For the mystery reader, discovering whydunit is often even more satisfying than whodunit. When you pick up a mystery novel, you are making a decision about what sort of motive you prefer reading about, just based on the genre. As with the type of sleuth and conventions surrounding the death
I'm quite late to this discussion! My thoughts on assassination: it tends to be done by someone who's been hired to do so. It's just a job for them (maybe one they enjoy, but that's besides the point as the idea is that they aren't going to do it without getting paid). But the person who commissioned the job is technically the murderer, and they either aren't around/seen or they're an "innocent" bystander. This murder-at-a-distance seems to be the barrier for thinking of it as murder. As you said, murder is intimate, physically so, even when the killer isn't known to the victim.
Assassin vs murderer...I wonder, does Terry Pratchett have any thoughts on the matter?
“It was a Guild of Assassins, after all. Black was what you wore. The night was black and so were you. And black had such style, and an Assassin without style, everyone agreed, was just a highly paid arrogant thug.”
Or...
"Lord Downey was an assassin. Or, rather, an Assassin. The capital letter was important. It separated those cuts who went around murdering people for money from the gentlemen who were occasionally consulted by other gentlemen who wished to have removed, for a consideration, any inconvenient razorblades from the candyfloss of life."
I'm quite late to this discussion! My thoughts on assassination: it tends to be done by someone who's been hired to do so. It's just a job for them (maybe one they enjoy, but that's besides the point as the idea is that they aren't going to do it without getting paid). But the person who commissioned the job is technically the murderer, and they either aren't around/seen or they're an "innocent" bystander. This murder-at-a-distance seems to be the barrier for thinking of it as murder. As you said, murder is intimate, physically so, even when the killer isn't known to the victim.
Assassin vs murderer...I wonder, does Terry Pratchett have any thoughts on the matter?
“It was a Guild of Assassins, after all. Black was what you wore. The night was black and so were you. And black had such style, and an Assassin without style, everyone agreed, was just a highly paid arrogant thug.”
Or...
"Lord Downey was an assassin. Or, rather, an Assassin. The capital letter was important. It separated those cuts who went around murdering people for money from the gentlemen who were occasionally consulted by other gentlemen who wished to have removed, for a consideration, any inconvenient razorblades from the candyfloss of life."