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Crafting crime fiction
John le Carré said the best place to start a crime novel is as near to the end of the story as possible. But how do you know what the story is?As writers, we all have different experiences and skills to draw upon, and this book will help you identify the right beginning, middle and end for your own crime novel.Whether you are writing a police procedural or a psychological thriller, you will need to consider the basic elements of a gripping narrative. Within these pages, you'll learn to master the art of storytelling, from creating a compelling plot that keeps readers on the edge of their seats to choosing the perfect point of view to bring your characters to life. Dive into the depths of suspense, mystery, and surprise, as you unravel the intricacies of crafting a crime novel that captivates and entertains.This guide will help any new or experienced writer to navigate the writing journey, uncovering the core principles that will make your crime fiction truly exceptional.
- GenresNonfiction
Kindle Edition
Published October 17, 2023
7 people are currently reading
21 people want to read
About the author
Henry Sutton
36 books9 followersDavid Rytman Slavitt (born 23 March 1935 in White Plains, New York) is a writer, poet, and translator, the author of more than 100 books.
Slavitt attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where his first writing teacher was Dudley Fitts. He received an undergraduate degree from Yale University (where he studied under Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren and was elected class poet, "Scholar of the House," in 1956), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude), and then a Master's degree in English from Columbia University in 1957
Before becoming a full-time free-lance writer in 1965, Slavitt worked at various jobs in the literary field. These included a stint in the personnel office of Reader's Digest in Pleasantville, New York; teaching English at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (1957–1958); and a variety of jobs at Newsweek in New York. Slavitt began there as a mailroom clerk, was promoted to the positions of book reviewer and film critic, and earned the position of associate editor from 1958 to 1963. He edited the movies pages from 1963 to 1965.
Okla Elliott, a professor and Illinois Distinguished Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, has written of Slavitt that he "served as an associate editor at Newsweek until 1965, teaching himself Greek on his 35-minute commute. In his last two years at Newsweek, he had a reputation as an astute, sometime cranky, but always readable 'flicker picker' and gained some notoriety for his film reviews there."
Slavitt taught as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1977, and at Temple University, in Philadelphia, as associate professor from 1978 to 1980. Slavitt was a lecturer at Columbia University from 1985 to 1986, at Rutgers University in 1987, and at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and other institutions. He has given poetry readings at colleges and universities, at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and at the Library of Congress.
His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961.
In the 1960s, Slavitt was approached by Bernie Geis & Associates to write a big book, a popular book, which he agreed to if he could use a pseudonym. As Henry Sutton, in 1967 he published The Exhibitionist, which sold more than 4 million copies. He followed this with The Voyeur in 1968 and three more novels as Henry Sutton. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus.
Slavitt has published numerous works in translation, especially classics, from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Spanish and French.
Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, has written, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less."
Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."
Georgia Jones-Davis, a poet and journalist, has said, "Slavitt is brilliant and he writes with grace, passion and humor."
Awards and honors
Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel for Paperback Thriller, 1976
Grant from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 1985
National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, 1988
Literature award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1989
Rockefeller Foundation artist's residency, 1989. Slavitt used the time period of the retreat (November 3 - December 12, 1989) to work on a translation of the curse poem Ibis by the Latin poet Ovid.
Kevin Kline Award, 2011, for Outstanding New Play or Musical
Slavitt attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where his first writing teacher was Dudley Fitts. He received an undergraduate degree from Yale University (where he studied under Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren and was elected class poet, "Scholar of the House," in 1956), graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (magna cum laude), and then a Master's degree in English from Columbia University in 1957
Before becoming a full-time free-lance writer in 1965, Slavitt worked at various jobs in the literary field. These included a stint in the personnel office of Reader's Digest in Pleasantville, New York; teaching English at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta (1957–1958); and a variety of jobs at Newsweek in New York. Slavitt began there as a mailroom clerk, was promoted to the positions of book reviewer and film critic, and earned the position of associate editor from 1958 to 1963. He edited the movies pages from 1963 to 1965.
Okla Elliott, a professor and Illinois Distinguished Fellow at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, has written of Slavitt that he "served as an associate editor at Newsweek until 1965, teaching himself Greek on his 35-minute commute. In his last two years at Newsweek, he had a reputation as an astute, sometime cranky, but always readable 'flicker picker' and gained some notoriety for his film reviews there."
Slavitt taught as an assistant professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1977, and at Temple University, in Philadelphia, as associate professor from 1978 to 1980. Slavitt was a lecturer at Columbia University from 1985 to 1986, at Rutgers University in 1987, and at the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. He has served as a visiting professor at the University of Texas at El Paso and other institutions. He has given poetry readings at colleges and universities, at the Folger Shakespeare Library, and at the Library of Congress.
His first work, a book of poems titled Suits for the Dead, was published in 1961.
