Replay: Laurie R. King shares Five Things She's Learned about What Makes Mysteries Great
Check out the first five minutes of her recent class.
"I head to the Mystery section because it’s where I’ll find the very opposite of formulaic. It’s where I’ll discover stories that are playful, or tough, or odd, or sparkling with insight. Stories that are unexpected, or troubling, or goofy, or offer a window into the past (and thus, the present.) Stories that are, from their opening scene to their closing sentence, human."
– Laurie R. King, Five Things I’ve Learned about What Makes Mysteries Great
Laurie R. King is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels and other works, including the captivating Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes stories. Here’s the first five minutes of Laurie’s recent two-hour class in which she shares the Five Things She’s Learned about the essential elements of a great mystery, and the rewards mysteries make possible for readers and writers.
Five Things I’ve Learned about What Makes Mysteries Great details Laurie’s experience in the genre, and why she's stuck with it all these years. Her two-hour class is built around points of craft, but centers even more on the ongoing purpose for readers of the mystery genre.
Want to learn about the mystery from one of the genre’s greatest writers? This class is for you.
Laurie’s The Beekeeper’s Apprentice was chosen as one of the “20th Century’s Best Crime Novels” by the IMBA. She has won the Agatha, Anthony, Creasey, Edgar, Lambda, Macavity, Wolfe, and Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, has an honorary doctorate in theology, and is a Baker Street Irregular. In 2022, she was named Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America. She co-edited (with Lee Child) the new handbook from Mystery Writers of America, How to Write a Mystery, and has a new contemporary series with SFPD Inspector Raquel Laing, beginning with Back to the Garden.
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