Over the years, I’ve heard many authors describe their books as having come into being by some variation of this: “A character appeared and I followed.” Once upon a time, I found such explanations slightly frustrating: I had always longed to write a novel, and I even had the basic idea for a mystery in mind, but no characters were manifesting themselves and beckoning to … Continue reading When The Characters Are In Charge
In the mystery course I recently taught, we found the ending of Agatha Christie’s A Murder is Announced to be both disconcerting and glorious. There are many wonderful aspects to her writing, but we were most engaged by how she gracefully “undoes” the characters we felt we knew because she had built them so convincingly. On the flip side, we were slightly less excited about … Continue reading Endings and Undoings
When Ikea opened in our town a number of years ago, I thought it would be fun to check it out. What I didn’t know was that the store is set up so that you are shuttled through every single section until you reach the end. You are swept along in one relentless flow through department after department, with no sense of When It Will … Continue reading The Bookshelves: A Complicated Case
Chicks on the Case 