Inkflow

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An AI crime novel writer for detectives, procedurals and noir

Crime fiction covers a lot of ground: the detective inspector working a murder through the system, the private eye working it around the system, and the noir narrator who is not sure which side of it he is on. INKFLOW writes crime novels in each of those registers, from the first body to the charge sheet or the bitter last page.

Put crime in the genre field and the writer works from guidance on real investigation methods and on clue planning. Add noir and it also works from guidance on the hard-boiled voice and the rain-wet city. Cinematic suits procedurals; Classic noir suits hard-boiled detective fiction.

The book is AI-generated. Read every chapter as your draft and change what you know better.

Write my first chapter free

Building a crime novel with AI

  1. 1
    Start with the crime and the investigator
    What happened, to whom, and who is looking into it: a police team, a lone private investigator, a journalist or a lawyer.
  2. 2
    Decide what kind of crime book it is
    A procedural follows the method; a noir follows a damaged narrator through a corrupt city; a crime thriller follows the danger. Say which, or combine them in the genre field.
  3. 3
    Pick the voice
    Each voice has a short sample. Cinematic watches the case like a camera crew; Classic noir talks to you in the first person, tired and sharp.
  4. 4
    Read the opening at no cost
    The first three chapters are free, and no card is asked for. Carry on in the app if the case has you, or order the full novel.

The crime fiction guidance behind each chapter

Investigation that feels real
Guidance on how police forces and agencies actually work a case: surveillance, interviews, forensics, financial tracing and intelligence, so each method a detective uses could have been used.
Clues planned, not scattered
Fair-play rules, more than one route to each key fact, honest red herrings, and a careful record of what the reader, the detective and the killer each know.
Witnesses who disagree
Witnesses sit on a scale from reliable to useless, and conflicting accounts are used to move the case on rather than to stall it.
A noir voice with weight
For noir: the cynical first-person narrator, moral compromise, corruption shown rather than stated, and dialogue that does several jobs at once.
A city that works on the reader
Rain, neon, the bar, the office, the interrogation room, the grey hour before dawn. Atmosphere guidance for the classic city and its modern version.

What a crime novelist should check in the draft

Procedure differs between countries and changes over time. The guidance is broad, covering British and American police and agencies, but if your detective works for a real force, check ranks, powers and procedure against what that force does now.

INKFLOW writes fiction. Nothing in the book is legal advice, and it cannot tell you what would happen in a real case.

A continuity record keeps the case straight across the novel: who is a suspect, who has an alibi, who is dead and who knows what. Every chapter is checked against it before you read it.

Questions

Can it write a police procedural set in the UK?
Yes. Say in your idea that the story is set in Britain, and the world of the book is researched from there before chapter one. Check the details that matter to you, because procedure is where readers who know it look first.
Is this the same as the mystery writer?
They share clue planning. A whodunit is built around the puzzle; a crime novel can also be about the investigation, the criminal or the city. Choose whichever page describes your book.
Can my detective come back for another case?
Yes. A series of up to ten books and over two million words, with full continuity: the detective's cases, injuries and enemies carry from one book to the next.
Can I publish a crime novel written with AI?
Yes. The text is yours to use, including commercially. It is AI-generated, even after editing, and stores such as Amazon ask you to disclose that.

More from INKFLOW

An AI mystery writer that plays fair with the readerAn AI thriller writer that keeps the clock ticking for the whole bookAn AI cosy mystery writer for amateur sleuthsAn AI spy thriller writer for espionage that moves: tradecraftComplete books and seriesEverything INKFLOW writes

Open the case file. Chapter one is on us.

One sentence from you, and the first chapter is written while you watch.

Write my first chapter free

First 3 chapters free with a free account. No card.