“Should auld acquaintance be forgot, and never brought to mind?” In the twilight of every year, these poignant words, written by Scots poet Robert Burns in 1788, come to the fore. What does this sentiment have to do with Robert B. Parker’s mysteries? Parker didn’t just write about Spenser, the iconic, unforgettable Boston detective: he…
I’m a goody two shoes. I’ll admit it. As a kid, I followed the rules, colored inside the lines. I put all 64 Crayola crayons back in the box when I finished drawing my five-legged ponies and rainbows instead of scattering them all over the play rug like a philistine. I knew the difference between…
The mystery genre comes with an intrinsic promise of twists, turns, mayhem—a literary roller coaster ride! Anyone can show up at any time. Anything can happen. But what if all the characters in a mystery or suspense novel are confined to one specific place? Unable to leave to find help or gather information… and no…
One of the most difficult aspects of writing historical mysteries as an ex-historian, is that between the drafting, the research for the book itself, and the revision process, I run out of time to read for fun. In the years before I became a published author, I was a voracious reader—inhaling books indiscriminately: fiction and…
Clearly, when creating his famous protagonist Robert Langdon, a Harvard professor of symbology who finds clues in famous artworks to uncover international conspiracies, immortalised on screen by Tom Hanks, Dan Brown was onto something. Experts and academics make outstanding literary detectives. After years of study, their knowledge of their field is narrow but deep, sometimes…
It goes without saying that there are many fictional female detectives I’ve read and wished that, one, I could walk in her shoes—or just be her sidekick—and, two, that have inspired me in writing my own female sleuths. Miss Marple is at the top, naturally. Nancy Drew, a close second. And Agatha Christie’s other lady…
There’s a certain comfortable predictability in most cozy mysteries: a small town (or reasonable facsimile), a life-changing decision, an amateur sleuth who reluctantly takes on the task of unmasking a killer, perhaps a pet companion, definitely secrets. And to make things interesting, a little something extra. The Gardener’s Plot is set in a small town…
Not every book is inspired by great works of literature, life-defining moments, or current events. Sometimes, books can be inspired by—or at least influenced by—popular culture. A New Lease on Death is one of those. I don’t think I was consciously aware of it when I was writing it, but after early readers started comparing…
There’s something eternally captivating about the idea of hidden treasure, conjuring images of sunken ships and secret passageways, coded maps, and skeletal guardians. So it’s only natural that so many writers of mystery and suspense have turned to the trope when crafting their narratives. The stakes are bound to be high and motives plentiful when…
Nemesis finds Evan in conflict with one of his best friends, Tommy. What was the path of their relationship that brought them to this point? They have a gruff reliance on each other. After all, Tommy supplies Evan with all his weaponry and ordnance, even his Ford F-150. It takes a lot for Evan to…
