Learn Crime Writing with 5 Novels
By Lori Rader-Day
August 9, 2018Read Lori Rader-Day's essay on novels to read to help learn crime writing, then make sure you're signed in and comment below for a chance to win a paperback copy of Under a Dark Sky!
My friend Susan, an aspiring novelist, recently told me she struggled with the concept of voice until she read one of my books. Isn’t that nice? Wouldn’t it be great if you could read one book and have some writing concept click into place for you?
Of course, that’s not entirely the way it works. Learning how to write well and finding your voice takes a lot more than a single read of someone else’s work. But some books have specific lessons. Here are five crime novels from which we can all learn a thing or two.
Suspense
Lee Child once wrote in the New York Times that asking how you create suspense is like asking how you bake a cake. “‘How do you bake a cake?’ has the wrong structure. It’s too indirect. The right structure and the right question is: ‘How do you make your family hungry?’ And the answer is: You make them wait four hours for dinner.”
There are other ways to create suspense, but Child does get to the basic problem. How do you keep people flipping the pages? How do you make them miss their trains and bedtimes?
Read The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith.
Tom glanced behind him and saw the man coming out of the Green Cage, heading his way. Tom walked faster. There was no doubt the man was after him. Tom had noticed him five minutes ago, eyeing him carefully from a table, as if he weren’t quite sure, but almost. He had looked sure enough for Tom to down his drink in a hurry, pay, and get out.
Who’s not going to turn the page to see why Tom seems so jumpy?
Setting
W.H. Auden, a self-described “addict” of detective stories, once wrote in Harper’s Magazine: “In the detective story … Nature should reflect its human inhabitants, i.e., it should be the Great Good Place; for the more Eden-like it is, the greater the contradiction of murder.” Not all crime novels rely on that contradiction, of course, but now you understand the draw of Agatha Christie.
In a setting, readers aren’t looking for a travelogue, says William Kent Krueger, a writer well known for his evocative settings. In the book Write Now! Mysteries, he writes, “In the same way that character is best established gradually and through pointed, well-chosen observations, setting is evoked by capturing succinctly the essence of a place.”
Read Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier.
The drive wound away in front of me, twisting and turning as it had always done, but as I advanced I was aware that a change had come upon it; it was narrow and unkempt, not the drive that we had known. At first I was puzzled and did not understand, and it was only when I bent my head to avoid the low swinging branch of a tree that I realized what had happened. Nature had come into her own again and, little by little, in her stealthy, insidious way had encroached upon the drive with long, tenacious fingers. The woods, always a menace even in the past, had triumphed in the end. They crowded, dark and uncontrolled, to the borders of the drive. The beeches with white, naked limbs leant close to one another, their branches intermingled in a strange embrace, making a vault above my head like the archway of a church. And there were other trees as well, trees that I did not recognize, squat oaks and tortured elms that straggled cheek by jowl with the beeches, and had thrust themselves out of the quiet earth, along with monster shrubs and plants, none of which I remembered.
You can see this image, but you can also feel the kind of story it’s going to be: tangled and not what you expected.
Point of View
Point of view is a tough concept to learn, and rightly so—so much hinges on it. What will your reader see and through whose eyes? How will your character’s lens warp the reader’s understanding? No one book can instruct in all the ways you can use point of view, but here are a few to consider.
First person
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
In one chapter, we go from “I have a meanness inside me, a real as an organ. Slit me at my belly and it might slide out, meaty and dark, drop on the floor so you could stomp on it,” to being on the dark narrator’s side. #TeamMean
Third-person close
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
You already read The Talented Mr. Ripley, right? Now, pick apart how Highsmith uses the intimacy of third-person close to get you to root for Tom’s success, no matter how criminal that success is.
Third-person omniscient
The Heavenly Table by Donald Ray Pollack
Read this (admittedly difficult) story for how a roving point of view can still be grounded in detail and characterization.
Story
You can read and read and never internalize how certain tools of fiction do what they do, because the best stories suck us into the narrative until we’re no longer reading but living the life of that character. The better the writer, the more invisible the tool.
That’s why it might be instructive to have the tools waved in front of you in real time.
Read Heads You Lose by Lisa Lutz and David Hayward
A seasoned mystery novelist tells her co-author, a poet, what the story requires—in the snarky back-and-forth conversation of the footnotes.
