Speaking of Murder: Interviews With the Masters of Mystery and Suspense, Vol. 2 [Paperback]

Various (Author), Ed Gorman (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1999

First came Speaking of Murder, a compelling collection of interviews where bestselling mystery and suspense authors revealed their lives behind the pages. Now comes Speaking of Murder, Volume II, assembling more of the brightest names in the genre to discuss what inspires them, what scares them, why they write what they do--as well as what subjects they don't touch upon and why. Dean Koontz talks about the struggle to bring his books to the silver screen...Walter Mosely discusses the impact mystery fan President Clinton has had on the genre...Nancy Pickard comments on the changes that have occurred for women mystery writers in the past two decades...Lawrence Block compares and contrasts himself to his series character Matt Scudder...and much more. The complete "line-up" includes:
* Dean Koontz
* Robert B. Parker
* Walter Mosley
* Lawrence Block
* Nancy Pickard
* Michael Connelly
* Edna Buchanan
* Donald Westlake
* Margaret Maron
* Julian Rathbone
* Paul Doherty
* Robert Crais
* Margaret York
* Laurie King
* Nevada Barr
* Joy Fielding
* Barbara Parker
* Loren D. Estleman
* J.A. Jance
* Janet Evanovich

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Berkley Trade (February 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0425165477
• ISBN-13: 978-0425165478
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,388,347 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Speaking of interviews, volume two is a winner, December 31, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Speaking of Murder: Interviews With the Masters of Mystery and Suspense, Vol. 2 (Paperback)

The second volume of interviews with best-selling authors of mystery and suspense is an insightful book that provides fans with information about favorite authors. The twenty-two interviews include a Who's Who with noted writers like Koontz, Evanovich, Jance, and Parker (Robert B.) providing readers with motivations and inspirations to their story lines as well as why they avoid some topics.

The Gorman-Greenberg duo provides another insider's look at fan favorites. The interviewers consist of individuals with varying degrees of fame within the field. The dialogues are for the most part interesting though they occasionally drags on too long. Still, another masterful non-fiction from the kings of anthology interviews.

Harriet Klausner

5.0 out of 5 stars Another collection of interviews, January 24, 2008

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Speaking of Murder: Interviews With the Masters of Mystery and Suspense, Vol. 2 (Paperback)

This is the second volume of interviews with popular mystery writers. It contains 22 interviews covering different aspects of the authors backgrounds.

An interview with Janet Evanovich covers her development as a writer. It was a long hard road, including a couple of early novels that were not published, and several years writing romance novellas before finally arriving at the Stephanie Plum series.

An interview with J.A. Jance covers her early career (starting out selling insurance), and the necessity of marketing your own material. She indicates it was 50 percent writing and 50 percent marketing when she started out, doing booksigning tours on her own dime (no support from the publisher).

You get a good picture of how the various authors got started writing novels. Some of them started out with a desire to be writers, but Janet Evanovich started out with a degree in art. It is an interesting read to look at the backgrounds of the authors. Robert Parker indicates that he got Cs in college English, became an attorney, and later went back to school to study creative writing.

The collection is well worth reading whether you are a fan of the writers, or an aspiring writer trying to get started.