Today's Back Deck Blog post is by Vivian Rhodes, mystery novelist and award-winning television writer. Vivian will tell us about how suspense is built into a story and also about her latest book, "If You Should Read This, Mother".
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I love good suspense,
whether in the form of a book, a play, or a film. Some of my favorite authors over the years
have been those who have mastered the art of keeping me in suspense: Ken
Follett, Jonathan Kellerman, Gillian Flynn, and of course the Mistress of
Mystery, Agatha Christie. In fact, uppermost in my mind when I wrote my latest
thriller, If You Should Read This,
Mother, was how to balance telling a good story while keeping readers in
suspense.
As far as films go, keeping
the viewer in suspense entails a bit more and no one did it better than Alfred
Hitchcock. Unfortunately, not every
director was as capable as Hitchcock, and often viewers could see things coming
way before they were meant to. Of
course, many viewers actually enjoy the ride and figuring out the ending early
on.
Do you love watching a
suspense film and knowing what’s ‘around the corner’? Many movies, especially the vintage ones, offer the
viewer plenty of clues as to what lies ahead. The obvious cliché, of course, is
the young woman in the horror film who, alone in the house, decides to go down
to the basement in order to ‘investigate a noise’.
Ten
giveaways that portend what is going to happen by the end of the movie:
1. If someone is lying on his deathbed
cheerfully relaying what his plans are for the immediate future, odds are there
is no future in store, immediate or otherwise.
2. If a questionable character poses the
question, ‘Do you have any close family or friends, anyone who would miss you
if, say, you disappeared?’ it would be best for our hero or heroine to proceed
with caution.
3. If we are only witness to a gloved hand
committing a murder, the murderer is most likely a woman. (It also stands to
reason that if a serial killer is not committing sex crimes, there’s a good
chance that, here too, the killer is a woman.)
4. In a mystery where someone has done
something very, very evil, a look at the credits will often suggest who the
heavy is even before the film has begun. (ie. Don Porter in older films and perhaps
Christopher Walken in newer ones).
5. A former bad guy who turns good and fingers
his cronies will still have to die, but will die a ‘noble death’ (ie. saving
the life of the heroine).
6. If a woman lets go of her toddler’s hand for
any reason (ie. to pay a cashier or to powder her nose) said toddler will
inevitably wander into traffic with dire consequences.
7. It is rarely the guy on the lower end of the
food chain who is morally responsible for a crime committed. Usually the heavy
is a man of influence (editor of a newspaper, politician, or corporate heavy).
8. If a woman marries a man about whose
background she knows very little, she will probably live to regret it. (This is
particularly the case in films made prior to Google).
9. If a beloved pet is introduced at the
beginning of a murder mystery there is, unfortunately, a good chance that said
pet will not be alive by the end of the film.
10. If a woman laughs at a
furious man and he warns her to stop laughing at him, it’s a safe bet that the
man, often a psychopath, will put an end to the laughing by either strangling
or stabbing her to death.
And
of course, if a film ends in an intentionally ambiguous way, we can assume that
the producers are thinking ‘sequel’.
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Blurb for "If You Should Read This, Mother", by Vivian Rhodes
Megan
Daniels was only three years old the day President John F.
Kennedy was assassinated, but flashes of that day begin to trigger
other disturbing memories that have lain dormant within her. At
first they are merely snippets, but as they begin to appear more
frequently Megan has difficulty separating what is real from what is
imagined. In her attempt to learn more, she sets out to find her
biological mother, but keeps hitting brick walls. No adoption papers
exist, and all she has to go on is her possible birthday: November
22. In the small town of Meredith, CA, Megan’s search takes on a
dire, domino effect—one woman has already been murdered as a result
of her inquiries. As she digs for the truth, Megan eventually
unravels a sinister plot that began decades earlier, but in doing so
she places her own life in jeopardy.
Amazon links: https://www.amazon.com/You-Sould-Read-This-Mother/dp/1626946957/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1497895444&sr=1-2&keywords=Rhodes%2C+Vivian
The Thin Man movies are an exception to the rule that a beloved pet introduced at beginning of a mystery ends up dead. Beloved dog Asta is as big a star as William Powell and Myrna Loy. And you don't kill the star at the beginning of a movie!
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