U is for Underwear and Why It Stays On

 

They say every novel should have sex scenes. Why? Because sex is a part of life.

The STAC Mysteries have no sex scenes. Why? Because they are written as entertainment, not a reflection of reality, and sex would be a distraction from the main thrust (no pun intended).

Sex rates no more than passing mention. Brenda does her share of bedhopping, and Joe does fairly well with various women in the novels. There are other characters who blatantly indulge their passions. George Robson like to put it about a bit, Alec and Julia Staines are never slow to lock the door and close the curtains when they get to their hotel, and in A Murder for Christmas, Jennifer Hardy is described as a high class, academic tramp.

But on every occasion, we stop at the bedroom door. We never see them at it.

There are other considerations. Sex scenes, when properly written can add to a tale, but when they’re badly written, they become laughable.

My other works contain such scenes.

The Handshaker is the tale of a sadistic serial rapist and murderer, and it is littered with such scenes, but they are not erotic, they are not arousing. If anything, they should convey a sense of horror that a human being could perpetrate such crimes upon another. I also have to say that it he original draft they were omitted, and I only put them in because an editor with a well known publishing house suggested I should.

Where STAC is concerned, I have never found any need to insert graphic scenes of a couple carrying one another to the nether realms of ecstasy, and for that reason, the underwear will always stay on.

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The STAC Mysteries are available as paperbacks and as e-book downloads in all formats, or direct from Crooked Cat Books in MOBI, EPUB and PDF formats