Hi Guillaume. I write in that genre and there are certainly 'whodunnit' elements in my novels, but the main interest is the characters' motivation rather than working out the puzzle. Marcel Berlins is a very experienced crime fiction critic - writing for The Times! - so I wouldn't challenge his opinion myself.
That said, I do find all the labels rather confusing as there is so much crossover. Thriller, mystery, detective, murder, crime thriller, crime fiction... and of course in the US the terminology is slightly different again...
Depends which one you read, Guillaume. Cut Short tells the parallel stories of the killer and the detective and the tension lies in finding out when he is stopped in his killing spree. Road Closed and Dead End are more of a puzzle for the reader, but again the main interest lies in the characters and their motivation.
13 comments:
That's a compliment. Congratulations!
Congrats! (And is it me or does people call whodunits things that are not whodunits at all?).
Thanks, Star. It's great to be mentioned in The Times.
Hi Guillaume. I write in that genre and there are certainly 'whodunnit' elements in my novels, but the main interest is the characters' motivation rather than working out the puzzle. Marcel Berlins is a very experienced crime fiction critic - writing for The Times! - so I wouldn't challenge his opinion myself.
That said, I do find all the labels rather confusing as there is so much crossover. Thriller, mystery, detective, murder, crime thriller, crime fiction... and of course in the US the terminology is slightly different again...
Wow, congratulations.
Thanks, Debs. It's great to be mentioned in The Times again. As for being 'clever' ... what can I say? !
I have only read one of your novels, but I wouldn't consider it whodunit (we know who did it, for one), although there are some elements of it. It is mainly a thriller. But the "proper" whodunit as subgenre I think is more or less passé.
Depends which one you read, Guillaume. Cut Short tells the parallel stories of the killer and the detective and the tension lies in finding out when he is stopped in his killing spree. Road Closed and Dead End are more of a puzzle for the reader, but again the main interest lies in the characters and their motivation.
Lovely to reap the rewards of all that hard work.
Wow, what a great review!! Congrats on the release!!
Fabulous review!
Thanks, Jill.
Thanks, Helen.
It's always nice to see supportive comments here.
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