Tips, insights and guidance from our editors on mystery writing and craft-focused reviews of bestselling titles in the genre.
[by Ross Browne]
When You Find Me was, without a doubt, one of the most pleasant literary surprises I’ve had in a long time. It’s a debut novel that got a warm reception from readers and critics alike, and with good reason. It’s a Southern gothic-style thriller with an inventive […]
[by Ross Browne]
If you’re a fan of JK Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith, you’re probably well aware how much longer her latest release is than the other four books in the series.
My own first reaction to the size of the hefty tome—darn near 1,000 pages in hardcover—was mostly: Terrific! More […]
[by Ross Browne]
I’m not exaggerating when I say the discovery of Joe Ide’s IQ series made an often-awful 2020 more bearable. Wrecked is the third book in this series starring the fiercely intelligent but lonely and isolated Isaiah Quintabe (“IQ”), who on first glance might resemble a modern-day Sherlock Holmes of Long Beach. In this story, […]
[by Ross Browne]
If there were ever a novel that writers and editors could take special pleasure in devouring like candy, The Crime Writer by Gregg Hurwitz is it. Putting aside the clever plot device that makes the book so naturally irresistible to novelists, The Crime Writer is a smartly written novel that stands […]
[by Ross Browne]
A recent article in The New Yorker defines the willing suspension of disbelief as “the reader’s decision to put the argumentative, quibbling part of his mind into neutral and go along for the narrative ride.”
Stephen King is a master at this, and I’m sure I’m not alone in admiring how easy he makes it […]
[by Ross Browne with Susie Steiner]
One thing the editor in me loves about mysteries is seeing how successful authors navigate the challenge of writing entertainingly in a style of novel that’s inherently formulaic. For all its boundless appeal, mystery is a genre whose stories can be very similar in plot and structure, […]
