The Nine Deadly Dolls is live!

The Nine Deadly Dolls

A Justinia Wright Private Investigator Mystery

About the Book

Nine little dolls. Voodoo dolls. A suicide. Or was it?

When Bobby Joseph Frieden visits Justinia Wright with a mysterious demand letter and the belief his uncle was murdered, Tina takes his case.

But how are the dolls connected to Frieden’s uncle’s death? And what is with the mysterious box that is the subject of the demand letter?

What begins as a cozy little mystery, turns ugly real fast, and Tina has to work quickly to stop the killers.

The Nine Deadly Dolls is live today! Pick up a copy at Amazon!

About the Series

Set in Minneapolis, home of Minnesota Nice, the sister and brother detective team of Tina and Harry Wright catch the bad guys and make sure Minnesota stays Nice.

This series has thrills and spills aplenty — along with good food, wine, and wisecracking humor — it’s as if Nero Wolfe moved to Minnesota.

What Readers are Saying About the Series

“Some fictional universes are just places you want to be…”

“CW Hawes has created a cast of characters that stand tall next to any traditional detective, whodunit mystery you want to put them up against. … Hawes has developed characters that you can't help but care about.”

“The story line is wonderful, creative, and kept me expectant throughout. Hawes is wonderfully descriptive, drawing the reader in and holding them until the final page.”

Pick up a copy of The Nine Deadly Dolls at Amazon. The game is afoot!

Why the Novella?

Novels are long works of fiction. How long depends on who you ask. Today, novels tend to be quite long on average. After all, publishers need to make a buck. As a reader, though, I find them bloated, ungainly, and filled with lots of boring stuff I usually skip over. Elmore Leonard’s rule about not putting in your novel the stuff readers skip over is routinely ignored in today’s publishing world.

However, that was not always the case. There was a time when novels topped out at 60,000-70,000 words. And most where in the 40,000 word range. For me, as a reader, that’s the length I like. Anything longer has to be super doggone good or I stop reading. Life is too short for boring.

I love short stories. They’re concise and provide bite size entertainment. Some of the most powerful pieces of fiction I’ve read are short stories. Such gems as “Silent Snow, Secret Snow” by Conrad Aiken; “Sredni Vashtar” by Saki; “Hills Like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway; “The Cask of Amontillado” by Edgar Allan Poe; and “The Spotted Dog” by Anthony Trollope, to name a few.

Nothing can beat the impact of a well-written short story.

On the other hand, within the last couple years I’ve come to very much appreciate those middle length forms: the novelette, and the novella.

Longer than a short story, the novelette and novella allow for more expensive treatment of the story, deeper treatment of the characters. And I find novelettes and novellas give me a more satisfying read than novels because there is no padding, no boring parts, no filler material to satisfy a publisher’s or editor’s length requirements.

As a writer, I find the novelette, running roughly between 7,000 and 20,000 words, and the novella, at 20,000 to 50,000 words, give me enough space to tell the story, flesh out the characters, and omit the parts I as a reader would probably skip over.

Certain genres, such as horror and perhaps mystery, are at their best in the novella and novelette length.

When reading a horror novel, too often I find the author incapable of maintaining the atmosphere and the suspense. The result is a roller coaster of increasing and decreasing tension, rather than slowly building suspense, tension, and terror which culminate in the climax of the story.

Mystery novels often have unnecessary filler to pad out the length. The sleuth runs here, runs there, often getting nowhere. He or she spends time navel gazing, or baking, or knitting, or we might be treated to an extended tourist guide view of the locale.

In my own writing, I’ve been gradually moving from the novel to the novella and novelette. The Justinia Wright novels are the last hold outs. Although they are relatively short novels for mysteries. They average between 49,000 and 51,000 words, with the longest being 54,000.

Nevertheless, in the future I see more novelette and novella length Justinia Wright mysteries, such as Vampire House, Genome, the novelettes comprising Trio in Death-Sharp Minor, and the forthcoming The Nine Deadly Dolls.

From the beginning, the Pierce Mostyn series has been in novella length and I have no plans to change. The novella gives me plenty of space to tell the story with satisfying pacing, tension, and atmosphere; and to give the reader good character development.

Given how busy our lives are these days, it seems to me fiction that can provide a satisfying virtual experience in one sitting, say, on the bus or train commuting to work, or listening in the car during the daily commute, or in the evening after work, or on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, such a read would be ideal. A visit to another world taking just about an hour, perhaps two. Sounds perfect to me.

The novella and the novelette: not too big and not too small. They are just right.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

Mystery vs Suspense vs Thriller One Reader’s View

Crime can pay. Crime writing, that is. Then, again, real crime can pay too. But we’ll leave real crime for others to do. Today I want to talk about crime fiction; specifically about mysteries, suspense, and thrillers.

Thrillers

Thrillers are all the rage these days, but what exactly is a thriller?

