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Carolyn Wheat has written a very nice book to prompt beginning authors to think about how and what they write and also to afford readers the opportunity to learn more about the genre which they enjoy so much. She analyzes, suggests, and gives examples. She does not give hard-and-fast rules, only suggestions. Doubtless a writer who has already established her style and working process would not find this especially helpful. But for those who are just beginning or even just thinking about beginning, there is important and knowledgeable information in this book. And, for those like me who have no desire and no ability to write a mystery, it points at ways to analyze books and to increase our enjoyment of them. Wheat begins by distinguishing between mystery and suspense and in her subtitle she establishes useful metaphors for each: The Funhouse of Mystery and the Roller Coaster of Suspense. She suggests that a mystery is like an old fashioned funhouse where you see misshaped images, turn into dead ends, hear voices you cannot reach, all before you finally come out into the light. The mystery takes the reader into a world where murder has happened and subjects her to misinformation and red herrings, possible murderers and false solutions, all before our detective or police officer or private eye has unraveled the clues and presents us with the solution to the mystery. Suspense books, on the other hand, take us on a roller coaster ride, constantly tightening the suspense, ratcheting everything up notch after notch, up the slope and then the downward swoop, until finally the hero wins through all. The incipient writer needs to know what she wants to write (and what she likes to read) before starting out on her travail. Wheat then talks about each separate sub-genre. She defines different kind of mysteries, talks about how to create clues and red herrings, suggests how to build a story arc, and finally how to write an ending that does not let people down. She then defines suspense (and thrillers), suggests that thrillers have come out of myths and fairy tales, and defines the herošs journey (as Joseph Campbell did) which is at the heart of the suspense novel. Again she explains the story arc for a suspense novel and how to craft a good ending. She sketches the writing process, gives suggestions for writing scenes and fitting them into the story arc, and talks about the two types of writers, the outliner and the blank pager. Each process has its advantages and disadvantages, and Wheat suggests that each style can borrow from the other. Finally she closes with some hints about agents and publishers. One thing I was convinced of when I finished this book was that writing a mystery or suspense novel is very hard work. It doesnšt just flow from the mind to the page. It requires endless hours of revisions, of excising, of adding, and finally of knowing when to stop. I found this book very useful as a reader. Wheat talks to us in a conversational style, including us in tricks of the trade and suggestions, and makes the book most interesting. To conclude she gives an idiosyncratic list of writing books she would recommend and also of books from which she has learned. This is not a long book but it has a great deal of information in it and I think could be most beneficial to those who are thinking about writing their first mystery of suspense novel.
Reviewed by Sally A. Fellows, March 2003
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