Friday morning catch-up...

[alexpgp]

I've been sneaking a page or ten of Sue Grafton's R is for Ricochet at odd moments over the past couple of weeks and find myself now two-thirds of the way through the book, in a strange situation.

Unlike many mystery authors, who try to smack you in the face with some serious action - typically, someone getting killed - within the first couple of pages of a new story, Grafton has woven a tale in which a lot of stuff has been revealed (money laundering, philandering, mind games), but almost nothing has actually happened.

So I'm wondering: Why do I keep turning the pages?

I have some ideas as to why, but if I can definitively answer this question, I think I'll be a lot further along in the writing game.

Cheers...

Comments

[mallorys-camera.livejournal.com]

Grafton does get the procedural details right -- Santa Barbara in the fog, the whole private detective thing etc.

You like mysteries? Have you ever read Ian Rankin's Rebus novels? I wonder if you'd like those?

My personal favorite of that genre is Ruth Rendell whose mysteries are so strange they might have been written by Borges.