In the 1960s, Slavitt was approached by Bernie Geis & Associates to write a big book, a popular book, which he agreed to if he could use a pseudonym. As Henry Sutton, in 1967 he published The Exhibitionist, which sold more than 4 million copies. He followed this with The Voyeur in 1968 and three more novels as Henry Sutton. He has also published popular novels under the names of David Benjamin, Lynn Meyer, and Henry Lazarus.
Slavitt has published numerous works in translation, especially classics, from Greek, Latin, Hebrew, Spanish and French.
Henry S. Taylor, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, has written, "David Slavitt is among the most accomplished living practitioners" of writing, "in both prose and verse; his poems give us a pleasurable, beautiful way of meditating on a bad time. We can't ask much more of literature, and usually we get far less."
Novelist and poet James Dickey wrote, "Slavitt has such an easy, tolerant, believable relationship with the ancient world and its authors that making the change-over from that world to ours is less a leap than an enjoyable stroll. The reader feels a continual sense of gratitude."
Georgia Jones-Davis, a poet and journalist, has said, "Slavitt is brilliant and he writes with grace, passion and humor."
Awards and honors
Edgar Award Nominee for Best First Novel for Paperback Thriller, 1976
Grant from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, 1985
National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship, 1988
Literature award, American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1989
Rockefeller Foundation artist's residency, 1989. Slavitt used the time period of the retreat (November 3 - December 12, 1989) to work on a translation of the curse poem Ibis by the Latin poet Ovid.
Kevin Kline Award, 2011, for Outstanding New Play or Musical
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 4, 2024
Interesting book, definitely not in my comfort zone even if the content covers my favourite genre.
Picked up as an attempt to read something a little different but equally to try and gain some more critical understanding of why I love the books I love.
This is good solid breakdown of the genre and the salient concepts of how to structure. It has moments of mirth and provides a solid grounding for the authors you should have read to see the history.
Personally I struggled with it but if read in bits rather than a whole I think it's an effective aid to thinking about the craft.
Picked up as an attempt to read something a little different but equally to try and gain some more critical understanding of why I love the books I love.
This is good solid breakdown of the genre and the salient concepts of how to structure. It has moments of mirth and provides a solid grounding for the authors you should have read to see the history.
Personally I struggled with it but if read in bits rather than a whole I think it's an effective aid to thinking about the craft.
Read
June 4, 2024Generally alright, but as I finished the book, I realized that most of the things mentioned are things I already know myself. Still, worth the read, though.
April 15, 2025
essential read for my independent study and thesis! crime fiction as an escapist fantasy—boom shakalaka yes GAWDDD!!!!
this book is the right balance of prescriptive and vague with its advice. it involves literary criticism, physical examples from writers, craft notes from experts, and concrete truths about human responses to storytelling.
the biggest coolest part: i basically learned that i am in fact a mystery writer at my core! i just like putting my mysteries in fantasy settings. that’s a crazy niche but you know what! it’s my niche and i like it here! i always saw myself as a fantasy writer, but when i write fantasy, all my plots have the conventions of mystery novels. how crazy is that??
and learning i’m a crime fiction writer is so illuminating for my craft. it helps me figure out what advice to listen to! like my professor last semester was telling me “i would love more interiority here” during a scene my character was on the run and being framed for murder, and i couldn’t articulate why i disagreed with him, but i knew i did. then mf henry sutton comes in and is like “interiority slackens momentum” and im ripping off my shirt like a deranged football fan and screaming. thats it!!!! crime fiction uses little interiority, especially in scenes with high tension, and i should stick to my instinct there! do the slow contemplation after the fact.
fantasy and crime fiction are so much more similar than you’d think, and i’m so excited for this to be my final paper in this study.
anyway, crafting crime fiction is already gonna be a cornerstone for my writing style i can tell.
this book is the right balance of prescriptive and vague with its advice. it involves literary criticism, physical examples from writers, craft notes from experts, and concrete truths about human responses to storytelling.
the biggest coolest part: i basically learned that i am in fact a mystery writer at my core! i just like putting my mysteries in fantasy settings. that’s a crazy niche but you know what! it’s my niche and i like it here! i always saw myself as a fantasy writer, but when i write fantasy, all my plots have the conventions of mystery novels. how crazy is that??
and learning i’m a crime fiction writer is so illuminating for my craft. it helps me figure out what advice to listen to! like my professor last semester was telling me “i would love more interiority here” during a scene my character was on the run and being framed for murder, and i couldn’t articulate why i disagreed with him, but i knew i did. then mf henry sutton comes in and is like “interiority slackens momentum” and im ripping off my shirt like a deranged football fan and screaming. thats it!!!! crime fiction uses little interiority, especially in scenes with high tension, and i should stick to my instinct there! do the slow contemplation after the fact.
fantasy and crime fiction are so much more similar than you’d think, and i’m so excited for this to be my final paper in this study.
anyway, crafting crime fiction is already gonna be a cornerstone for my writing style i can tell.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews