Building a mystery: an excerpt

Although the peninsula offered the murderer many escape routes by water, there was but one exit by land. This was the strip of sand-covered rock connecting the peninsula to the cape. Competing for this sliver of terrain were an obvious church and an unobtrusive road. The former shielded the latter from view, so incursion onto the peninsula became a specific, conscious, and swift decision. By forcing a hairpin turn to leave the highway, the pairing was a belt and suspenders defense against intrusion. … 

This main road divided shortly after the church to form a loop that ringed the peninsula. Heading south, hugging the cove that broadened into the harbor, the road crawled clockwise down to the tip of the point. There, turning abruptly to the north, it snaked up alongside the river to coil back in a full circle just before the church. … 

In effect, the village was caught within a lasso of black macadam. To escape this noose by land, the killer would have had to flee across the isthmus.