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If the book is a mystery to its author as she's writing, inevitably it's going to be a mystery to the reader as he or she reads it.

The mystery form was very helpful for me as a beginning writer because mystery novels and suspense novels have a beginning, a middle and an end.

It's expected of novels that they should explain the world and create the illusion that things are ultimately logical and coherent. But that's not what I see around me. Often, events remain mysterious and unresolved, and our emotions reach no catharsis.

Conflict and character are the heart of good fiction, and good mystery has both of those in spades.

People love a good mystery; I understand that.

For many years, I read mystery novels for relaxation. But my tastes were too narrow - and, having read all of Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr, I discovered that the implausibility and the thinness of the people distracted me unduly from the plot.

I always love novels that open up a subject to me - like raising a window to a beautiful, mysterious world outside.

I love mystery novels... I love seeing the dramas played out in academic departments, particularly English departments. I started reading these when I was going up for tenure.

The thing about being a mystery writer, what marks a mystery writer out from a chick lit author or historical fiction writer, is that you always find a mystery in every situation.

Writing a mystery is more difficult than other kinds of books because a mystery has a certain framework that must be superimposed over the story.