Ever wanted to write crime fiction or at least to understand how good crime fiction works? Perhaps explore the reasons why we love it so much? Writing the Murder: Essays in Crafting Crime Fiction aims to provide insight into the art of the murder mystery with input from a collection of eminent authors and critics in the genre. From the practical nuts and bolts of writing to an examination of the works of Patricia Highsmith, Agatha Christie and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, it explores the darkest depths of human behaviour through 13 essays, themed on Means, Motive and Opportunity.
Historian Tess Little opens the collection with It Bleeds, which lays out her survey of the genre as if setting a crime scene so we are intrigued from the outset by the format of the piece, reinforcing the information by clever example. Over the history of the mystery, Little lays out the approach and style of Tey and Allingham and the generations of writers that follow. She explores the puzzle, the investigation and the solution, and how they involve the reader. The inclusion of Japanese literature and their reimagining of the Golden Age is a fascinating angle.
Comedian and crime author Charlie Higson tells us why he leans towards the dark side, graduating from Chandler and Hammett to Jim Thompson, then contrasting the approach of noir authors with those of the Golden Age. Murder more explicit, you might say, sometimes even daring to get inside the head of a killer. There’s a lot of talk of resolution and satisfaction in the bad guys getting their comeuppance but he is looking for writing that reflects the real, often dark world and not something that saves us from it.
Crime fiction critic Barry Forshaw recalls an encounter with the formidable Patricia Highsmith and her stony response to his explanation for why Hitchcock’s film version of her novel Strangers on a Train did not follow the book. He finishes by noting that as readers and writers, even those unfamiliar with Highsmith’s writing directly, we all live in her shadow. We won’t list all the essays but suffice to say they all have an aspect or angle that reveals something of the story of the murder on the page.
So who is this collection for? Practitioners and budding writers, certainly, and also those who want to understand the craft better. But it is also of great interest for the general reader with a deeper interest in the murder mystery – its history, how it works and what we enjoy. The connection to wider literature is examined and the relationship of the reader with the genre, how involved we are in the game the writer set us.
Our humanity comes out when a murder is committed, the good and the bad, and as we read similar on the page our sympathies and emotions are aroused and this collection explores that about us. Helpfully, there is a list of 100 must-read novels at the end of the text and 50 more short stories that epitomise every aspect of the genre.
The essays have a clarity and simplicity but also depth and because the collection is structured around means, motive and opportunity, they are interlinked and there’s a rhythm and discernible pattern to follow. Each entry can be read separately, perhaps tucked into over time, and it’s a very handy book to have on your shelves if you are an aficionado. The murder mystery is an intellectual game but it means nothing without the emotional impact. It can sooth us, disturb us, scare us but also crucially entertain us. This collection is aware of that.
Dead Ink Books
Print
£10.99
CFL Rating: 4 Stars
