#WritingCrime

How to Isolate Your Characters in the 21st Century Crafting a compelling mystery is at the core of any good suspense story. It’s the ability to keep readers engaged from the moment the first clue drops in chapter one, through the twists and turns a…

"How to Isolate Your Characters in the 21st Century" by Laura McCluskey via CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime crimereads.com/how-to-isola...

Allison Epstein: A Love Letter to the Fictional Thief As a historical crime writer, there’s one trope I love more than almost anything, and that’s an old-timey thief with an elaborate scheme. If we had all day, I’d take you on a tour of all my favorit…

“A Love Letter to the Fictional Thief” by Allison Epstein @rapscallison via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime

The Profoundly Unsettling World of Agatha Christie As a longtime fan of Agatha Christie’s novels, I think we do their writer something of a disservice when we call them “cozy crime.” I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard them spo…

"The Profoundly Unsettling World of Agatha Christie" by Lucy Foley via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice # writingtips #writingcrime

Sixteen of the Most Perfect Murders in Crime Fiction What exactly is a perfect murder? It’s a phrase that gets tossed around a lot (well, maybe only by me), and my sense is that a perfect murder is when the murder itself is unsolvable, maybe even und…

"Sixteen of the Most Perfect Murders in Crime Fiction" by Peter Swanson @PeterSwanson3 via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

The (Bad) Sisterhoods of Crime Fiction Wicked might be the most familiar sister-skeptical story right now, but crime fiction about whether your sister has got your back, or is carefully plunging a knife in it, has been with us for a lon…

"The (Bad) Sisterhoods of Crime Fiction" by Caroline Reitz @CWWrites via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime

Mixing Genres Is All About Messing With Structure More than the plot, or the characters, I adore books that cross genres and mess with the traditional way stories are told. I’m obsessed by the structure of novels. The God of Small Things by Arundh…

“Mixing Genres is All About Messing with Structure” by Stuart Turton @stu_turton via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

Genre Primeval: How the Western Evolved into the Crime Novel Back in the 80s, a man being prosecuted for murder by my father, the district attorney, broke out of the county jail and, stranded on the roof of the county courthouse, threatened to kill my entire…

“How the Western Evolved into the Crime Novel” by @SnowdenWright via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

Abandoned Estates, Empty Hotels, and Isolated Schools Think of Gothic and what comes to mind? Ruined towers, brooding castles, women in crinolines fleeing from an unknown horror? The title quotation comes from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein which, for ma…

"Abandoned Estates, Empty Hotels, and Isolated Schools" by @ellygriffiths via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

Balancing Technical Jargon with Reader Engagement As someone who has spent their life in motorsports from the day I left school until I took the plunge and switched careers in 2019, I was constantly being asked when I would write a book about raci…

"Balancing Technical Jargon with Reader Engagement" by Nicholas Harvey via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime

Fiction’s Most Manipulative Masterminds The first two books in my Pendulum series, Pendulum and Freefall, examined the impact of technology on our society. In Aftershock, the third outing for now battle-hardened photojournalist John Wall…

"Fiction's Most Manipulative Masterminds" by Adam Hamdy via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

David Baldacci on Pushing Your Characters Into the Unknown When you’ve been in the writing business as long as I have, the one thing you need to constantly search for are stories that will challenge you as a novelist, get you out of your comfort zone, make…

"David Baldacci on Pushing Your Characters Into the Unknown" by @DavidBaldacci via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime #writingthrillers

Are Villains the Most Important Characters? Are villains the most important characters? That’s a crazy question. It’s also click-batey and nigh on ridiculous.  Or is it?  Villains are the characters we love to hate but secretly we hate the f…

"Are Villains the Most Important Characters?" by Mike Maden @MikeMadenAuthor via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

Cozy Mysteries Represent the Way Life Should Be My new mystery series features the proprietor of an apron shop located on the Maine coast, a setting rich in cultural associations. Lobster. Lighthouses. Quaint villages and rocky cliffs crowned wi…

“Cozy Mysteries Represent the Way Life Should Be” by Elizabeth Penney @liz2penney via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

New England Gothic, and The Uncanny Making of a Mystery Like most writers, I hate being asked about themes in my work. I am never conscious of having a theme. An obsessive preoccupation with a subject (an old master painting, let’s say) or character typ…

