It Was a Noir and Stormy Night…

“What kind of book would you like to write that you haven’t tried before?”

 I’d like to be able to write a REAL mystery, an all-out head-scratcher from start to finish. A gritty, serious, police or even a spy novel. One that has realistic twists and turns, one that gives just enough information that the reader smacks their head at the end when the reveal comes through, but not to give so much that they say, “I saw that coming.”

I want them to be shocked and at the edge of their seat all the way through.

Now, every romance I have ever read has a bit of mystery in it.  My own does, and actually, it has a few situations that makes the main character wonder or worry. I hope the readers don’t  work them out too soon, but the book is much more about relationships than mysteries. I have several other stories done or in the works, like a couple of supernatural ones, a crime one and a children’s story, all that have mysteries of sorts, but none of them take themselves too seriously. They are not long and not convoluted, and there are few characters.  Not what I would like to be capable of producing.

A real mystery is what I would LIKE to write.

As much as I enjoy Gretchen Archer’s “Davis Way” mysteries, Janet Evanovich’s “Stephanie Plum” novels and Parnell Hall’s “Puzzle Lady” mysteries, (among others), I’m talking about hard-core mysteries. I  don’t believe that even if I was alone on an island that I could manage to come close to the aforementioned writers  no matter how hard I tried, let alone produce a noir crime novel.

A  dark crime novel but without the gratuitous, (almost compulsory), ugliness that most writers feel they need to add for shock value. Yes, bad things go on in this world, but not every situation, as bad as it may be, has every form of depravity attached to it, (nor does it need to be told in graphic detail).

I can’t imagine even trying to make a start, (let alone finish), such a thing.

On the other hand, I HAVE considered a gritty work based loosely on what I have heard, experienced and have seen happen to others.

I just don’t know if I have the nerve for it.

It could be a hit in some circles, but do I want to go there?

That remains to be seen, and THAT is the only mystery attached to that particular piece of work.

I think that I had better stick with what I have in the works before I try to branch out even farther.

But who knows?

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