Reading five novels isn’t enough to teach you all you need to know. Build your own reading list, both classics and contemporaries publishing right now. To write, you’ll need to start reading as a writer does, going back over the lines that resonate or paragraphs where a character you’ve grown to love was revealed to you. Read books a second time, a third. When you find an exemplary passage, go back over it and take it down to the studs. What technique makes that element work? Identify it but then make it your own—because, in the end, writing is how you’ll really teach yourself to write.
Read Kristin Centorcelli’s review of Lori Rader-Day’s Under a Dark Sky!
Comment below for a chance to win a paperback copy of Under a Dark Sky by Lori Rader-Day!
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Comments
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looks interesting
I like the “Heads You Lose” cover!
An informative and interesting post which I enjoyed greatly.
Looks intriguing!
Look forward to it.
This sounds great
How awesome!
Interesting article. I would love to win a copy of her new book, it sounds intriguing.
Sounds good.
Been looking for a good read; this looks like one of those books you read and share with others because its that good of a read
These are excellent suggestions. I am pretty excited to read Under a Dark Sky so I can try to scare myself out of going camping!
Add Ruth Ware to this list! <3
Informative post.
looking forward to reading
Sounds so Intense. I’d love to read it
Some of the creepiest books I have ever read have been from the first person perspective. Nothing scarier than being in the mind of a killer!
Look forward to reading
Good choices!
Interesting article. I am a fan of Daphne du Marier’s My Cousin Rachel but have not yet read Rebecca. I would love to have the chance to win a copy of Under A Dark Sky. Lori Rader-Day would be a new author for me.
Would love to read this book!
Oooohhh!
I’ve seen a lot recently about this book on social media~!!! Sounds like a good one to me.
Sounds good
Sounds like a book I would enjoy.
Looks like a great read, I have seen it advertised in several places, I will add to my TBR pile. I would love to win!
Rader-Day is a master at all of these elements. Her earlier books are great and I’ve no doubt I won’t be disappointed with Under a Dark Sky
Excellent essay. I’m going to try these tips in my writing.
Posting a comment for the chance to win a copy of Under a Dark Sky!
Sounds like ‘Under a Dark Sky’ abundantly delivers on all of the above lessons.
I would love to read the book.
Interesting points. Now, I want to re-read these books with her points in mind. With her insights, I’m sure her novel will make a great read!
Looking forward to reading this book! I just found out yesterday that she will be in my area for a discussion of this book in October, so it’s already on my to-be-read list!
Yes, please!
Count me in for this sweepstakes.
Thanks —
Sounds great! Would love to win.
Can’t wait to read this one.
Interesting.
I loved Little Pretty Things and would love to read her new book! Thank you!
Looks like a good book to read on a hot summer night.
Awe. Would love to win and read this book
Enjoyed the article. Would love to read this book!
Love thrillers!
Not familiar with this author. Would love to win this as my first read.
Sounds great .
Hearing such good things about this one!
I would love to win this one!
Count me in, please!
This one sounds awesome!
Under a Dark Sky sounds great!
Sounds a good read, I would love to dive in!
I’m ready to write now.
I am intrigued to find out the mystery under a dark sky!
I really enjoyed reading the essay. There’s so much that goes into storytelling, to make it look effortless. Wish me luck!
I’m not a writer, but enjoy reading how the works are put together.I just enjoy the read!
Great book for fall reading.
Looking forward to this
thanks for the giveaway-love to read the book
This sounds like a good book that I hope I will win!
Sounds like a winner.
would love to win a copy of Under A Dark Sky as my husband has just taken up the hobby of astrophotography…. hmm 🙂
I like the examples given to look at the different styles and types of writing. Under a Dark Sky looks like it will be a great read!
Lori, I’m teaching a writing class next weekend (no snarky comments, please) and I flat out stole your last paragraph about reading as writers. I owe you a drink at Bcon!
I don’t have enough imagination to write but kudos to all who do!!!!
I love finding new authors – and new ways to teach myself.
Sounds great!
Thanks for reading, everyone!
I can do all that except conversation. After three lines my characters start lecturing each other.
Wonderful article! I’d already wanted to read Lori’s book, now I can imagine what a truly great read it will be. Please count me in!
I would love to write, but I would rather read those who already write well. Does that make me lazy? Maybe, but I am happy and I have no deadlines!
Interesting essay
Thank you for this blog post! Very interesting.
Interesting article. Would love to win a copy of the book
This is a great list of books/examples.
Looks like a great read
Interesting article for aspiring writers. Love this author’s books
Thanks for the opportunity to win!
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I really appreciate this extremely intresting article. I read all of this novels and they really great. My favorite is Dark Places by Gillian Flynn,it’s such intresting story.
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