52 books in 52 weeks: Writing Crime Fiction – a 60 minute masterclass

02-crime-writingI set myself the goal of reading and reviewing 52 writing guides over the year. Here is book 2.

Writing Crime Fiction – a 60 minute masterclass by William Ryan & M R Hall took me more than 60 minutes to read. But as I read this one in instalments, I can’t provide an accurate figure.

This book is a no-nonsense, straightforward book that collates everything you need to know about writing crime fiction without all the guff in between. It’s clear and concise and it doesn’t use the same-old same-old stories as examples, although old favourites like Elmore Leonard and Agatha Christie are used.

My only gripe with this book is that there are no exercises – or no easily identified exercises. I do like a writer’s guide that gives step-by-step guidance in a specific order that can be manipulated to suit a writer’s preferred methods. However, each chapter does suggest what to do next. So if you can highlight it as you go through, perhaps the reader could build his/her own writing workshop.

It’s another nice little book that’s useful to keep on the virtual bookshelf.

Only available on Kindle for £1.99 (or $2.53), Writing Crime Fiction – a 60 minute masterclass is Book 1 in a series from The Guardian, and was originally billed as an introduction to writing crime fiction.

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