Hard Case Crime discussion

I don't know how others feel, but a good mystery has to grab me with character and action interest right away. Some writers seem to get too caught up in technical jargon and explanations. On page 3 of a mystery from about six years ago is this: "The general felony trial unit is a dumping ground for cases that aren't seen as serious. The trial DDAs often have extremely limited time to spend on them, and the overwhelming majority plead out to reduced charges and stipulated sentences during a fast-paced court calendar referred to as "morning call." After slowly developing the action, with a lot of legal digressions and explanations along the way, I gave up on it on page 20. Contrast this with just the first sentence of a John D. MacDonald book (Travis McGee novel) of 1966: "We were about to give up and call it a night when somebody dropped the girl off the bridge." I was hooked from then on!

Most of my favorite crime writers start like John D.Macdonald.

If it is a favorite writer i trust it doesnt matter how slow the first few pages are.

I give new authors 50 pages to impress me with something or show potential. I dont judge after few pages.

Almost any book has to interest me fairly quickly. Not necessarily a bomb shell like MacDonald drops, but they have to write well & be engaging. An interesting character, set of circumstances or most anything can be engaging. They just have to be going somewhere. Long setups, lots of description or odd writing tricks tend to bore me.

One thing which turns me off immediately is long descriptions of things that are irrelevant to the story - for instance, weapons. It's been years, but I believe "The Executioner" series seemed to dwell on the type of weapons he carried to the point where I just tossed them down in disgust. Stephen Hunter's novels where the story turns on the man & his weapon, such as Bob Lee Swagger novels or "The Master Sniper", were good, though.

Bob wrote: "I don't know how others feel, but a good mystery has to grab me with character and action interest right away. Some writers seem to get too caught up in technical jargon and explanations. On page..."

I believe that was the first line in 'Pale Gray for Guilt'...? If so, that was my first McGee novel as well, and since then I've read the other 20 McGee titles over the past 9 years. Now I'm moving onto other MacDonald's other stuff; right now I'm reading "End of the Night", which is excellent so far. This story "starts with the end", as they say: 4 disimilar individuals are put to death on the same day, having been convicted of going on a cross country killing spree...

I like MacDonald's SF books, too. The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything & Wine of the Dreamers (AKA "Ballroom of the Skies", I think) are two that I can recall offhand. I think I have one or two more.

The first one of his books I read was A Tan and Sandy Silence. There was something about that guy getting buried in the asphalt that haunted me for years. good writer.

Joe wrote: "Bob wrote: "I don't know how others feel, but a good mystery has to grab me with character and action interest right away. Some writers seem to get too caught up in technical jargon and explanatio..."

The MacDonald book I quoted from is DARKER THAN AMBER. But that is just an example--his novels do grab you fairly early, and other interesting mystery writers do also. But others drag on and on and on with extraneous stuff!