In my opinion, Mary Higgins Clark is the reigning queen of the stand alone mystery. Her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, on the other hand began her writing career with a series featuring her private detective protagonist, Regan Reilly. I admit to being an instant fan of Mary Higgins Clark after reading her first published endeavor, WHERE ARE THE CHILDREN. It took me a while to warm to her daughter though. I felt as though she was trying too hard to imitate her mother's style instead of developing her own. That is not to say her mysteries were not enjoyable, just not as gripping as her mother's early ones.
The stand alone mystery has its advantages. The author introduces a cast of characters who embark on a journey to solve a crime, right a wrong, or save a helpless victim. Mary Higgins Clark has built a remarkable career introducing readers to a wide variety of characters who find themselves either in the middle of a murder or the target of one. They are great fun to read, the plot is fast-moving, and the ending is always happy.
The trouble with this is that you sometimes create a character who begs for his or her moment at center stage and this is when you know you have the makings of a great series. Anne Perry has done an amazing job of this with her Thomas and Charlotte Pitt Victorian mystery series. THE CATER STREET HANGMAN us to Thomas who meets Charlotte when her oldest sister is the victim of a gruesome murder. He, of course solves the crime, with her help and wins her hand in the process. Interestingly, she leaves her aristocratic station for love to marry beneath her. In the novels that follow, Perry takes you on a journey where in the midst of solving some intriguing crimes, you find out what happens to Charlotte, Thomas, and company. What Perry created is a terrific hook which keeps readers coming back. You really what to know how their lives have changed and moved forward in the next novel. I always thought Perry could have kicked off another series with the Pitt's spunky maid Gracie. I was happy when she married her off to one of Thomas' detectives, but would have liked to see her with her own story.
When I decided to write my own mysteries, I suppose I was looking to create a combination of the two. You want to create a gripping story which can stand on its own but with characters who are engaging enough that your readers will want to keep coming back for more. My first three novels(the first wasn't really fit for publication) featured Jamie Hamilton an elementary school teacher who becomes an amateur sleuth when her best friend is murdered by her husband. Jamie a testament to my favorite television show growing up, MURDER SHE WROTE.
In MURDEROUS DESCENT, Jamie sets out to prove a down and out sixties television star murdered his wife, much to the embarrassment of her Prosecutor husband. PORTRAIT OF VENGEANCE has her solving the murder of a fellow teacher who dies in front of her second grade class after she is poisoned. All the evidence points to her husband, but did he do it or was he the victim of an elaborate frame?
I wrote several short stories with Jamie and her husband at the center before deciding to let them live happily and peacefully to enjoy their baby. I then created working-class protagonist, Russell Waverly, who is the central character of SECRETS, LIES, AND TRASH. I'm still hard at work looking for a publisher for this one and am in the middle of the next installment.
In the posts to follow, I will have the prologues to MURDEROUS DESCENT and PORTRAIT OF VENGEANCE. I hope you will read them and decide to check out the books. They are available on Amazon.com.
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