Crime plotting help

[MrsRussell]

So I'm writing a short story for an anthology for my publisher, and bloody hell it's hard work.
I do historical adventure/crime (Forever Amber meets The Thin Man, if that doesn't date me too horribly) and I've got to get this story down to 5K words.

I have a theft. Theft is not normally my MCs' thing. (Normally they do bodies and politics, but I thought that might run to more than 5K words.) I have the why, I have the denouement.... I just don't have a how it was done and how it's going to be undone.

Is this even POSSIBLE???

What's been stolen and who by?

Who else could have done it and what possible motives are there?

Thanks peeps. It's a bit like unravelling a big ball of wool, as fast as you unravel one tangle you find another one.
All further complicated by the arrival of the contract ulp Life is real, life is earnest, life has got a bloody advance attached to it....

Reverse think it. Step by step. Don't be afraid to trash an idea even if it looked great to start with.

Give us some idea of what kind of thing is stolen? Is this the type of story that needs to be strictly realistic and extremely detailed in its account of how the theft was carried out?

If it's historical adventure/crime, which era?

@StressToy - it's a recipe book, in 1665.
(This sounds lame, but the thing is who wrote it and why, rather than the value of it, and the significance of it to my MCs.)
It's stolen from the printer's before it goes to press.

Hope that's enough to be helpful - I'm trying to be vague in case any of you guys ever read the anthology!

Was it stolen by your main character or is your main character the one solving he crime? Either way, imagine you had to steal it - what steps would you have had to go through to find it, remain undetected, smuggle it out, how would you remain unseen. That actually sounds quite fun

1665 - Charles II, the Great Plague of London, Nell Gwyn's first known appearance as an actress, John Bunyan, Samuel Pepys.

The easiest way to steal and conceal a book is to disguise it as a different book. Only discovered when the thief dies of the plague and the house contents are cleared by, or on behalf of the heirs. Something like that?

Hmm. I know you won't want to say more, but are there particular challenges to simply stealing it from the printer's? Do you need the finding of the book to indicate who took it? Can you use some event (my seven year old just did a project on the Great Fire, so it's foremost in my mind, as is Pepys and the cheese ), to enable to theft and/or its recovery?

Oo, I think tying it into the Great Fire would be an excellent idea. Some kind of jeopardy loosely connected to real events would be an interesting read.

How about some hangover from the Civil War mixed in - it's not long after the Restoration.

The Great Fire would be too late. It was in 1666. It would have been good though.

Bloody hell @bellinisurge, are you reading over my shoulder??!!! The MC of my series was a senior Roundhead officer in the Civil Wars - most of the series involves people trying to rake that up in some guise or another

Sorry @MrsRussell , it's just the dates made me think about what was going on at the time. Not sure what sort of style you have but I wonder if there are any resonances with the current shenanigans you could use. Or steer well clear of

Hahaha to be honest I try to steer well clear - especially because I'm hardcore Team Oliver Cromwell - I have a mate who writes about the same period and he gets sh*t on social media like you would not believe. Really nasty, aggressive things.

It's a bloody funny world out there, isn't it?

What about something plague related eg the person who was supposed to be doing something critical was replaced at the last minute as they were sick/refused to enter a house of sickness and that person was the thief, or they thought it contained the cure or they disguised themselves as a “bring out your dead” person/plague victim to get in/out