Help! Need inspiration on how to kill someone ;-)

[megrunning]

In my novel I need to kill off one of the characters and can't figure out how. She needs to be murdered by someone else, but its a mercy killing (sort of) and the death needs to be quite peaceful and needs to look like an accident or a natural death with no clues it was murder/suicide.

Other background is she's in her mid 40s, middle class and its summer. the death needs to take place at her home.

Carbon monoxide seems the best but not sure what appliance could be used and "faulty" in the summer.....Any ideas?!

You're asking for something that's impossible, really. Any pathologist would be able to tell which drugs she'd taken and how they were administered. If a fire is started, then it's possible to tell what started it and where it started. If she's pushed over, then bruises would show.

If it's a mercy killing, then as you say it needs to be peaceful. Even something like suffocation would be horrible to do. (Thinking of cling film, that sort of thing.)

If she was highly allergic to something, that might give you a way out.

What you're looking for is something that all crime novelists and all murderers have been looking for!

A camping accident with a barbecue, in a bell tent or yurt for added middle class credentials? Bring it into the conservatory if she's not a glamping type, add a couple of glasses of chilled white wine...

But police would be able to tell whether it was pushed towards her or pulled on top of her. If the victim doesn't realise she's going to be bumped off, then she'd have to be unconscious beforehand and it would be easy for a pathologist to figure out how that happened.

I have read of this happening in real life even though it sounds highly implausible.

Slips (with a little assistance!) over in the kitchen and falls face first on to an upturned kitchen knife.

Sorry, in the door of an open diswaher

*dishwasher

My favourite from a movie was someone being killed with a frozen leg of lamb and then the killer cooked and ate the murder weapon.

Oh I've heard of that!

Also ice being used like a knife and pushed into someone's ear.

Well, I reckon you could easily wait till someone was snoozing in the conservatory (after a glass too many) and sneak the barbecue inside with them 'for warmth'. I wasn't suggesting setting them on fire with it, just letting the lovely fumes overpower them slowly.

Push her down the stairs? Not 'peaceful' exactly, but quick and would certainly look like an accident.
(It's not a very reliable way to kill someone, obviously, but I think you'd get away with it in a book.)

Highly allergic to penicillin. Taking an antibiotic for a chest infection but has been switched thus causing her throat to swell up, perhaps?

Slip in the shower?
Drown in a pool?

Wow, killing someone is difficult!

Good luck!

How about accidentally consuming something poisonous - some misidentified mushrooms, the leaves of rhubarb etc. It could be staged to look like she made the mistake herself?

Yes, or an 'accidental' overdose of prescribed medication, perhaps? Agatha Christie used that one a lot.

Choked to death by an ice lolly stuck in the throat which then melts?

Spike her drink with sedatives and drown her in the bath. Put her finger prints around the sedative pill bottle and bottle of wine and leave on her bed side table?

Am I right that fingerprints get distorted by water and so dragging her into the bath wouldn't leave detectable finger prints on her body?

Helium overdose. Get her drunk as hell on g&t first, then when she's drowsy or asleep use a mask to administer the helium.

I always thought laburnum poisoning would be a good one, we used to have a walled kitchen garden with a laburnum in it and I always thought how easy it would be for the laburnum seeds to blow onto the salad leaves on a breezy day...

(Disclaimer, I did NOT kill anyone with laburnum poisoning, honest.)

I can imagine you arguing with your husband, Hound, and glancing out at the laburnum every now and then!

I think I've heard that fingerprints can, in some circumstances, be detected even if someone's submerged in water. Maybe if there was grease on the fingers? It could be a good way of the perpetrator being caught, after thinking he/she has got away with it.

Don't forget if you use force to hold someone down, you'll leave marks.

First husband Imperial, first husband...

The current Mr Hound has paved everything, has he?

City living now, just a yard strangely enough.

You've learned your lesson, then!

deadly flowers?

The person is on a lounger by the pool. Spike their drink until they're pretty much unconscious. Tip them off and hold them under to make it look like a drink related accident. That's how I normally do it.

Thanks everyone! Think some sort of plant may be the way to go but most aren't as poisonous as they seem (had already researched and dismissed lily of the valley). Quite like the helium idea tho!