How Would You Describe Your Books? by Chris Longmuir
I was asked this question by an agent after a Society of
Authors meeting when we were walking, along with loads of other people, to the
restaurant where we had booked a meal. Now, my usual answer to this question is
that I write crime novels, but this was an agent, and he was expressing
interest, so I had to think hard. How would I describe my crime novels?
The answer I came up with was that I wrote dark crime.
Darker than Agatha Christie, but not as dark as Val McDermid, although I
thought I leaned more towards McDermid rather than Christie. And no, I didn’t
get an agent contract, and the guy was probably only making conversation
because we were in the same group.
But turning over this simple question in my mind I’ve started
to wonder what kind of books I do write. I’ve written the Dundee Crime Series,
but the only thing that makes these three books a series is because they are
contemporary murder mysteries set in Dundee with the same investigative
detective team. However, apart from the detectives, each book has a different set of characters, and is focused more on the victims and/or the
perpetrators with an element of psychology thrown in. So, are they a series,
are they police procedurals, or are they psychological thrillers? And how dark
are they?
However, I’ve written other books as well as the Dundee
Crime Series. My latest offering is The Death Game. Still crime, but historical
this time. I’m still in Dundee, but the focus is on Dundee’s first policewoman
in 1919. I reckon this book has a gothic feel with sections that are quite
dark, although I may be wrong, let the reader decide.
And, just to throw you off track, one of my first books, A
Salt Splashed Cradle, is a historical saga type romance, although I have to
admit it is a bit grittier than a lot of the romances out there, and it does
have it’s dark moments.
Getting back to the subject of dark crime, one of my reviews
for Night Watcher, threw a wobbly at me. I’ll quote the bit that astonished me:
I’m not a crime thriller aficionado and I was
initially surprised by it. The word that kept running through my
brain as I read on, was ‘domestic’. Not in a bad way, just because I kept
thinking ‘if Jane Austen wrote crime fiction this might be the sort of thing
she’d write.’ (Cally Phillips)
I’ve never been compared to Jane Austen before, and I’m not
an Austen fan, so I wasn’t sure whether or not to be pleased! Later in the
review the plot is compared to Agatha Christie, and here was I hoping to be
more like Val McDermid! But the review did make me wonder, had I written a
domestic crime novel, or as stated in the comments to the review, maybe a dark
domestic one. If you want to read the review you’ll find it on the Indie
Book Review site.
Maybe you can tell me what kind of books I write? I’d be
interested to know. And before I go I thought I’d let you know that the Night
Watcher ebook has been reduced for the month of November from it’s original
price of $4.99/£3.01, to $2.99/£1.90, so if you want to read it, get in there
before 30th November.
Chris Longmuir
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