plotting
Learning from the master storytellers
Every now and then I like to read a book by an accomplished writer and analyse what makes it tick. It doesn’t have to be in my favoured genres; I don’t need to like the story; it just has to be well written. It acts as a kind of masterclass.
Cold Hit by Linda Fairstein falls into that category.
I’ve read Fairstein’s novels featuring Alexandra Cooper before and know she has brilliant credentials for writing from the perspective of an Assistant District Attorney; she herself is a former prosecutor and America’s foremost expert on sex crimes. I’m instantly inclined towards someone who really knows what they’re talking about. Safe hands.
As her narrator puts it:
… this is the most fascinating job in the world. How many people get up in the morning and look forward to going to work? You and I have never had two days that have been at all predictable in our entire careers, and no two that have been even remotely alike. And on top of it, you do a little bit of good for somebody else in the mix.
So one of the factors behind her success is authority.
And because she is who she is, I’m trusting her to be diligent in her background research. In this case that includes, not just the world of crime and law and forensic medicine, but famous artists and works of art. She drops enough specifics I do know about, for me to trust her in the rest.
Then there’s the meticulous plotting. So intricately woven is it, indeed, that a third of the way in I was wishing I’d kept a written note of who fitted where and how events knitted together. The author seems to have the kind of brilliant mind that can juggle umpteen balls, and know which is which all the time. But I guess, being able to hold details of many clinical cases in your head, and work simultaneously and effectively for all those victims, requires that kind of brain. I think I’d be emotionally swallowed up by just one of them.
Her characterisation is excellent too – each person rounded out and distinctive in their own way. I can see the author’s own professional and analytical eye observing, deducing, calculating, in her day job as well as in the penning of her novels.
Although we might justifiably take exception to some of the politically incorrect comments and attitudes, the dialogue is sharp, witty and appropriate to each person.
Then there’s the clever dropping of actual facts – eg. about art and artists, historical details, real live celebrities. It provides a ring of authenticity and credibility. Makes the whole thing more believable.
It’s a great exercise in unpacking some of the key elements that make writing great. But you’ll probably be asking, what’s the story about? In a nutshell, the corpse of a young woman in expensive silk clothing is pulled from the water strapped to a weighted ladder. Assistant District Attorney Alex Cooper, and her colleagues in the police force, hunt for the killer through luxurious apartments, famous auction houses and avant-guarde galleries. A string of deaths follow. What common factor can link the murders of a rich ex-wife, a convicted blackmailer and a famous art restorer? Big money, priceless paintings, rub shoulders with serious scams and bid-rigging and false death certificates. And now someone wants Alex herself dead.
Cold Hit has all the ingredients of a gripping thriller: high drama, chases, terror, corpses aplenty, police camaraderie, blind alleys. And even the title speaks of a supremely confident writer:
Cold hit = slang term used by scientists to describe what happens when a computer makes a successful comparison between DNA samples, linking a piece of forensic evidence with an actual human being.
Ticks in so many boxes!
Sleeplessness and productivity
Moving mighty wardrobes …
… craning the neck to mitre corners on ceilings …
… up and down stairs with forty years worth of accumulated detritus possessions … none of these things are kind to muscles and joints already suffering wear and tear and the ravages of arthritis. So small wonder that sleep has been rather elusive during the latest stages of big renovations chez nous.
But hey ho! the old brain is safely protected in its rigid bony cage, and it’s been busily plotting the next book (well, two actually if you count the children’s annual Christmas production) in the darkness of long nights of wakefulness.
The scenes are vivid: a young woman wandering up and down the aisles of the chemists shop, reading labels and safety warnings … back at home titrating doses … cradling baby as he gulps down the milk … watching him sink deeper and deeper into unconsciousness … removing all traces …
Lying there with the video scrolling in my head, it’s so real and the sense of dread so acute, aches and pains simply vanish. And as soon as it’s a decent hour, I’m up committing the scenarios to the computer. OK, I may be knackered by the evening but I’m fired up on the adrenaline – progress with the house AND the books! Silver linings and all that jazz.
But hang on a minute …
Lying in bed: constructs perfect plot
Standing in shower: constructs perfect characters
Hanging out washing: constructs perfect setting
Sitting in front of screen: where did perfection go?!
Hey ho! Perfection is dozens of drafts away.
I’ve been toying with the idea of releasing some tempting little titbits closer to publication to whet the appetite. So I was intrigued to learn that Ian Rankin (or his publisher more likely) has just revealed the first line of his new Rebus novel – his 21st publication – Rather be the Devil, due out on 3rd November.
Rebus placed his knife and fork on the empty plate, then leaned back in his chair, studying the other diners in the restaurant.
‘Someone was murdered here, you know,’ he announced.
Would this tempt you to buy the book?
Austen revisited
I’m intrigued. The name Val McDermid doesn’t conjure up pictures of muslin dresses and mincing men and gentle romance, does it? Far from it. But here she is re-writing Jane Austen – well, not the whole bang shoot; Northanger Abbey to be precise.
It’s part of the Austen project: six contemporary authors were asked to rework these famous classics in whatever way they choose. Not surprisingly there have been a fair few swift intakes of breath at the sheer audacity of such an exercise. I mean, Jane Austen? THE Jane Austen? Come on! Quite understandably some reviewers have been prejudiced against it from the outset.
I confess I’m a convinced Austenite myself, and I personally didn’t want anyone to ruin her work for me either. That’s possibly why I turned to Northanger Abbey revisited first – my least favourite, and the least well-known, of her novels – well, that and because I was given it for Christmas.
The modern story is cleverly set in Edinburgh at the time of the Book Festival – I’m instantly totally at home! It moves to the abbeys in the Borders – familiar territory again. Both chosen by McDermid to reflect the essential characteristics of the original settings and thereby sustain the plot.
In brief … Cat Morland is a naive, home-schooled 17 year old from a sheltered background who lives life through fiction. So much so indeed that she believes novels to be source books for real life. When she meets the rich, handsome, well educated Henry Tilney she is captivated. By the time she arrives at his ancestral pile, she has woven deep dark secrets into the mysterious Northanger Abbey, convinced that it will reveal unimaginable horrors. And indeed the magnificent abbey becomes the personification of all her fantasies rolled into one. Secret compartments, forbidden corridors, locked rooms, bullet holes in a family Bible, a beautiful but deceased mother who mustn’t be mentioned, a Jekyll-and-Hyde patriarch, sudden departures … all fuel her imagination.
Reading Val’s own explanation for her choices – voice, setting, characters, plot – gives me additional respect for her skill, her versatility, and the seriousness with which she approached this commission. She has indeed been sensitive to the original. Perhaps the biggest difference between the two versions is the way the authors handle the suspense. We know from hindsight that boy gets girl – no cliff hanger there then. Austen also gave away the mystery early on, choosing to let the will-they/won’t-they element in the romance alone carry the reader through. McDermid – as befits a crack crimewriter – keeps the reader wondering ‘why’ right to the end … although the denouement when it came seemed ridiculously tame to me compared with the build up. But that really wasn’t the point of the exercise. The point is that Austen knew what makes people tick; her books are a reflection of real life. And McDermid has echoed the emotional intimacies of teenage girls, the obsessions of rank and heritage, the arrogance of handsome buccaneers, the blindness and ambitions of parenthood, the hypocrisy and humour of polite society. She has simply brought them up to the present day. In my back yard!