 Mystery: September 14, 2005 Issue [#607] |
  Mystery
This week: Edited by: schipperke
More Newsletters By This Editor 
1. About this Newsletter
2. A Word from our Sponsor
3. Letter from the Editor
4. Editor's Picks
5. A Word from Writing.Com
6. Ask & Answer
7. Removal instructions
| What would life be like without our pets? Certainly not as fun! Or, as mysterious! |
| ASIN: B004PICKDS |
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This weekend I will devour some cozy mysteries of a different sort. I have a pile of pet-starring mystery stories to read. I will stretch out on my comfy armchair with the television off, and my dog nestled next to me.
Like many of you, I have a creature in my house who rules the roost. No, it is not my husband, it is my dog. His name is Baron, and he is a seven year old schipperke. Of course, I think he is the smartest dog around. Today, after reading my doggie mysteries, I was pondering if I could include my dog in a mystery story.
What could Baron do to help solve a crime? The first thing I would need to do in my story is establish the relationship between the detective and the dog. Is Baron a pet? A police dog? A stray? What does the human do? Being a cozy mystery, the detective is usually a common person, someone with an ordinary life like a retiree, or a school teacher, a nun, or even a millionaire with nothing to do but solve crimes.
How does the dog fit into the family? I would want to include specific character traits about Baron. I could mention how he is almost as agile as a cat, how he loves fish and feet, how he has excellent hearing and not so keen eyesight. I may want to show Baron’s two-sided personality of being a wary guard dog, and yet the most slobbery, lovey-dovey dog in the world with the people he knows.
Along with the usual plotting of a mystery, with the clues and red herrings, I would need to work Baron into the story. Does he dig up(literally) a crucial piece of evidence? Is he wary of someone that everyone else in the town thinks is an upstanding citizen? Do he warn the detective of upcoming danger?
The wonderful thing about a mystery with a dog or cat as the star, is it adds another character most people are fond of and can look forward to reading about again. It is one of the ingredients of a successful mystery series.
Here is a list of of authors and the pet-centered mysteries they write. Please get them out of the library and enjoy them with your special friends, canine or otherwise.
Carol Douglas: Midnight Louie Mysteries (starring a black cat)
Cynthia Baxter: Reigning Cats and Dogs Mysteries (both dogs and cats in these, to please all animal lovers)
Susan Conant : Dog Lover Mysteries
Linda Stewart: Sam the Cat Mysteries
Lilian Jackson Braun: The Cat Who... Mysteries
Patricia Guiver : Pet Detective Mysteries
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 P.K. PARKER  
Re: Letter from the editor
Well, I'm glad you spoke up and let the average reader know your opinion on these books.
I've read quite a few books that bored me to death, and was sorry I spend the money.
Thank you,
Petra
aka P.K. PARKER
LOOK INTO THE EYES OF EVIL
That is why the library is such a great place. You don't have to spend your money on bad books. And you can find out which ones you would like to buy to read over and over.
MaryLou
Schipperke, thanks bunches for listing my first attempt at a mystery story in your newsletter! It's always wonderful to find out what others think about it.
You are welcome. I hope you had good reviews!
April Sunday
Give us a plug, luv? | | | Invalid Item
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JackTheRipper Contest Re-opens
Description: POST YOUR BEST short stories, articles. 85K GP pool - JTR Theories on forum. Who was JTR?
By: T.Teffom
Hope you have loads of entrees.
Rixfarmgirl 
I agree 100% with your comments on both these books. The first, after dragging me thru nearly 600 pages left me hanging. That's perverted! The other one was stupid in my opinion and I hate that as I have enjoyed a couple of his books. Shock value all the way. Thanks for a great newsletter
I haven't read his other books. Maybe I will.
annemagee
Schip, your newsletter review of The DiVinci Code was right on. I agree completely. I'm sorry I wasted my money on that book. Haven't read Donna Tartt's The Little Friend. Thanks for the warning. I would hate to waste my time for such a huge disappointment. I did read her first book, forgot the name, but I thought the ending a little disappointing. Perhaps she has problems with endings? Don't we all. :)
Please read Donna Tartt's book if you aren't looking for a mystery but more of a family drama with excellent writing. I think she didn't want her story to end!
sometimes she writes 
Thanks for your comments about Brown and Tartt's books. I wish I could say you saved me the trouble of borrowing them, but neither of them appealed to me to begin with. I agree completely, if I'm reading a mystery it's because I want to know the resolution at the end! Great newsletter!
Do you ever read the end of the book first? (I do, sometimes... )
April Sunday
Congrats for finishing Da Vinci Code. Phooey on Brown's virtual verbosity. Good cure for insomnia. Congrats on actually finishing The Da Vinci Code. Saw the Dateline, now wonder about Rome, Paris, The Holy Grail on a daily basis. Phooey on Brown's verboisty!
I love that word, Verbosity!
billwilcox
Schipper!
I loved this newsletter. I always thought I was alone when critizing great authors about their work. Maybe I'm just not getting it?--maybe this is great work and I just too stupid to see it?
What really burns me is that the market is flooded with authors writing one kind of a SERIES or another about a character that should have died in the first book. I hate that. You get to the end and it's a cliffhanger! AHHHH!
Why not put all those wonderful ideas into one great book and then be done with it? Why try to cash in on another adventure using the same guy?
But many authors do it--the publishers love it--and the book buyers eat it up like it was the best thing since Kentucky Fried Chicken. I guess even famous writers run out of good ideas.
I agree Bill. Hopefully there will be a series we love someday!
Vivian 
Yes, Schip, you are correct. A writer has a duty to write a complete story. That means a mystery or whatever has a plot, a real plot from being to end. A mystery without a crime solved is incomplete unless the author lets the reader know up front that it won't be. Shoddy writing is starting to be the practice for current "best selling" authors. So sad. ~~ Viv
Plots. Do authors use them anymore??
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