"New England Gothic, and The Uncanny Making of a Mystery" by Neil Olson via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

I Wrote the Kind of Character I Wanted Most to Read About One of the first things I did upon moving from Los Angeles, California, to Denver, Colorado, last July (a long story for another day) was pay a visit to the Tattered Cover, my local independent boo…

"I Wrote the Kind of Character I Wanted Most to Read About" by Gar Anthony Harwood via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

Reviving the Traditional Mystery for a 21st Century Audience It is the nature of progress that what is now cutting-edge will, with the passing of time, become traditional. And it is the nature of human beings to remake and refine what has worked in the past,…

"Reviving the Traditional Mystery for a 21st Century Audience" by @SulariGentill via @CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #writingcrime

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“Should You Write a Series or Stand Alones?” by James Scott Bell via KillZoneBlog #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime killzoneblog.com/2025/02/shou...

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"Impart Info with Attitude" by Jodie Renner via killzoneauthors #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime killzoneblog.com/2013/04/info...

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"Exposition in Your Opening: Less is More" by James Scott Bell via KillZoneBlog #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime killzoneblog.com/2025/02/expo...

85,000 words and counting...
#newnovel #newseries #writingcrime...

How to Craft a Mystery in Both a Historical and Contemporary Setting It’s hard to believe that my first novel was published fifteen years ago this coming June. Over fifty published novels later, I have found my place in publishing writing both contemporary and histo…

"How to Craft a Mystery in Both a Historical and Contemporary Setting" by Amanda Flower via CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime crimereads.com/how-to-craft...

Why Posh London Is Just as Good A Setting For Mysteries as Any Gritty Side Street British crime writing is famed for its grittiness: hard-bitten cops risking all in the war against drugs, gangs, human trafficking and corruption. Favoured backdrops are the high-rise council estat…

"Why Posh London Is Just as Good A Setting For Mysteries as Any Gritty Side Street" by Orlando Murrin via CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime crimereads.com/why-posh-lon...

There's been a murder! What it means to be a woman writing crime

Does it matter who writes crime, how it's written, or whether crime is a vehicle for human connection?

And why does crime fiction mean so much to so many of us? Take a look at my latest blog:
alensunclouded.substack.com/p/theres-bee...

#crimefiction #writingcrime #womenwritingcrime

Laughing at the Monster: Comedy in the Fear Genres In recent years, the art of genre-blending has seeped steadily into the mainstream, and I for one am waving a welcome banner for its arrival. As a reader first, I crave a book that will give me the…

“Laughing at the Monster: Comedy in the Fear Genres” by Ande Pliego via CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime crimereads.com/laughing-at-...

How to Isolate Your Characters in the 21st Century Crafting a compelling mystery is at the core of any good suspense story. It’s the ability to keep readers engaged from the moment the first clue drops in chapter one, through the twists and turns a…

"How to Isolate Your Characters in the 21st Century" by Laura McCluskey via CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime crimereads.com/how-to-isola...

a close up of a man 's face with a shadow on it ALT: a close up of a man 's face with a shadow on it

“The Shadow Knows” by James Scott Bell via KillZoneBlog #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime killzoneblog.com/2025/03/the-...

Balancing Technical Jargon with Reader Engagement As someone who has spent their life in motorsports from the day I left school until I took the plunge and switched careers in 2019, I was constantly being asked when I would write a book about raci…

"Balancing Technical Jargon with Reader Engagement" by Nicholas Harvey via CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime crimereads.com/balancing-te...

a red fish with the name aliabdi written above it ALT: a red fish with the name aliabdi written above it

“Red Herrings, Foreshadows and Creating a Mystery” via KillZoneBlog #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime killzoneblog.com/2023/08/red-...

Allison Epstein: A Love Letter to the Fictional Thief As a historical crime writer, there’s one trope I love more than almost anything, and that’s an old-timey thief with an elaborate scheme. If we had all day, I’d take you on a tour of all my favorit…

“A Love Letter to the Fictional Thief” by Allison Epstein via CrimeReads #amwriting #writerslife #WritingCommunity #writingadvice #writingtips #WritingCrime crimereads.com/allison-epst...

Forging into 2025 with the last few chapters of my psychological thriller in my usual writing haunt on a Sunday morning.
#amwriting
#writing
#writingcrime
#psychologicalthriller