Comments on: Hunting Down A Sleuth: Creating a Crime-Solver Readers Will Love

By: patriciaruthsusan

patriciaruthsusan — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 11:49:13 +0000

This was a very interesting and helpful blog. I pinned it on Pinterest as suggested above. Thank you so much for sharing. I'm sure you'll continue to have great success with all you future novels.

By: Cecilia

Cecilia — Sun, 13 Apr 2014 10:39:11 +0000

great post, thank you. I have a potential sleuth hidden under dust and bookworms in an old cardboard box. Time to drag him out into fresh air.

By: Laura Drake

Laura Drake — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 22:21:00 +0000

In reply to Orly Konig-Lopez. Hey Orly, as a fellow horse-nut, have you read Dick Francis?

By: marsharwest

marsharwest — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 21:02:29 +0000

What a wonderful post! Of course, I've come to expect that here at WITS. I write romantic suspense and was interested in how many people after finishing my first book wanted to know when the next one about those characters would be out. In point of fact, I didn't start out with a series in mind. So the second book, out next month is a whole new set of folks. Now the third book will pick up on a supporting character from the first and from there to hopefully 3 others. As plot driven as I am as a writer, I guess it really is the characters who readers latch on to. Great points here. I'll be keeping and sharing. :)

By: ramblingsfromtheleft

ramblingsfromtheleft — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 19:10:38 +0000

Susan, although I am a book nut who crosses genres like busy avenues in Mid-town Manhattan, I have always had a secret love affair with mysteries. Starting with Nancy Drew and following with Agatha, Hercule Poirot, Sherlock and on to dozens and dozens of others. I follow series and love to read all of a particular mystery writer, even when they have two sleuths like John Sanford, Robert Parker and others. I also follow dozens of "cozies" and become attached to the quirky way some of them solve the crime 🙂

Naturally, my first freshman attempts at writing were in that genre. I also cross-genre with my writing, but my first love will always be mysteries. My main sleuth is a photo-journalist and her heart break is that her stories are set in the middle of the Vietnam war, the civil rights and protests era of the sixties, always torn between her love of photo-art for art's sake and her need to find the truth behind her photographs. Of course, she uses photography to solve her crimes and has some interesting help-mates. Broken, bent and determined, the sleuth needs to be more of the focal point than the one crime, or in her case, series of crimes.

Thanks so much for this post, since we mostly discuss romance or WF here ... and thanks for taking a side bar from the legal to your fascinating mystery 🙂 Your research must be as complicated as your fish tanks !!

By: navigator1965

navigator1965 — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:59:19 +0000

In reply to Susan Spann. Thank you.

By: Susan Spann

Susan Spann — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:53:31 +0000

In reply to navigator1965. I'm really glad you enjoyed it - and thank you so much for the good wishes! Best of luck with your projects also!

By: Susan Spann

Susan Spann — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:52:42 +0000

In reply to lisawellsauthor. Thank you Lisa - I'm glad you enjoyed it!

By: Susan Spann

Susan Spann — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:36:21 +0000

In reply to Orly Konig-Lopez. I'm so glad Orly! It was fun to write, and I hope people find some useful pieces in there even if they're not writing mystery or thriller. :)

By: Susan Spann

Susan Spann — Fri, 11 Apr 2014 17:00:39 +0000

In reply to Melissa Lewicki. WHOOPS! You're right! I'd forgotten that Miss Marple never married. Good catch - and teach me to proofread a little more closely! I do the same thing you did - I write a little biography of each main character, to make sure that I have his or her story together before I start writing. It helps so much when it comes to making them real, doesn't it?