When the Australian Mystery Writers' Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn't pan out.The program is a who's who of crime writing royalty:the debut writer (me!)the forensic science writerthe blockbuster writerthe legal thriller writerthe literary writerthe psychological suspense writerBut when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime.Of course, we should also know how to commit one.How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?
There must be but one detective—that is, but one protagonist of deduction—one deus ex machina. To bring the minds of three or four, or sometimes a gang of detectives to bear on a problem, is not only to disperse the interest and break the direct thread of logic, but to take an unfair advantage of the reader. If there is more than one detective the reader doesn’t know who his co-deductor is. It’s like making the reader run a race with a relay team.
A sequel is an admission that you’ve been reduced to imitating yourself.
The AMWF extends a very special welcome to our guest of honor: Henry McTavish, globally bestselling author of the Detective Morbund series. “Unputdownable and unbeatable: McTavish is peerless.”
Ernest Cunningham: Ernest Cunningham’s memoir
Lisa Fulton: Lisa Fulton’s bestselling debut novel
S. F. Majors: S. F. Majors’s gripping thrillers have captivated the world with their psychological complexity and hair-raising twists and turns. Her books include the
Alan Royce: Alan Royce is the author of the Dr. Jane Black series, comprising eleven novels and three novellas. A former forensic pathologist before being catapulted to crime-writing stardom, he brings his expertise in morgues and autopsies to the page. “Gritty, real and uncompromising. One to watch.”
Wolfgang: Winner, Commonwealth Book Prize 2012; short-listed, Bookseller’s Favorites Award 2012; short-listed, Goodreads Readers’ Choice, Literary Fiction, 2012; short-listed, Best of Amazon 2012; short-listed, Justice in Fiction Award, Women’s Prize (special exemption granted), 2003; long-listed, Miles Franklin Award 2015; long-listed, Independent Library Choice Awards 2015; Archibald Packing Room Prize subject 2018; Honorary Mention: International Poetry Prize, Oceanic Region, 2020. His next project is an interactive art project titled
From: ECunninghamWrites221@gmail.com
To:
Subject: Prologue
Hi
It’s a hard no on the prologue, I’m afraid. I know it’s the done thing in crime novels, to hook the reader in and all that, but it just feels a bit cheap here.
I know
The final image would be of the body. Faceless, of course. You’ve got to keep the victim from the reader at the start. Maybe a sprinkle of some little detail, a personal item like a piece of clothing (the blue scarf, or something, I’m not sure) that the reader can watch for in the buildup.
