Today I'm turning my blog over to Dan Andriacco, who is the author of nine mystery novels. Thc cover to the left is his latest release - Bookmarked for Murder. This is his sixth Sebastian McCabe – Jeff Cody book. Dan's going to give you his tips for creating a successful series sleuth...
Ever
since The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
began appearing monthly in The Strand
magazine in 1891, mystery readers have loved series sleuths.
So
if you want to achieve success as a mystery writer, your best bet is to create
a memorable protagonist. As veteran private eye writer Bill Pronzini said,
“It's very hard to write stand-alones now and maintain a career – unless you’re
someone like John Grisham.”
Presumably,
you are not. And from fledgling authors, agents and publishers are looking for
a series. They want to sign on a franchise that they can grow.
In
my own work, I have written a trilogy featuring Enoch Hale, an American
journalist living in London in the early 1920s, and the ongoing Sebastian
McCabe-Jeff Cody series, which I hope lasts as long as I do.
Mac
and Jeff, who live in a small town in Ohio, are only the leading actors of an
entire cast of ongoing characters. Readers have been kind enough to tell me
that opening a new McCabe-Cody adventure is like going home again. This is
certainly an advantage in a series.
But,
as fellow blogger Noah Steward told me, “The most important thing in a series
is its detective character; if (he or she) doesn’t catch the interest of the
reading public, you won’t be selling a very long series.”
So
what makes a good series detective?
Your
detective can be amateur or professional, likeable or irascible (think Nero
Wolfe), young or old, male or female, working on a space station or imperial
Rome. But he or she should be interesting, easily distinguished from
competitors who are outwardly similar, suitable to the story’s style (police
procedural, cozy, hard-boiled, etc.) and someone that you and your readers will
not soon grow tired of.
One
of the greatest dangers of attempting to create a unique protagonist is that you
wind up with an unbelievable collection of eccentricities, more a caricature
than a character. That might be okay if you’re going for farce and can carry it
off, but most mystery readers want their detective to be heroic and yet real
enough to believe in.
Consider
a true original – Sherlock Holmes himself. One
of the greatest American mystery writers of the 20th Century, Rex
Stout, perceptively wrote:
“Holmes is a man, not a puppet. As a
man he has many vulnerable spots, like us; he is vain, prejudiced, intolerant;
he is a drug addict; he even plays the violin for diversion – one of the most
deplorable outrages of self-indulgence.” But, Stout went on, there is much more
to Holmes than that: “He loves truth and justice more than he loves money or
comfort or safety or pleasure, or any man or woman. Such a man has never lived,
so Sherlock Holmes will never die.”
There was only one Sherlock Holmes.
Although I am a Sherlockian, Sebastian McCabe and Jeff Cody are nothing like
him. Neither should your sleuth or sleuths be. Create a believable detective of
your own who will move comfortably in the sort of story you want to write,
whether it be lighter than a chocolate mousse or harder than steel. Make him or
her someone you love and want to spend time with – and your readers will, too.
Know your market. But know your hero
even better.
Like to know more about Dan and his writing or buy his books? Here's the links to get you started...
http://bakerstreetbeat.blogspot.com/
http://www.amazon.com/Dan-Andriacco/e/B001KILC0I
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