A thriller is an action story. Usually fast-paced. The protagonist is in danger from the beginning. There is a bad guy and the protagonist must stop him (or her) from accomplishing his nefarious deed. We usually know the good and bad guys right from the beginning.

The scope of the thriller is often large. The bad guy isn’t playing for pennies. He’s going to blow up a city, poison a country, start a nuclear war. The thriller is about big action and big bad guys. The protagonist, to some degree, must also be larger than life.

The works of Tom Clancy and Clive Cussler are examples of good thrillers.

In the hands of a good writer, the thriller can be a thrilling read. Often, though, the writing is sub-par and the story not plausible, unless I, the reader, exercise a mega-dose of the suspension of disbelief. This is how the Jack Reacher stories strike me.

Many books are labeled as thrillers, which technically aren’t. Why? Money. As one wit noted, the difference between a mystery and a thriller is about a hundred thousand dollars.

Suspense

The suspense novel is often a slow burn story. The focus isn’t on action, although there may be quite a bit of action. The focus is on creating a feeling of suspense in the reader.

In the suspense story, the reader is omniscient. We see everything. We see the bad guy planning whatever it is he is going to do. We see the protagonist completely unaware, at least at the beginning, of the bad guy and his actions. We, the reader, see much more of the danger than the protagonist does and therein lies the creation of suspense.

The scope of the suspense story is generally limited and focused on the main character. Things are happening, usually to the main character, and he doesn’t know why. We, the reader, usually do, however, which adds to the suspense.

Cornell Woolrich was the suspense writer par excellence. Lester Dent also wrote some fine suspense novels.

The Mystery

The mystery is about solving crime, usually a murder. The crime usually happens at the beginning of the story and the sleuth’s job is to solve it. The protagonist (the sleuth) can be a professional or an amateur. And we usually do not learn who the bad guy is until the end of the story.

There are many mystery sub-categories. Right now, the most popular is what I call the chick lit cozy. It is the cozy mystery with the addition of elements from chick lit: a young (or youngish) woman, who is the main character/sleuth; she is divorced or a widow; has moved to a new location, and embarked on a new career; and there’s romance. Along with the regular cozy mystery, these are very clean and non-violent reads.

An indie example is Agatha Frost’s Peridale Cafe Murder Mystery series.

In a mystery, the reader only knows what he or she is told. We see what the sleuth sees. The story is as much a puzzle for the reader as it is for the protagonist.

The mystery can be filled with suspense and it can be thrilling. The danger to the protagonist builds, along with the story. The more the sleuth learns about the criminal, the greater the danger he or she is in.

Personal Assessment

For me, I find the mystery to be the most satisfying reading experience. It combines the puzzle with suspense and thrilling action.

While the mystery is technically a plot-driven story, rather than character-driven, I find that the most interesting mysteries are those which have interesting characters.

Mystery plots are basically all the same. There is a murderer who has killed someone and is trying to cover up the crime while the sleuth is trying to uncover it.

What makes the mystery story interesting is the cast of characters and the twists and turns of the storyline. And quite often the cast of characters can save a mediocre storyline.

After all, we remember Nero Wolfe, Sam Spade, Hercule Poirot, Mr and Mrs North, and Sherlock Holmes. But how many of the actual mystery stories featuring these characters do we remember? I bet not many.

In my opinion, interesting characters make mysteries more interesting reads than thrillers or suspense novels. Which usually have fairly stock characters.

Pacing is another reason I prefer the mystery as a reader. The pacing accelerates with the action in the story. As the clues (and sometimes the bodies) pile up and the more the sleuth knows, the more desperate the killer becomes. And the sleuth finds himself in ever increasing danger.

The action ratchets up in a natural progression. Unlike the thriller where were out of breath by page 2 or 3. The mystery, to my mind, is much more realistic and natural.

Finally, as a reader, I don’t necessarily want to know everything. For me the suspense of knowing there is a killer out there is sufficient. As I learn information with the sleuth, I form a bond with him. We are in this together, as it were. The very nature of the mystery, helps draw me into the world of the sleuth and his dilemma.

There are some fine mysteries being written today by indie authors. Two I especially like are:

Richard Schwindt’s Death in Sioux Lookout trilogy

Joe Congel’s Tony Razzolito P.I. series

Both are very good and very much worth a read.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

Crime Fiction

My wife and I have been watching the ABC TV show Quantico on Netflix. I would have stopped watching after about the eighth episode, but my wife wanted to continue and so we did. IMO, the show continued its downward spiral into angst, bad acting, and impossibly stupid storylines right through to the season finale. How ABC could renew such a travesty on the concept of entertainment and cancel Agent Carter is beyond me. Well, actually it isn’t. A hot babe, a hunky guy, and sex (lots of sex) — and you get commercial sponsors. No wonder ABC’s line up sucks.

