How to write books readers really love?
More reviews and thoughts from my crime fiction writers book group
Hello and welcome to Making Crime Pay! I’m Nicki Thornton - I’m an author who writes for children and is forging a path towards writing for adults.
I share my creative journey here and what I am learning along the way. I pass on my love of books by sharing what I am reading and review them so you can enjoy them too. Don’t forget I’m always up for talking about books or writing. I visit schools and other places to encourage a love of reading and help writing be more fun!
My latest novel is The Floating Witch Mystery, about three determined children, an eccentric witch and the world’s best magical detective who will stop at nothing to save everything they love. If you would like to hear me read the opening chapter you can head here.
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Nicki
What do two spectacularly successful books have in common?
One of the most fun things about my crime writers book group is dissecting why recent books have been such a hit with readers.
So here’s some thoughts shared from a recent discussion as we spotted two of our recent reads had a lot in common . . . could we have uncovered the secret of success?!!
A multi-award-winning story
We were discussing Lisa Jewell’s multi-award-winning None of This is True, a dark and creepy suspense thriller that has had so much love from readers.
It’s a story that draws you in right from its opening when Josie is enjoying a rare birthday meal out and strikes up a conversation with Alix, who is celebrating her exact same birthday.
‘We are birthday twins,’ says Josie and there begins the idea for Alix’s new podcast series as she’s hungry for a new idea to follow up her first popular podcast series. And Alix is also struggling with problems with husband, Nathan.
So begins a relationship that is far from being all it seems, with a dual-narrative and both characters having a lot of secrets and hidden agendas.
Alix gets herself drawn into Josie’s world, intrigued, convinced there is a lot more to this secretive and mysterious woman.
None of This is True
Josie is definitely not all she seems and wants to spin her own version of her life story and is equally determined to use Alix and the podcast to do it, in the same way that Alix is using Josie to reignite her podcast career.
It’s also a story of how two people can have a similar start in life, but their paths turn very differently. Born in the same hospital, living just a few streets away, we see Josie wondering why did she end up with her life and not Alix’s? And a growing sense that she is in some way trying to steal her way into Alix’s life.
Josie is classic unreliable narrator territory as we wonder what her real agenda is, with Alix and what is really going on in her home, with much older husband and secretive daughters.
Dark, twisty, compelling dual narrative
In this dual-narrative, I also particularly liked that the reader is never completely sure of Alix’s agenda either. She appears to be using Josie purely for content, but she is compelled to see the story through and fascinated by Josie’s strange life story unfolding – both using her and getting drawn into a life that is so very different, yet beginning to collide with her own.
My bookgroup pretty much all loved this dark, twisty and compelling book, with a brilliant set-up, intriguing characters and a journey that you knew was not going to end well!
The one that won awards
It’s Lisa Jewell’s 22nd book, but the first to win awards! I was particularly thrilled that she has finally received recognition for being a masterful and well-loved story teller.
Lisa Jewell started writing modern drama, focusing on relationships and family, but her stories have grown darker and in her compulsive style, often the reader is led into the mind of someone who is doing something very bad indeed.
Lisa Jewell has shared how thrilled she was to win her first ever award, which was the audio book award at this year’s book trade awards (the Nibbies). But since then awards have started to gather pace, particularly where its reader votes that count. She won the TikTok Book of the Year.
TikTok readers voted it the Book of the Year
So why has this book been the one to win awards? Clearly it has struck a chord with readers and this is what my book group was keen to discuss.
Lisa Jewell herself has said she’s never had a reader response like it and has faced so many questions about the truth of this twisty thriller, an additional chapter is being published as the ultimate bookish stocking filler this Christmas.
My lovely bookgroup are just great at analysing what is really working about a story (although we always disagree on which bits we like least!).
Unreliable narrators
So these were our thoughts: dual narratives seem to be very popular at the moment. Getting to see two sides of a story is a great way to really get inside the mind of characters and to achieve twists - which are also very popular at the moment. Each narrator is clearly the hero of the story, when told from their point of view. Sometimes the reader has to decide and that is very compelling.
My bookgroup also referenced Frieda McFadden’s The Housemaid, one of our reads earlier this year that created demand for sequels and has been incredibly popular.
It has a similar dual narrative of the two main protagonists in the story, both of whom have very different agendas for the action happening on the page.
These stories are narrated by women where there is a very clear difference in power – the wife who appears to have it all – and the upstart who wants to take it away from them.
Great conflict and suspense
And they are both stories set up for great conflict when, for various reasons, the upstart is invited into the perfect home of the protagonist who appears to be living the perfect life.
They both share all those key elements writers are encouraged to put in their stories - great sources of conflict, drama, twists, surprises, plus contrasting believable characters setting up some great wrong-footing moments for the reader.
There you go. If you want a tip about what to write next, go read these books and see how it’s done brilliantly!
Thank you for reading!
nicki
