used to test if one has the same mentality as a killer. The claim is that many arrested serial killers took part in the test and answered the question correctly. So if you answered the question correctly…you think like a serial killer!
My niece sent me this because she thought as a mystery writer I might guess the answer. (Or, she questions my sanity but I prefer to think positively.)
I got the answer wrong. Not because I lack any killer mentality, but because as I read the question, I formed a character in my mind. I could see her clearly standing in her high heels in the wet grass of the cemetery, watching this guy across the casket of her dead mother. I felt her interest in the man, the connection she felt when he looked at her. She knew that he recognized her as his soul mate, just as she recognized him.
Then she caught her sister looking at him too. The slut. Her sister has always been a jealous vengeful slut. Always trying to steal whatever the woman has.
I knew exactly why the woman killed her sister—she was not going to let her sister steal her perfect, amazing man. No freaking way. Not after all the years their mother favored her sister, but now their mother was dead and she was free…
Then I read the answer that the woman killed her sister to see the man again. And immediately I saw plot holes. Big, gaping plot holes. Why would she kill her sister if she didn’t know for sure the man knew her? The woman had no idea who the man was or why he was at her mother’s funeral—she only knew the very important fact that he was her dream guy, her soul mate. And that her sister was going to screw it up, steal him, and turn him against her. So the “right” answer didn’t ring true to the character forming in my head.
So what’s the moral of this story? Well, I don’t think you can determine whether or not someone will kill by a set of questions, for one thing. What makes a killer is much more complex than that. If it was that simple, we could wipe out killing just like we wiped out polio.
But I also think that writers have trained their minds to respond differently to provocative questions. In fact, I bet all five of us here at Murder She Writes would come up with different answers. That’s why questions like these can be fun!
So what about you all? Are you killers in the making, or pleasantly sane people?
Add to Google
Huh.
Despite the username I’m currently using, I’m actually Sane!
Whew. I flunked. Loved this. I kept on looking for a confusing relationship loophole.
The good news is I’m sane.
My guess was that the man of her dreams was really her older cross-dressing sister that her mother gave up for adoption. I hadn’t gotten to the *why* of the murder when I read on. Now I see possibilities. She’s outraged because her mother left all her money to her sister. She’s unbalanced over her mother’s death and when she learns her dream man is her sister, she loses it.
LOL, I’m stopping before anyone wonders if I’m insane after all.
Oh, crap, I passed…lol Great question, Jen.
My mother never said I was normal, she always told me I was “special.” The test told me, well not that I’m normal, but I’m not of the killer mentality.
Great test Jen.
May, I just had to go check your user name, LOL! Okay you are sane enough to think up a cute username–one that I can often relate to.
Reenie, pretty cool when you flunk a test and that turns out to be a good thing, huh?
Edie, cross dressing sister…ROFL! I hadn’t thought of that, but sure, I can see it.
Oh Deb, Deb, Deb! Too funny that you passed! And now I’m even more anxious to get your book. I went to a friend’s Grand Opening of her little bookstore, just sure she’d have your book. She did–but sold it before I got there! I’ll get your book! I’ll get your books soon!
Cele, you are very special, just not Killer Special! I don’t remember my mom calling me special or normal, but she called me by my dog’s name a lot. Duke was a ugly but lovable Boxer. Hmmm, I might not want to think about that too much, LOL
–normal. Instead of having them out in the cemetery I had them gazing soulfully (and yes, a bit lustfully) at each other over the open casket in the funeral home…he was pretty hot, a UC cop I think, and he was packing, boy was he packing…
I flunked the question, but my sanity is still . . . in question.
Okay, here’s my scenario . . . she’s half-in-love with this guy, doesn’t know who he is . . . tall, dark, sexy, mysterious . . . and he’s a killer. He wants her sister to die, but doesn’t want to get his hands “dirty” so-to-speak. He feeds our poor woman a drug at the funeral that slowly turns her temporarily insane . . . he calls her on the phone and gives her verbal commands to do odd things, like walk outside in her underwear or poison her parakeet. He also keeps her thinking about him, wanting him, and when he feels the time is right . . . he gives her the command to kill her sister.
When she realizes what she did, she has a nervous breakdown. She’s committed to a hospital for the criminally insane. The third sister, the blacksheep who didn’t go to her mother’s funeral for some reasons of her own, comes back to town to find out what happened to her family, and meets the tall, dark, sexy stranger . . . but she’s suspicious by nature. She should be. She used to be a criminal herself, but now works undercover for the FBI taking down those she used to work with . . .
Wow. I think I’m getting an idea for a book . . .
Ha, Karin, bet I know just what he was packin’! Your cops always pack heat
Wow, Allison, that would make a suprise-packed book! And that’s just evil for this guy to make the poor woman walk outside in her underwear! Poison her parakeet? Man, Allison, are you sure you passed the test?
Jen, you don’t want to know what I was thinking AFTER the post. The acts he made her commit were far more sinister before she hacks up her sister.
These scenarios are hilarious! Aw, Jen, you’re too sweet! Thanks for looking up my book in your friend’s bookstore. It’s kind of cool knowing she sold it so quickly.
Fascinating! And I’m happy to report I got the answer wrong.
Hi Amy, we’ll put you down in the “mostly sane” catagory!
Allison, oh ugh! Hacks up her sister right after my breakfast! You’re scary, Allison! In a good way, of course
Deb, I really want to get your books, unfortunatly I don’t get to the chain bookstores as often as I’d like. What REALLY irritates me is I strolled through a Borders last week while shopping and FORGOT to look for your book. I wanted to smack myself.
Well, Cele is right. I did pass. But only because I’m a good tester. And because I write about murder. What fun.
I’m glad you passed only because you are a good test taker, Edgy Mama, LOL!