Labor Day has passed again, and as we watch summer turn to fall, we got to thinking about using seasons as a setting. Whether it’s the bleakness of winter or the dog days of summer, the time of year can really affect the tone and setting of a story—especially in a mystery. So we want to…
Crime fiction writers tend to consider plot and character to be the most important elements. Setting is a minor consideration, something a writer should take care of only if they have time. Beginning a novel with setting is considered an amateurish move that could turn off readers looking for action. While this take has an…
Read an exclusive guest post from R. Jean Reid about the importance of setting in mysteries, and then make sure to sign in and comment below for a chance to win a copy of her latest novel, Perdition! I’m a sucker for a windswept, desolate, craggy coastline, far from civilization and safety. At least when…
I love to sink my teeth into a juicy new novel or series, especially if it involves a setting I’m either unfamiliar with or a location that I know very well. There’s something thrilling about recognizing local haunts and landmarks I’ve been to, but I also read to escape the ordinary and leave the known…
I can’t read a book of any kind—thriller, literary fiction, memoir, biography, even history—unless the setting speaks to me. I need to feel, with all my senses, the physical world in which the writer is trying to involve me. Often, that’s what I’m left with years later when I think of the work: not the…
