Any Tips for Writing Mysteries?

Exactly what the title says. I'm working on another story while the art/music/programming for Turtles all the Way: A Shell Game are being worked on, since those will take quite a while to end up with quality work, and this time I'm doing something that's... best described as a slice of life/mystery hybrid. Due to various reasons, the main character I'm working with this time gets called in to assist with solving various crimes, but the main story will be dealing with things outside of that.

So I was wondering if anyone had any advice on how one writes interesting mysteries. Ace Attorney and Gosick notwithstanding, I've yet to read/watch anything involving mysteries that I've found interesting and didn't pull out a nonsensical stream of obscure things to solve their problems, so yeah, kinda need pointers on that front.

Know the solution before you start writing.

Kinda figured I'd have to work backwards before writing it... Just seems like a logical thing when writing anything, really, but I can see why that's especially important here.

I'm struggling with that myself. Currently I'm trying my hand at focusing on having a meaningful contrast between what the PoV character believes, does, is told, etc. when a scene starts and what they find out by the time it ends. Maybe that'll work, for a change.

edited 1st Feb '12 5:59:32 AM by TripleElation

The advice I heard is start with the killer (and motivation), then the victim, then the sleuth.

This is probably relevant.

edited 1st Feb '12 2:13:56 PM by chihuahua0

Thinking in terms of a murder mystery, you want to make sure that the reader doesn't figure out who did it until the end. However it should be well foreshadowed.

That said, I think you'll find this helpful.

edited 2nd Feb '12 5:42:39 AM by EldritchBlueRose

Thank you. That was all extremely helpful.