tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7291823984059320518.post897056148109455301..comments2024-03-26T17:48:56.627+00:00Comments on 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?': Writing in companyMartin Edwardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16082485795280777670noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7291823984059320518.post-9341781273667541492008-02-07T22:02:00.000+00:002008-02-07T22:02:00.000+00:00Maxine, I've not read many Lathen books, but the o...Maxine, I've not read many Lathen books, but the ones I've read are good. The duo also once wrote a truly excellent article about Christie, one of the best I've read. It's in a book of Christie essays edited by Harry Keating.<BR/><BR/>I don't know GH Ephron, but Halle wrote a book about how to write crime fiction which is quite good.Martin Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16082485795280777670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7291823984059320518.post-50701173087105683272008-02-07T21:58:00.000+00:002008-02-07T21:58:00.000+00:00Juliet - this idea of collaboration as a subject o...Juliet - this idea of collaboration as a subject of a work in its own right has long appealed to me. If I wrote it, it would be a crime novel rather than a thesis, mind you. It's a subject that spills into issues about identity, a very fascinating area. There's a brilliant but little known novel by Hugh Walpole called 'The Killer and the Slain' which is another spin on this theme. <BR/>I did see the film, but as you say, it wasn't a patch on the book.Martin Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16082485795280777670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7291823984059320518.post-2862816361510938052008-02-07T20:46:00.000+00:002008-02-07T20:46:00.000+00:00Fascinating! I know nothing much about law, but ma...Fascinating! I know nothing much about law, but maybe I should give this a go if it is reissued!<BR/>I adore Nicci French's books, have read them all avidly. I also love Nicci Gerrard's books which she writes under her own name: well, I have read the first two and have the third to read on my shelf. They are not crime, I suppose you'd characterise them as "family dramas"; they are jolly good.<BR/><BR/>I have some other favourite "paired" authors of crime fiction: G H Ephron, who writes about a clinical psychologist academic detective (Peter is his first name) in Boston, the books have titles like Obsession, Addiction and so on. He lives with his mother;-)<BR/>The authors are Halle Ephron (sister I think, but if not a relation of Nora) and a chap whose name I forget, but who provides the psychology. They are really rather good.<BR/><BR/>Another favourite duo is Emma Lathen, two women authors who wrote that great banking series -- green-spined penguin era. Wonderful books.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7291823984059320518.post-23255593857170315492008-02-07T10:03:00.000+00:002008-02-07T10:03:00.000+00:00Hi 'Regional Guy'! (I love that - you're going to ...Hi 'Regional Guy'! (I love that - you're going to wish you'd never mentioned it!) <BR/><BR/>I've read quite a few of the 'Nicci French' books and enjoyed them very much, but having read an interview in which they said that they worked by writing separate chapters (not necessarily alternately), I couldn't help trying, all the time, to spot the 'seams'. I think they showed more in the earlier novels. It's impossible, of course, to 'un-know' that they are joint efforts once one knows. I'd love to read a book assuming that it had been written by a single author only to discover afterwards that it was a collaboration, and then look back to see if there were any discernible clues. (Like discovering that one's read a book by a 'male' writer who turns out in fact to be a pseudonymous woman, or vice-versa - in hindsight it changes everything . . . or does it?!)<BR/><BR/>Is the combination of two highly attuned intellects likely to produce a better crime novel, or is it, in a sense, 'unfair' on the reader to be pitted against not one but two other minds? It's a whole PhD subject in itself!<BR/><BR/>(PS Have you seen the film of Killing Me Softly? Sean French wrote the screenplay but it received exceptionally bad reviews.)Juliethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18055924620237477722noreply@blogger.com