Told from Anna's point of view, Playing Murder makes considerable use of flashback and dialogue. Because Anna and her family are newcomers to the community, there is much background that they do not know. This means that each Maine character speaks frequently about Kirk, his family, and his or her relationship to him.

Despite this approach, the narrative moves along briskly. Dialogue within the Parker family reveals a growing realization that they need to communicate more fully and openly.

Scoppettone uses Maine dialect, but not to the extent that characters speak in indecipherable phonetic English. The vocabulary is simple and the sentence structure direct.