Review
"Students and teachers, as well as freelancers, will find much to help them in Hager's helpful guide...If you can afford to buy only one writing book, put your money down for this one." -- Mystery Time, Spring-Summer 1998
Book Description
A step-by-step guide for writing a mystery novel from idea to final rewrite and marketing the manuscript. Choosing a title, characterization, dialogue, viewpoint, setting/description, opening hooks, plot, revising and marketing the manuscript are covered in separate chapters. Appendices include a sample of proper manuscript form, a sample query letter, a master fiction plot outline, and listings of mystery award winners. There is an extensive bibliography and index.
From the Author
"The topics covered in the book are topics I have found to be the most helpful and most needed in my mystery writing classes." Jean Hager
From the Back Cover
If you've always wanted to write a mystery, Jean Hager, the author of mystery novels and short stories as well as a teacher of writing, guides you step-by-step, from choosing your mystery sub-genre and creating your sleuth through selecting a viewpoint, giving your characters strong motivations, writing an opening that hooks the reader, inventing crisp, purposeful dialogue, adding setting and descriptive details, plotting finishing the first draft, revising and rewriting, and marketing your book.
