Good morning, good evening and good night to you and welcome to this edition of the Mystery newsletter!

First, I want to say that this newsletter was submitted by a frightened guest editor but phew, it seems to be working without a hitch.

I LoVe love LOVE a good mystery story and one that is well written is that much better. So this newsletter will discuss briefly what makes a good mystery story , some elements and a mention from the Top 100 Best Mystery writers from the past Century for your viewing pleasure.

As a child, I just loved reading books but especially the mystery books. I would zone off in a book full of mystery and intrigue and lose myself from the world for hours. How could I lose so many hours, you might ask? Not every book took me away like Calgon but the books full of dark shadows and hidden pathways always seemed to keep me glued till the end.

So, just what is involved in the best writing that is out there?

I came across this while perusing online from www.authorlearningcenter.com called "The 5 Elements of a Suspense Novel" which seem to be helpful in identifying what makes up a good novel.

1) Conflict - Every novel needs conflict, which is incredibly important to building suspense.

2) Pacing - The pacing a well written novel is so important to keeping the reader involved, and engaged in the story and building suspense.

3) Red herrings - Red herrings are those clues in the story that are there to mislead the reader. One of the best mystery stories I've read with a spectacular use of the red herring was "The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler. The story is masterful so I can't tell you but you just need to read it.

4) Atmosphere - The use of atmosphere in this story was superb and really immersed the reader into the tale in a way that transcended time.

and lastly,

5) High Stakes - Just like it is important to conflict and time, the high stakes of life or death, these are useful to keep the reader invested in the story and outcome of characters involved in the story.

Well, I hope this wasn't too painful for the dear readers of this week's Mystery newsletter but I just wanted to leave you with an example or two of the best out there in the Mystery genre. Right out of the gate, we have Raymond Chandler, writer of some of the BEST mystery stories of all time. "The Big Sleep" and "The Long Goodbye" are extraordinary writings that I encourage all to read.