At the same time, I’ve been watching the Canadian TV series Murdoch Mysteries and CBS’s Elementary. Those are superb productions with good acting, well-drawn characters, and engaging storylines. Of which, Quantico has none. The main character in Quantico is a narcissistic slut (not just my opinion, even the characters in the story think so), the supporting characters are pathetic, and the storyline… Well, when taken all together, if the FBI is really like this — then God help America.

In watching the three shows, I got thinking about crime fiction and drama in general and which types do I prefer. Broadly speaking, there are three categories of crime stories: mystery, suspense, and thriller. Let’s take a look at each and see what defines them.

MYSTERY

Crime fiction mysteries more or less got their start with Edgar Allan Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin and were perfected by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Sherlock Holmes. Every detective since Holmes’s debut owe’s something to the Great Detective. Doyle permanently shaped the mystery. There have been many variations on the theme, but there have been no new themes.

What are the characteristics of the mystery story? At base it’s a puzzle, a riddle, to be solved. The hero or heroine must find the solution and discover who committed the crime.

The mystery is something of a cerebral form. It appeals to our wish for order and our desire to find solutions to problems. Action is often minimal. There is the sleuth, professional or amateur, interacting with the other characters in order to gain pieces of information which will hopefully lead to the solution of the problem.

Generally speaking, the sleuth is in little physical danger. Although he or she may encounter some risk as he or she gets closer to the solution and the bad guy is about to be revealed.

Examples of this category abound. Perhaps my favorite mysteries are those which feature Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe. On TV there are many great series. Favorites of mine are Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis, Inspector George Gently, Grantchester, Elementary, Murdoch Mysteries, and Midsomer Murders.

My own Justinia Wright, PI fits neatly into this category.

SUSPENSE

The suspense novel or drama differs from the mystery in that the hero is in some kind of personal danger, often right from the beginning of the story — although he or she may not be aware of the danger, at least at the start of the story.

However, the reader (or viewer) is very much aware and that starts the suspense dynamic.

The focus in the suspense story is not on the crime, but rather on the danger the hero has inadvertently gotten himself into.

The acknowledged master of the suspense story was Cornell Woolrich. Novels such as The Bride Wore Black, Night has a Thousand Eyes, and Fright are classics of the genre.

Alfred Hitchcock was the cinematic master of the suspense story, with such classics as Rear Window (based on a Woolrich short story), North by Northwest, and Vertigo.

A good suspense story often has many elements of the “whodunit”, although very often the reader or viewer knows who the villain is. The hero very often doesn’t however and that creates the suspense.

THRILLER

The thriller is the relative newcomer on the block. Although, one could argue the thriller concept got its start in such novels as the Fu Manchu series by Sax Rohmer, where the evil genius, Fu Manchu threatens the world with his evil schemes. 

In a very real sense the thriller is a suspense story that is simply set on a very grand scale. The stakes are much higher, often on a huge scale. Something is going to affect hundreds, if not thousands or millions, of people — and the hero, of course, must stop the bad guy before the disaster happens. He may or may not know who the culprit is he must stop, but stop him he must. If the villain is unknown to both hero and reader/viewer, then we have elements of the mystery in our thriller. 

And right from the start it’s very obvious the hero, along with those hundreds, thousands, or millions, is in danger. Mortal danger, which only gets worse as the story progresses.

The above mentioned blight on the thriller genre, Quantico, exemplifies all of the thriller tropes. The heroine, Alex Parrish, is in danger right from the start. The stakes are high, as well: buildings are blowing up and then we get the ultimate disaster threat. The villain is only revealed at the end, so we also have a healthy dash of mystery to our plot. The suspense story on steroids.

A much better example of the thriller is the movie Die Hard. Intense action. High stakes. One man against many, with scores of hostages at risk. A classic.

In the literary field, Tom Clancy was a master of the technical thriller and the stakes in his books are huge. There’s also Robin Cook’s medical thrillers.

POPULARITY

Crime fiction is the second largest genre after romance. According to Author Earnings’ May 2016 report, mysteries and thrillers/suspense account for around 230,000 sales per day on Amazon, with authors earning in the neighborhood of $375,000 per day. Apparently crime (writing) does pay!

Thrillers/suspense (and probably more the thriller) is the hot genre now. Straight mysteries less so. Lee Child and Clive Cussler are big names. Indies such as Mark Dawson and A G Riddle are pulling in big bucks selling thrillers. Apparently crime readers lean towards lots of action and big risks these days.

However, I have to say I prefer the mystery and secondarily the traditional suspense story. There’s nothing wrong with the thriller, it’s just that most thriller storylines seem a bit too fantastic for my tastes. I also tend to prefer the more sedate pace of the mystery. If I want action and adventure, I prefer the traditional action/adventure yarn. Such as those written by H. Rider Haggard or Robert E Howard.

It is, though, admittedly, a matter of personal taste. However, I find myself wondering if in another 130 years Jack Reacher will be around. I’m pretty certain Sherlock Holmes will be.

Feel free to comment on your crime fiction preferences. And until next time, happy reading!