Table of Contents

1 Introduction 2 Different approaches and dealing with outlines 3 Settings and Issues 4 Characterisation and motivation 5 Dialogue 6 Backgrounds and specialist knowledge 7 Narrative Style and first paragraphs 8 Focus, suspect, clues and red herrings 9 Pace or the smoking gun 10 Denouements and endings 11 research

About the Author

Janet Laurence is an established crime writer. She is the author of the Darina Lisle crime series as well as the Canaletto murder series and the novel To Kill the Past. She also contributed to the Murder they Wrote Collection in 1994 and is writer in residence at a college in Australia every summer. Janet Laurence lives in Somerset where like her heroine she enjoys cooking.

Reviews

For me, the invaluable part of this guide is that along with the advice there are practical, helpful exercises to attempt. I challenge any new writer to finish this book and pick up a blank sheet of paper and to find that it remains blank. Writing a Historical Novel will also help you with blocks along the way and, most usefully, gives advice on how to get your work published. I recommend it whole-heatedly. Richard Lee Founder/Publisher The Historical Novel Society