Customer Reviews

Writing the Private Eye Novel: A Handbook by the Private Eye Writers of America

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I am really sorry to see that this book is now about to be out of print, has limited availability in the U.S.! Luckily, it can still be obtained used through Amazon and many other booksellers.

I am starting a mystery, and found this book full of good advice. What it is not full of, however, is "nuts and bolts" type of advice. It is full of "general" advice from various mystery writers.

A number of writers talk about the importance of planning a writing a whole series, if you are just starting out. Many of them mention the importance of reading a lot in the genre. The technique of outlining three or four books mystery books that YOU like (by summarizing each chapter in three or four sentences) will teach you a lot about how to put together a mystery.

The other contributors each have something unique to say. The book is broken into eight chapters, as follows, with two-to-five author contributors of articles for each chapter: Getting Started, Plot and Structure, Creativity, Character, Setting, Writing the PI Short Story, Stretching the Boundaries, and From the Editor's Desk. Personally, I found one article on Trans-Gender Writing in the book to be particularly helpful.

This is a great general book, geared to the mystery writer.

Anyone hoping for a mystery recipe book will be dissapointed. This book won't tell you how to write a mystery story, but it will inspire some creativity and hopefully calm some worries (especially for those like myself who haven't done much mystery writing).

I picked up a copy from the "new & used" section of this site for only $.75. That's a steal for a book of this quality.