Review: A Mentor On My Kindle
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 4, 2014
Marg McAlister has been my mentor since I found her helpful Series on Amazon. I have most of her "Tips For Busy Writers" but this Mystery & Crime Tips book has been the best resource for me and if it were a paperback it would be heavily dog eared, highlighted and underlined.After reading thru her deas and guides, I have changed the way I read mysteries and crime novels. Now I know why I loved Raymond Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, and Mickey Spillane, and other great writers of their era. They really knew how to develop characters that I still remember.An author who can keep my interest in figuring out the plot,  "whodunit" and "whyhedunit" all the way to the last period, with fast paced action, smooth dialogue, interesting settings, enough clues to keep me turning pages and then come up with a twist like Harlan Coben ,is what I enjoy reading and what I aspire to produce as a writer.Marg gives helpful advice to the novice eg. Should I write a Mystery or Suspense novel? What are the different categories of crime and mystery novels? How to come up with ideas, How to develop Ideas into stories. She even gives links to useful articles for plotting.Her examples are excellent in showing how to build characters, create "Red HerringS" drop in clues, set up conflict, and create character back grounds.There are many more tips fully explained in Mystery & Crime that in my opinion, no novice or seasoned writer will want to be without. This is simply another treasured resource of Marg McAlister's work that I found and highly recommend to my Amazon friends.Roger Shepherd