THE ICE PICK

You Can Write a Mystery, by Gillian Roberts. Cincinnati : Writer’s Digest Books, 1999. ISBN 0-89879-863-9. $12.99.

Why am I reviewing a book about mystery-writing in a newsletter for writers of sf/f/h? Because many (or even most?) sf/f/h novels contain mysteries; and although we don’t think of what we are writing as being a "mystery," it might strengthen our novels if we knew more about how to hide clues, exploit red herrings, and handle other mystery-writing techniques.

Roberts takes you from getting ready to write through marketing your finished novel. She teaches the seven "C" basics of designing characters and handling conflict, causality, complications, change, crisis, and closure as well as how to develop your own style, find a tone for your story, and construct a dynamite plot.

Roberts includes in her advice on character building a checklist that could be used for character creation in any genre. And in her chapter on setting--"Where in the world will your world be?"--she asks questions and provides advice that would be especially helpful in fleshing out a totally fictional place, such as sf/f/h writers usually create.

But the most helpful section is on plotting, which is the heart of any mystery. She explains how to provide alternative suspects and ways you might get an amateur sleuth believably involved in a case. And as she says, "Even if you are writing about the police, pros who have seen and done it all, this crime can’t be another routine murder, just another day’s work. This one--your story--is an urgent and personal quest." And that’s true whether you are writing about an intergalactic cop or a castle guardsman in a medieval horror story.

She has advice on how to avoid the plot clichés, how to organize and keep track of your ideas, and how to structure your mystery. She explains what you need to tell the reader right away and how to hide clues in plain sight.

The book is especially clear and easy to follow, and would be excellent for a beginning writer in any genre, as well as anyone trying to write a straight mystery or incorporate one into another genre. I recommend it highly.

{Published in GPIC, the Oklahoma Science Fiction Writers Newsletter, Dec. 1999. Reprinted in SF & Fantasy Workshop Newsletter, June 2005.}