Don't Murder Your Mystery
Chris Roerden
Reviewed by Barb Radmore
Oh dear- there are definitely times when being a book reviewer is not
all roses. This time the fault is all mine! This book was sent to
me a long time ago for review. I read it and it quickly became my go to
bible of how to write a good mystery. For me it was not to learn how to
write a mystery but great information on the what to look at when
considering a mystery. Now while I have it by my side I just notice I
never wrote the review for it. For that I apologize- not only to
the author and but also to all the readers who may not know about this
wonderful book.
The subtitle to the book is "24 Fiction-Writing Techniques to Save Your
Manuscript From Turing up D.O. A." This book is well laid out to
enable to reader/writer to access the information easily and clearly.
the format includes short sections, bulleted lists, bold headings and
well laid out pages Pages have enough white space to enhance the words
but not much to make them appear bleak. Roerden covers every aspect of
writng a mystery which includes many topics that can be used for any
genre. She uses many, many real examples which is one of the book's
many strengths. She covers some of publishing realities but the focus
is on good writing techniques, ways to avoid the amateur writing that
plagues so many manuscripts.
I can not say this loud enough- if you plan on ever writing a fiction
book this should be on your reference shelf. But anyone who enjoys a
good book, especially a mystery, will love to read the secrets to a
good book. It is reader friendly to both writers and book lovers. This
is a long over due statement- buy this book!