This week I have the pleasure of hosting Mark Lisac, author of WHERE the BODIES LIE. Mark is a Canadian writer published by a Canadian publisher (NeWest Press), so of course I like that.

Mark Lisac on How to Write a Good Mystery

After turning from a career writing non-fiction to trying a novel I quickly realized there are many ways to write fiction and no fixed rule will work for everyone.

Even giving away the ending at the beginning of a mystery story is not necessarily bad. It worked for Billy Wilder when he filmed Sunset Boulevard.

About the closest I can come to a general principle is to say that clarity is of utmost importance. It’s important not only for itself, but because it leads to other virtues such as conciseness and distinctive style.

A good illustration of clarity popped up at my expense a few months after I finished Where the Bodies Lie. The first page of the story presents a court scene. I wanted to describe the onlookers who regularly show up at trials for entertainment. I wrote a couple of sentences that seemed to get the idea across, although the finished product was never completely satisfying.

A few months later, I read Ross MacDonald’s The Chill, which also happens to feature a court scene on the opening page. Here’s how he described what I’d been trying to get at, offhandedly in a sentence that begins with a reference to a major character in the story: “He wasn’t one of the regular trial-watchers, housewives and pensioners filling an empty morning with other people’s troubles.”

Eleven words tacked onto a short sentence nail the scene and speak volumes about the narrator’s attitudes and experience at the same time. That’s why MacDonald was a master of detective fiction: he was a master of writing, because he was very often able to understand exactly what he wanted to say and present the essential elements, and those elements alone.

One can aspire to that. Other aspects of telling a good mystery story may be a little more within reach.

You can read good books and absorb what the authors have done (I think that’s the only real school for writing).

But I also find models of taste and structure in music and in film. The reference above to Sunset Boulevard is only one of many.

It’s an older movie, released in 1950. That’s no accident. Some current films are useful for writers to watch. Too many feature computerized effects, routine dialogue and intercut shots consisting of two seconds of actors mugging. Older films were by story.

And the better ones saw directors and actors put a real effort into everything.

That particularly goes for characters. How many times have you seen a recent movie and had secondary characters leave your memory a few hours later? (Some lead characters too, for that matter.)

Movies from Hollywood’s “Golden Age” consistently featured top-notch character actors in small parts lending interest and nuance even to short scenes.

A good mystery novel does the same. Everything that happens should count. All the characters should count. In short, never mail it in, not even for a paragraph.

Weakly written books can sell big (see Dan Brown’s novels) but that just means a writer has a choice of doing good work or not. Most of us aren’t going to see sales anywhere approaching those of The Da Vinci Code. If it can’t be a blockbuster, why not at least make it good?

Where the Bodies Lie, published in April by NeWest Press.

A provincial cabinet minister murders someone in his constituency organization in a rather gruesome way, and the premier is worried about the implications. He hires a friend named Harry Asher to look into what happened. But whose friend is Asher really? And what will he do when he turns up information that threatens the founding myths of an unnamed province that looks a lot like Alberta? This mystery/thriller also a novel about a place and the people who live there.

Praise for Where the Bodies Lie

“What’s remarkable about this novel is how brilliantly Lisac moves from political writing to fiction. His smooth prose and fine pacing make it a pleasure to read.” — Globe and Mail

“An elegant and efficient writer  … sets lovely scenes” — Vue Weekly

“Seems to carve it own genre” — Fort McMurray Today

Who is Mark Lisac?

Mark Lisac, originally from Hamilton, worked as a journalist in Saskatchewan for five years. He began writing about Alberta politics in 1979 as a reporter for The Canadian Press and then as a columnist for The Edmonton Journal. From 2005 to 2013, he was publisher and editor of the independent political newsletter Insight into Government.  He published The Klein Revolution in 1995 and Alberta Politics Uncovered in 2004. He also contributed a chapter to Alberta Premiers of the Twentieth Century and edited Lois Hole Speaks. Where the Bodies Lie is his first novel.

You can find WHERE the BODIES LIE on Amazon.

You can find out more about Mark on his website http://www.marklisac.com.

Judy and I met thought blogging about books, and now we have a publisher in common. Imajin Books, of course. I read Judy’s novel, Hanged Man’s Noose, loved it, and reached out to connect with Judy online. So it is with great pleasure, I have Judy here today to share her knowledge.

