Customer Reviews

How to Write Crime

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Clearly the brevity and anonymity of the review titled "This Book Offers No New Insights" (February 25, 1998) by "A Reader from USA" indicates skulduggery. The quote from my chapter in Marele Day's "How To Write Crime" is used by this review to misrepresent the whole book and entirely misses the point of my ironic narrative. It's a pity that "A Reader from USA" is not "A BETTER Reader from USA". And anyhow, anonymous reviews, like anonymous phone calls, are gutless ways of communicating.

This is a useful book by any writer's standards. Yes, it focusses on crime writing in Australia and features a particularly Australian take on its subject. It is the only book of its kind published in Australia. As such, it is unique. Just how it can offer "no insights on writing that you couldn't find in a dozen other mediocre books" (see above-mentioned review) completely baffles me. It might surprise "A Reader from USA" to know that readers from Australia (and other readers from USA, Britain, Europe as well) could be particularly interested in a discussion of the crime writer's craft not written by an American or a British writer. And also, that there is a crime-publishing business in Australia and prospective writers can now be informed about its culture, practices and issues.

This book includes chapters by leading Australian crime writers and academics, some of whom have had considerable success overseas. In my opinion, one of the refreshing things about the book is this: it's a how-to-do-it manual, but it's also an intelligent read. This kind of more diversified discussion of writing techniques and issues in the crime field is moderately rare.

And finally, considering the queasiness of "A Reader from USA" and his/her coterie of "cozy readers", may I add my surprise that he/she reads crime at all (or, more amazing still, might want to write it) and obviously doesn't have the faintest idea about nasty bits written by James Ellroy, Brett Easton Ellis, Andrew Vachss, etc, etc, etc. I agree that crime without violence is a fascinating area, but it is a thin slice of the current crime-writing domain. Additionally, crime-writing without "crime-knowing" - i.e. the "sick-making" bits, the psychologically and emotionally affecting bits - smacks of the most naive of responses to the genre.

I recommend that prospective purchasers of Marele Day's "How To Write Crime" buy and read the book for themselves, and take no notice of anonymous, brief, naive, queasy, uninformed, misleading and narrow-minded reviews.

This book, written by and for Australian hardboiled crime writers, offers no insights on writing that you couldn't find in a dozen other mediocre books on writing. Nigel Krauth's advice (p.111) that you should know what it feels like to knife a constable or "to rape an eight-year-old" is sick-making. Cozy readers steer clear of this one.