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Today it’s mysteries and thrillers: The Doublooner, Broken Glass,The Unexpected and Messages, which a critic says is “a great thriller filled with action and misdirection.” Yesterday it was award-winning historical novels for young readers, The Talking Leaf and Edge of Two Worlds. Look for me at Barnes & Noble or on Amazon.

I also like to discuss the mystery novel – why it has attracted generations of loyal readers, how it developed and evolved, and how a writer creates it. I speak to audiences aboard cruise ships, to adult education classes and reading groups and at writers conferences.

WHAT IS A MYSTERY ?

It begins with some people we meet on the page. We probably don’t like all of them — the bad guys are apt to be the most interesting — but we come to understand them. When they’re drawn into a life-or-death conflict, we want to know what happens, how the conflict is resolved.

Unlike some literary fiction, we expect a mystery to give us a resolution. Not something predictable, neat or contrived — ideally, it surprises us — but a resolution driven by the characters’ responses to the events of the story.

Pioneer mystery writer James M. Cain said that “all art is redemptive.” A price is paid to realize a moral value. In the most compelling mysteries, the conflict is not only between the characters but also inside one or more of them. Someone else, I’ve forgotten who, put it this way: “It’s not how the cop works the case but how the case works the cop.” Solving the mystery also resolves the character’s inner conflict. As the character is redeemed, we participate in the moral dilemma that exacts its price.

What makes it all come together into a novel? That’s a mystery.