Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com

"The 'rules' that govern the mystery are the rules that govern all fiction. Every novel needs suspense and drama," says Roberts. With this book you'll learn how to build your story from the grave up. Roberts focuses on what she calls the "SEVEN C'S", why you need them and how they help your story. She offers examples and exercises that will help you complete your story filled with cliffhangers, intriguing characters and hooks. This book also offers practical suggestions for handling problems likely to arise during the writing process. Along the way, Robert's will teach you:

- The 15 commandments for mystery
- How to design your sleuth
- The Seven Cs your book can't do without - characters, conflict, causality, complications, change, crisis and closure
- How to hide clue, and exploit red-herrings
- Research techniques
- How to develop a style, find a tone and construct a killer plot

You Can Write A Mystery, offers practical guidance for the first-time writer. Its easy-to-understand format will help the most amateur to become a mystery writer. In addition to the practical writing advice supplied, Roberts also offers expert advice for editing, revising and submitting a top-notch manuscript.

Average Customer Rating:

The goodest writors' book out their,

Customer Rating:

You Can Write a Mystery is not as valuable to me as a writer as, say, Funk and White's Elements of Style. It does however, have it's place in a writer's toolbox. It is a valuable piece of equipment. The magic of this short but powerful book, is that it has many rules and points of interst that you did know, but also many that you may have forgotten. The points you did know are reminders ringing like little bells as each of them are reinserted into your writing thought process. Buy it. Read it. Live it.

Great Support for Mystery Writers	Customer Rating:
This book is a wonderful collection of mystery writing dos and don'ts. If you're even considering authoring a mystery book, then this book will give you great tips and hints at perfecting your craft.

Concise, yet packed with great information	Customer Rating:
I purchased this book for a seminar. It pleased me to find this slender work contains so much information. It's not wordy, repetitive or crammed with filler like many of these kinds of books. And best yet, it helped me work through some of the kinks in my novel TRUE/FALSE. Thank you Gillian Roberts. I highly recommend this book to anyone writing a mystery novel or story.

Compact and Inspiring

Customer Rating:

I did not know Gillian Roberts as an author but had the fortunate encounter with her few months back. I bought this book after her talk in the Philadelphia Writers' Conference. This book proved my belief she is a very good teacher of fiction. To begin with, the book is only 124 pages (including an index). As I open the book now to write this review, I find lines highlighted on practically every page. The first chapter gives us fifteen commandments. Since I finished the book every day I open it and briefly go through them. I loved the three like 'thou shalt begin and keep going till you're through. Thou shalt write for yourself, not the market and thou shalt not wait for visits from the muse.' In the second chapter you've 7 Cs: Character, Conflict, Causality, Complications, Change, Crisis, Closure. She writes all the ingredients that we need. How to get ideas is another eye opening chapter. I knew it is important to develop characters in any genre but the way G Roberts guides us through character development is not only thorough but entertaining. The rest of the book has the usual ingredients like setting (physical as well as emotional), points of view, using five senses, back story, flashbacks. I particularly liked the page on building the plot with false leads. Then we hear: Tell yourself your story often. Interaction with others is dramatic and provides tension. It can be useful to think in terms of stage and screen. Another important chapter is "What you don't know." This is about developing credibility to your setting and characters. I also learnt about the structure when you have all the material like opening and closing scenes, length of the chapters, pacing and important: not to cheat the readers to build the suspense. G Roberts doesn't leave dialogue out of the guide and finally, not also the marketing aspects. I found this book very useful and I feel it is indespensable for anyone who is planning to write a mystery.

A must have for aspiring mystery writers

Customer Rating:

This book is a great, pragmatic approach to mystery writing. The reader is encouraged to go through the book whilst simultaneously writing a mystery novel. The book doesn't waste too much time with examples, although I found that there were still too many for my liking. Despite this, I think the book delivers on its promise - since reading it I am going to start tackling a mystery, better prepared than ever before. It's a must read for anyone looking for a mystery. I prowled the internet - including amazon - for the perfect book for writing mysteries, and You Can Write a Mystery repeatedly received flying colours, far more than any other books. It is simply the best on the market. Prior to purchasing it, I got Writing Mysteries by the Mystery Writers of America, but it was far too fragmented for my liking. This little book is much smaller, at a little over 120 pages, but it is better by far.