num_pages: 240
description: WHODUNIT? YOUDUNIT!So you want to write a mystery. There's more to it than just a detective, a dead body, and Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with the candlestick. Fortunately, Larry Beinhart--Edgar Award-winning author of You Get What You Pay For, Foreign Exchange, and American Hero--has taken a break from writing smart, suspenseful thrillers to act as your guide through all the twists and turns of creating the twists and turns of a good mystery.Drawing on advice and examples from a host of the best names in mystery writing--from Raymond Chandler and Mickey Spillane to Scott Turow and Thomas Harris--plus some of his own prime plots, Larry Beinhart introduces you to your most indispensable partners in crime:*Character, plot, and procedure* The secrets to creating heroes, heroines, and villains ("All writers draw upon themselves and their experience. While the whole of yourself might not be capable of being either a serial killer or an FBI agent, there are parts in each of us that are capable of almost anything.")* The fine art of scripting the sex scene*The low-down on violence ("A crime novel without violence is like smoking pot without inhaling, sex without orgasm, or a hug without a squeeze." )*And much more!From the opening hook to the final denouement, Larry Beinhart takes the mystery out of being a mystery writer.
language: English
title: How to Write a Mystery
titlecomplete: How to Write a Mystery
genres: Crime, Nonfiction, Mystery, Writing
ratings_count: 140
publisher: Random House Publishing Group