I don't think the Barbara Vines are mysteries in any sense. The Barbara Vine is much more slowly paced. It is a much more in-depth, searching sort of book; it doesn't necessarily have a murder in it.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I've always loved mysteries, the something there that you didn't know, and with 'Case Histories' I just decide to make that more up-front.
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.
I always know when a novel is going to be a Barbara Vine one. In fact I believe that if I weren't to write it as Barbara Vine, I wouldn't be able to write it at all.
The funny thing is, though I write mysteries, it is the one genre in adult fiction I never read. I read Nancy Drew, of course, when I was a kid, but I think the real appeal is as a writer because I'm drawn to puzzly, complicated plots.
Mysteries include so many things: the noir novel, espionage novel, private eye novels, thrillers, police procedurals. But the pure detective story is where there's a detective and a criminal who's committed a murder and leaves clues for the detective and the careful reader to find.
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.
I just have mysteries in all my books, I think, whether it's a boy investigating or a girl. I have an enduring fascination with mysteries of all kinds.
People who would never sneer at sci-fi and murder mysteries have no trouble damning the whole romance genre without reading one.
I know nothing about mysteries. I don't take to them.
Murder mysteries are puzzles that are fun to resolve.
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