Judy Penz Sheluk on Book Titles

If you read mysteries and find a book with the title G is for Gumshoe, you’re likely to make the connection: this is one of Sue Grafton’s alphabet series. Ditto for Sudden Prey: has to be John’s Sandford’s Lucas Davenport series. Other authors, like Kristina Stanley, have found another winning “formula,” in Kristina’s case, one word titles: Descent, Blaze, Avalanche. Find a book with a pun-ny title, like Janet Bolin’s Night of the Living Thread or Butter Off Dead by Leslie Budewitz, and even without reading the back cover, you know you’re looking at a cozy.

Of course, not all authors play by any particular rules. Consider Louise Penny. Her titles include Still Life, The Long Way Home and A Beautiful Mystery. No correlation there. Yet every author knows that a good title is important. Think In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, and you know this is going to be a dark tale of grisly murder.

When I started writing The Hanged Man’s Noose, the first book in my Glass Dolphin mystery series, the working title was The Blue Dolphin, the original name of the antiques shop that features prominently in the book. I changed the store’s name to the Glass Dolphin when a Google search led me to an actual antiques shop called The Blue Dolphin. But I also knew that a book called The Glass Dolphin (or The Blue Dolphin) wasn’t about to stand out in the crowd.

A few chapters into the book, Arabella Carpenter, owner of the Glass Dolphin, goes into The Hanged Man’s Noose for a drink and a sympathetic ear. Named for the town’s namesake, Samuel Lount, a real life nineteenth century politician who was hanged for treason, as soon as I came up with the name of the bar, I knew I had the name of my book.

My latest mystery, Skeletons in the Attic, started life as Calamity Barnstable, the name of my protagonist. Once again, I knew that was never going to work in the long term. And once again, inspiration came from the story itself. Here’s an excerpt from Chapter 6:

The attic was every bit as creepy as I expected, a windowless, claustrophobic space, the walls and ceiling filled with pink fiberglass insulation, the air smelling faintly of mothballs. Given the padlock, I had expected it to be stockpiled with valuables. It wasn’t. There was a large leather steamer trunk that looked like it might be vintage, a newer trunk, bright blue with brass trim, and what appeared to be a picture triple wrapped in bubble wrap.

There was also a coffin, full-sized from what I could gather. I took a deep breath, resisted the urge to bolt out the cubbyhole entry, and inched my way over.

Unlike the attic, there was no lock on the coffin. I almost wished there had been, if only to delay the inevitable. I took another deep breath, put on the yellow rubber kitchen gloves I’d brought with me—I’d watched enough episodes of CSI to know the importance of not leaving fingerprints—bent down, and gingerly lifted the lid. It was lighter than I expected, but that didn’t stop me from dropping it abruptly. The thump echoed in the room, scaring me more than I could have thought possible.

Because what I saw lying against the cream-colored satin wasn’t a dead, decaying body, but a skeleton. One that looked decidedly human.

I had been ready to uncover some skeletons in the closet. A skeleton in the attic was another matter entirely.

A skeleton in the attic. As soon as I wrote the words, I knew that would be the title. Because I wanted to differentiate this work from my Glass Dolphin mysteries, I decided to go with “A Marketville Mystery,” Marketville being the name of the town where the story takes place.

So, what do you think? How important is a title in your decision to read a book?

Synopsis for Skeletons in the Attic

What goes on behind closed doors doesn’t always stay there…

Calamity (Callie) Barnstable isn’t surprised to learn she’s the sole beneficiary of her late father’s estate, though she is shocked to discover she has inherited a house in the town of Marketville—a house she didn’t know existed. However, there are conditions attached to Callie’s inheritance: she must move to Marketville, live in the house, and solve her mother’s murder.

Callie’s not keen on dredging up a thirty-year-old mystery, but if she doesn’t do it, there’s a scheming psychic named Misty Rivers who is more than happy to expose the Barnstable family secrets. Determined to thwart Misty and fulfill her father’s wishes, Callie accepts the challenge. But is she ready to face the skeletons hidden in the attic?

Judy Penz Sheluk’s debut mystery novel, The Hanged Man’s Noose, was published in July 2015. Skeletons in the Attic, the first book in her Marketville Mystery Series, was published in August 2016.

Judy’s short crime fiction appears in World Enough and Crime, The Whole She-Bang 2, Flash and Bang and Live Free or Tri.

Judy is a member of Sisters in Crime, Crime Writers of Canada, International Thriller Writers and the Short Mystery Fiction Society.

Find Judy on her website/blog at http://www.judypenzsheluk.com, where she interviews other authors and blogs about her writing journey.

Find Skeletons in the Attic: http://www.imajinbooks.com/skeletons-in-the-attic