Writing Murder: A Basic Guide to Writing Mystery Novels

by S.M. Harding (Editor), William Kent Krueger, Libby Fischer Hellmann

Fifteen successful Midwestern authors have contributed essays on the basics of writing mystery novels to this book. Writing Murder shares their insights on fiction elements: setting, characters, point of view, dialogue, plot, and research. In addition, they offer insight on the genre, how to build suspense, point of view, the circle of openings/endings, and marketing your manuscript.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction

158 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2012

About the author

S.M. Harding has had over thirty short stories published in various, both online magazines and in print anthologies and magazines. Two of the most recent include “A Winter Story” in Wicked Things and “Spirit of Christmas Past, Christmas Future” in Unwrap these Presents, both from Ylva Publishing. The novel I Will Meet You There was published by Bella Books in August of 2015. She teaches classes at the Writers’ Center of Indiana and participated in panels for their annual Gathering of Writers, also at Indy Author’s Fair, Magna Cum Murder and various local libraries. She edited and contributed an essay to Writing Murder, a collection of essays by Midwestern authors about writing crime fiction.

Reviews

[Melody · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book may be helpful to some, but a lot of the advice in it is very cliche. I've listened to many writing podcasts, read many writing advice websites and there was very little in this volume that I haven't heard many times over.

[Shelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good advice, broken into chapters dealing with various points of writing: openings, middles, endings, plotting, setting, character, research, marketing. Each writer was well-chosen for the subject he or she took on (William Kent Krueger on setting, Beverle Graves Myers on research, etc.).