This novel is the first entry in a new series by the author of the wildly successful Thursday Murder Club. Osman’s characteristic wit and humor are on display, and the plot was great! This is one of those books, you will compulsively finish.
We begin with a murder, of course. Someone is murdering B-list social media stars and leaving bags of cash at the scenes. Enter our bodyguard and the lead investigator for this tale, Amy Wheeler. She is currently protecting a big name author who is wealthy and eccentric—her last book named a Russian criminal and he has threatened to get even. Amy calls in Steve, her father-in-law and a retired homicide detective to round out the team as they go on the run to find the killer before he manages to complete the job on Amy.
Like I said, the plotting is A+. By the end all the loose ends are tied up, you’ve laughed, you’ve read some skewering social commentary, and you’ve unraveled a plot that is slightly Byzantine. All of this while becoming more enamored of the fabulous cast of characters Osman brings to the book.
You may remember, dear reader, that I recently moved into a house built in 1900, in a little Railroad town in Texas. If you have ever owned an old home, dare I say historic, then you know there is a lot to love, and a few things which are considerably less lovable.
Full disclosure, I am a frequent painter. Sherwin Williams employees in my previous hometown greeted me by name, and with enthusiasm, whenever I walked in. Paint is one of the least expensive ways to transform a space and it is one of my favorites!
But what does painting have to do with writing?
A lot, as it happens. I have been working since before Christmas on a dining room project, which has now extended into the entryway. Just like you, dear writer, I did my research. I wanted a color that was period appropriate, and that I could use as a backdrop for period antiques. (Okay, most of them are the correct period, a few are older.) I read books, looked at old fabrics, and reproductions of William Morris textiles. I settled on a nice olive green.
In a previous note, I wrote about preparing to paint. ICYMI, here it is. Today, I want to focus on taking the time to finish strong. After I primed and painted the first coat, my daughter, who BTW does not mince words, said it looked like snot. I agreed it was only the first coat, and pressed on undeterred. After the second coat, it looked better, but my husband, who is equally frank, said it was uneven and needed another coat—I had to agree. After the third coat, most of the room looked good, but whether it was a trick of the light, my eyes, or indeed a deficiency in my painting, one wall needed another pass. I was tired! But, I put on my painting clothes (yes, I have painting clothes) once again and hoisted myself up the ladder to roll and brush a fourth coat. At last, it looked great!
Here’s the point:
Sometimes, even if the paint is good paint, it needs several coats. This color is a 3-4 coat color. Your novel will need more than one, or probably even two, passes. Revision is hard! You will be tired. However, if you want to be happy with the final product, it is worth hoisting yourself back into your writing chair and doing the work. Nobody wants a wall, or a novel, that looks like snot.
My newly painted entryway
Outlining is a valuable tool at any point in the writing process: just getting started, revising your novel, or writing your summary to query.
This month I took a break from fiction and read a little nonfiction. This book I picked up because it was about women who escaped from the Death March in 1945.
If you enjoy nitty gritty historical detail, you will probably like this. It was full of interesting facts. However, I was not a fan of the structure. The author separated the women and told more details about each of their backstories in chapters that then went on to give some detail about the flight. There was also a lot of personal stuff included, because one of the women was her aunt.
Honestly, I could have lived without the personal stuff. I didn’t come to this book to find out about a personal quest for family history. [yawn]. I also found the structure where she spotlit one woman and then mixed in the flight story difficult to follow at times and disjointed.
The research was fantastic! And if you are writing on a topic related to this and need some historical information, this book was great for that. However, as an engaging nonfiction read, not so much. Let your purpose for reading be your guide. 🙂
This one has unfortunately been a little bit of a slog. I bought it after seeing the author interviewed at the HNS conference, which proves that personal appearances actually sell books, at least anecdotally. (!)
I wanted to love it! It isn’t bad, it just isn’t great. I would give it 3 stars out of 5, and I saw that mostly I agree with the other people who gave it 3 stars, and some people who gave it 4, that it is a little weighed down with too much historical research stuffed into it. There are a lot of what I like to call facty asides, where the writer takes the reader out of the story to explain something to them. It slows the pace and makes it harder to stay invested in the characters. It has a prologue that should have been cut, because it is not part of the main plot. There are too many subplots and threads to maintain narrative drive and it makes even mystery lovers like me, not care who did it by the time they get to the end. They just want it to be over.
If you are the kind of reader who really wants the facty asides and doesn’t care about the story, then maybe this is for you. It is written by a successful author, so who am I, other than a reader, to say meh? I will just let you know that it took me way too long to finish this and I only finished it because of sunk cost fallacy, so readers like me, beware.
A lot of writers say, “I’m a pantser. I don’t plan, I just write.”
I get it. Really.
It’s such a minefield out there. Maybe you spent a ton of time outlining your first novel and ended up throwing most of it out. Maybe you wrote it by sticking to the outline, but then the story didn’t feel right to you.
This means you need to consider creating a flexible outline that you can use to nail down the tent pole events in your novel without scripting every scene in advance.
It’s easy to be tempted to try to use the latest craft book or outline style and try to shoehorn your idea into it.
But this isn’t the answer.
Instead, ask yourself, “what if I plotted the decision points and big events and pantsed my way in between? What if I let the outline be a guide rather than a mandate?”
If you’re still confused or unsure, then you’re in luck. In case you missed it, I’m running a free masterclass in three days called Wallop Your What If.
In our 45-minutes together, you will:
See how the Inciting Incident fits into the overall plot points for a good story
Understand the importance of cause and effect in choosing your Inciting Incident
Look at examples of Inciting Incidents that work and a few that don’t
Remember, writing by the seat of your pants may have gotten you through a first draft, but shaping your novel requires understanding structure and how to apply it, no matter what genre or style you write in.
The session will be recorded and made available to registered attendees for two weeks after the event.
Bonus points for setting up the main conflict or hinting at it early
Types of First Pages
Thriller—Schock Opening
Flash Forward
Narrator Intrusion/Intro
Curiosity Inducing
Main Character Connection
Examples of some Fantastic First Pages and a discussion of why they work
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