A Small Step for Martin

…but a giant leap for his morale. I’ve just written the first couple of pages of the new Lake District Mystery, having had my synopsis approved – with enthusiasm! – by my agent.

It took me a long time to write The Serpent Pool, and I’m hoping that I will be able to produce the new one more quickly. One difference of approach is that I’ve reverted to planning the book rather more in advance – something I used to do in my early years as a novelist. I didn’t do much planning with The Serpent Pool, and on the whole, this slowed me down and made much of the writing of the first draft feel like wading through treacle.

I’m not going to say much that is specific about the new book until it is very well advanced (may be a long way off, then!) But I’m sure the writing process itself will prompt thoughts about the craft of fiction which I’m likely to post on this blog.

Now – a change of subject. So far, I’ve read only the first of Stieg Larsson’s three books. I mean to read the other two, but I’m not sure when this will be, due to countless other commitments. Can any reader of this blog help me on one question, please? The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo sees various references to the crime fiction genre (e.g. Val McDermid gets a mention) and what is described as a ‘locked room’ type of mystery. Do the other two books nod towards the genre in a similar way, and if so, in what respects?

The Essence of Crime Fiction

In The Freewheelin’ Hakan Nesser, there’s a quote from Nesser which sums up beautifully the essence of mystery fiction. Offhand, I can’t think of anyone who has expressed it much more economically yet more accurately.

‘The crime novel is interesting because it is so clearly linked to the two basic questions every story tries to answer. What has happened? What’s going to happen now? The first is to do with the past and arouses curiosity. The second looks to the future and arouses excitement. In a detective story or crime novel, the relationship between those two time frames is interesting. The sequence of events comes together in the crime, which is both an end and a beginning. This is where the criminal investigation begins, and at the same time the crime marks the end of a conflict in the past.’

This analysis, it seems to me, can be applied as much to a Hitchcock movie as to, say, Trent’s Last Case or The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Even some authors of classic, Golden Age style mysteries, played games with the starting point of their novels – Towards Zero by Agatha Christie and Tragedy at Law by Cyril Hare are examples.

I’m not yet ready to start a new book, but when the time comes, I’ll give some thought to Nesser’s way of looking at the genre. Who knows, it may prompt fresh ideas.

Death Wore White

Is the ‘impossible crime’ story making a comeback? Fracture, a brilliant film of the recent past, was a masterly example of the genre. The Grinning Man was a splendid new episode of Jonathan Creek aired at New Year, and Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo describes part of the plot as a ‘locked room mystery’, though ‘closed circle mystery’ would be more accurate. And now we have Death Wore White by Jim Kelly, introducing a new detective duo, Shaw and Valentine. The publishers describe it as ‘the most ingenious thriller in years’ and the tag-line speaks volumes: ‘Nine people trapped in a blizzard. One brutal murder. Eight suspects who couldn’t have done it.’

And there’s more: ‘The crime scene is melting. The murderer has vanished. The body count is on the rise.’ Who could resist such a set-up? Certainly not me. Even the title of the book has a pleasingly traditional feel. And to cap it all, there’s a map of the crime scene!

I haven’t read Jim Kelly before, and the first thing to say is that he is a very talented writer. There are lots of good lines and neat similes in this book. His literary style appeals to me a lot. And he is very good at evoking place – the area around King’s Lynn.

The challenge he has set himself is to weld a classic whodunit scenario with a highly contemporary police investigation and an important sub-plot. It’s a very bold and ambitious concept, because of course, the ‘impossible crime’ story works most easily when it is far removed from the cold light of forensic science and painstaking police procedure.

I was impressed by the novel, although I felt slightly overwhelmed by the number of characters and the convolutions of the plot. Reading the book in short segments, due to pressure of work, I did find myself losing track at times, which was a pity. A cast list would have been very useful, as well as a further nod to the traditional whodunit. However, in the latter stages of the book the momentum was regained, and the disparate story-lines were pulled together rather cleverly. I shall certainly be reading more Jim Kelly.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is the first book in the late Stieg Larsson’s trilogy based around the ‘Millennium’ magazine, and featuring journalist Mikael Blomkvist and his mysterious sidekick Lisbeth Salander, has achieved massive sales and a huge amount of critical acclaim. I have been keen to discover what all the fuss is about and now I’ve reached the end of the story.

It’s a remarkable achievement for a debut novel, with a fascinating and innovative blend of story-lines. There is what is described as a ‘locked room mystery’ (the name of Dorothy L. Sayers is invoked, and there are various other references to notable crime writers, as well as other classic features, such as the inclusion of a family tree), involving the disappearance about 40 years earlier of young Harriet Vanger. In fact, it might be more correctly described in detective story jargon as a ‘closed circle’ mystery, i.e. where there is a limited, though in this case nonetheless large, number of suspects in the matter of Harriet’s suspected murder - they were confined, in effect, to a small Swedish island. A further question is who has been sending Henrik Vanger (brother of Harriet's grandfather) a pressed flower every year on his birthday. Another puzzle concerns the significance of a mysterious list of jottings that Harriet made not long before she vanished. And there is also the matter of the nasty business mogul who is trying to ruin Mikael, and ‘Millennium’.

I enjoyed some aspects of the novel more than others. The mystery of Harriet’s cryptic notes is satisfying; suffice to say that the series crimes to which they refer are horrific and memorable. The revelation of the identity of the principal culprit did not, though, come as much of a surprise. This was because, with so many suspects in the ‘closed circle’, only a few were given any real substance. I also found the financial shenanigans of the sub-plot pretty tedious. The book as a whole, I felt, could have been cut in length without any loss of pace. The translation by Reg Keeland seemed fine, but more extensive editing would have been justified.

I did, however, very much like both Mikael and Salander. They are first rate characters and I am really looking forward to reading the next book in the trilogy soon – I have a copy, and a glance at the early pages seems promising. It is a tragedy that Larsson did not live to reap the rewards of his success.