Cookie-Cutter Mysteries

Cookie-Cutter Mysteries

 

Joyce Porter once quipped that the secret to successful mystery writing was writing the same book over and over again in ways that people wouldn’t notice.  There’s some truth to this.  There’s a basic pattern to most mysteries, though certainly not all.  Someone gets murdered, the detective investigates, and eventually solves the crime.  It a formula that works, but it’s surprisingly hard to get right, and really easy to get wrong.  

 

The best authors are sufficiently creative to shake up the pattern.  Agatha Christie managed to create a wide variety of solutions and situations that made her books distinct.  Other authors seem to be completely lacking in creativity.  Some of the lesser writers I’ve read seem to follow exactly the same template in every book, with exactly the same number of chapters, with the murder happening at the end of the first chapter, and the same number of suspects (none of which are in any way distinctive), and a solution at the end that’s revealed rather than deduced.

 

Part of the problem is unimaginative authors, but unfortunately, the issue is exacerbated by undiscerning readers and publishers who seem to be averse to risks.  Mysteries are already given precious little respect, and bland, disposable entertainment seems to be a common business plan.  It’s the equivalent of chain restaurants that provide a consistent, if mediocre product.  It’ll fill you up if you’re hungry, but it’s not all that nourishing, and if you have a palate for high-quality products, you won’t be satisfied.  Cookie-cutter mysteries are all over the place, on the bookstore shelves, and on television shows.  Follow the recipe and you’ll get a perfectly edible result.

 

But it’s nothing special.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, will be released on November 5^th.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindleedition.

Discovering a New Favorite Author

Discovering a New Favorite Author

 

How did you discover some of your favorite authors?  When it comes to mystery authors, I learned about a lot of them through gifts.  My parents gave me a copy of the Complete Sherlock Holmes when I was pretty young, and I received a copy of And Then There Were None from relatives when I was ten.  Looking for more authors who wrote in the style I liked, I looked for authors with a connection to Agatha Christie and found Dorothy L. Sayers and G.K. Chesterton.

As for  Joyce Porter, I came across her totally by accident.  I was visiting a BBC radio webpage, listening to some other mystery adaptations from favorite authors.  Then I discovered a collection of radio plays starring “Scotland Yard’s laziest detective.”  A note to one side said they were funny, so I thought I’d give them a try.  I listed to five adaptations in rapid succession, and I was hooked.  Soon I tracked down copies of all of the Dover books, and I was amazed that more people didn’t know about Joyce Porter’s mysteries.

 

So I wrote a book about her: Murder Most Grotesque.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, will be released on November 5^th.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

Inspiring Sherlock’s Secretary

Inspiring Sherlock’s Secretary

 

When I started writing Sherlock’s Secretary, I had a basic idea for a plot.  It would be inspired by the fact that in real life, there used to be a bank on Baker Street that hired someone to reply to all of the people who wrote to Sherlock Holmes.

 

This was the initial premise.  But what next?  What sort of mystery would be involved?  What made the central character move from a desk job to solving a case himself?  I realized early on that as this was set at a bank, there ought to be a robbery, but it took a lot of plotting and brainstorming to come up with a workable idea for the central mystery.

 

I also realized early on that I wanted this to have a lighter tone– a comedic tone, if possible.  I’ve read a lot of very dark, intense crime novels lately, and I realized that I wanted something different.  Inspired by my study of Joyce Porter’s comedic novels, I decided to craft the story on a kind of investigative road trip, with a bunch of weird and colorful characters entering the tale along the way.  My main point was that the story was supposed to be fun, and hopefully leave the reader laughing as well as trying to fit together the puzzle pieces.

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, will be released on November 5^th.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

Good News This Week!

Good News This Week!

 

There’s some good news this week– Murder Most Grotesque was released on Tuesday in both Kindle and paperback formats!  Not only that, but the Kickstarter for Sherlock’s Secretary just ended this morning, and it was a success!  

 

I’d like to thank everybody involved– I really appreciate it!

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, will be released on November 5^th.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

A Busy Week Ahead!

A Busy Week Ahead!

 

Hello everybody!  There’s a lot happening in the next seven days for me.  First, Murder Most Grotesque will be released on Tuesday, the 7^th!  If you’re looking for a book that will introduce you to a highly entertaining author, please consider taking a look!  Some incredible news– as of today, it’s the #1 New Release for Mystery Literary Criticism on Amazon!

 

Not only that, but we’re in the final week for the Kickstarter for Sherlock’s Secretary!  I’d like to thank everybody who has backed the project so far.  If you’d like to get a special deal on Sherlock’s Secretary, or my earlier book Sherlock & Irene, or even get some never-before-published Funderburke mysteries, please take a look!  

 

Also, please check out the Kickstarters of some other great MX authors, like David Marcum’s The Collected Papers of Sherlock Holmes series, and the following projects below (the descriptions are quoted from Steve Emecz’s coverage of these projects:

 

Sherlock Holmes Advent Calendar - Volume 3- the first two calendars sold out last year so we expect the new one to go the same way!

Beasts of London - Sherlock Holmes, his brother Mycroft, and their associate Mary Morstan are some of the most adept mages in London, safeguarding the peace of the city. Their daily life of solving crimes is interrupted when an ancient threat rises in Dartmoor.

Dark Arts, Dark Acts - A Sherlock Holmes Adventure - 1940 - The British Foreign Office sends Holmes and Watson on a top-secret mission to Berlin

Sherlock Holmes and The Man With The Twisted Script - Imagine you are a caption writer and your editor drops a pile of old Sidney Paget illustrations on your desk and says 'get these ready for printing’.

Sherlock Holmes: New Adventures in the Realms of H.G. Wells - a two-volume anthology with 25 new adventures of Sherlock Holmes solving cases involving characters from the stories of H.G. Wells.

 

Thank you all so much!

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, will be released on November 5^th.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter will be published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.comand the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

A Big Thank You To All of My Backers So Far!

A Big Thank You To All of My Backers So Far!

 

I’d like to say “thanks so much” to all of the forty-nine people who have backed Sherlock’s Secretary as of this writing.  It means a lot to me that we’ve nearly doubled the goal on Kickstarter.  There’s just under two weeks to go, so we’ll see what happens in the second half of the fundraising project.  Once again, thank you all so much!

 

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, will be released on November 5^th.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter will be published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.

 

 

Announcing Murder Most Grotesque!

Announcing Murder Most Grotesque!

 

A few months ago, I announced my upcoming book on the mystery writer Joyce Porter.  I’m happy to say that Level Best Books will release my book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter on September 7^th!  It’s a study of all twenty of her books, as well as the television and radio adaptations of her work.  If you enjoy humor, twisty mysteries, and outrageous fun, I hope that you give this a look!

The Kindle edition is available for preorder on Amazon, and the paperback edition will be announced soon!

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

 

Chris Chan’s first novel, Sherlock’s Secretary, will be released on November 5^th.  His book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter will be published by Level Best Books on September 7^th.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.