I sometimes fall into the trap of thinking of children's murder mysteries as stepping stones—books that get young readers interested in the genre before they graduate to the "real" mysteries as adults. The Big Bad Wolf Murder reminded me how unfair that way of thinking is. This is simply a well-crafted mystery, regardless of the… Continue reading The Big Bad Wolf Murder
I finished reediting Goodnight Irene. It has been a fascinating process. Aside from sentence structure and formatting, there were two main areas I marked for improvement. The first was strengthening the clues. I mentioned in an earlier post that the clues in GI were timid. This has been rectified -- particularly the basis for the… Continue reading One down
Douglas Ashe's The Longstreet Legacy is delightful for several ancillary reasons. But let’s get the main things out of the way first. Abigail Longstreet is the youngest granddaughter of an old, blind recluse named Ella Maybelle Longstreet. Ella has been behaving strangely these past few months—firing all her staff, leaving raw meat in the fridge,… Continue reading The Longstreet Legacy (aka A Shroud for Grandmama)
Philip MacDonald’s Mystery at Friar’s Pardon opens with a careful introduction to the man who will become our amateur sleuth, Charles Fox-Browne. MacDonald takes his time. He wants us to understand Browne before sending him to Friar’s Pardon, where he will say very little and observe a great deal. A wise move—there is much to… Continue reading Mystery at Friar’s Pardon
I've finished a solid draft of the second story. Looking back at my post announcing the idea, I noticed that it took about one month to write. That makes me happy. It means I've done consistent work and my process of outlining has gone smoothly. I do have a few issues with it. One more… Continue reading November Update
James Scott Byrnside 