How to write a successful British Murder Mystery series…

After extensive research around my local bookshops so you don't have to, I can reveal the secret!

I’m a sucker for a crime novel. I’m currently getting through them at about 1.7 per month. Sometimes I’ve got two on the go at once. My local bookseller loves me but it’s becoming bit of an issue….

Like most sensible booksellers, they have a range of displays - round tables with all the latest publications in tidy little piles, one genre per table to make it easy for readers with a specific habit, like me, to hoover up their literary fodder.

Trouble is, I’m at that stage where I’m not sure I’m buying the latest in my favourite series - they’re all starting to look the same. I can’t recall whether I’ve read the most recent Reacher, or Rebus, or McCluskey or that bloke that writes about Brighton but all the books have ‘Dead’ in their title so I get confused and buy the same book twice! (Peter James - that’s him).

All rights respected. All great original novels of course!

Indeed that’s what’s making it even worse, even different authors now all look the same!

You must have noticed…there’s clearly a ‘Richard Osman bandwagon’ for instance: a bunch of chancers who’ve deduced that all you have to do is get your designer to come up with a book cover in the same font/colour palette/ imagery as ‘The Thursday Murder Club’, call it something similar and Bob’s Your Uncle!….you’ve got your own best seller formula, sitting alongside all the other thrillers by chancers also competing for space in that murder-table in the bookstore!

As you will see above, I’ve done it myself - for academic purposes only of course…

Well actually, I didn’t do it myself as such - I got my assistant at ChatGPT to knock it out for me. Ten minutes it took him. Free.

“But wait!… What about the actual ‘content’” I hear you ask?…

Of course. That’s why I’ve written this helpful guide for you…

Not just any fool can write a best selling murder mystery. You’ll need a cunningly-woven plot, some compelling characters, a charming location you’d happily be wafted away to for a weekend if only you could…

But the good news is, dear reader, that’s easier than you think!…

Clearly I can’t reveal all of that to you here, in one short introduction. But it’s hardly rocket science.

Here’s a few hints below, for now. Process them for a while, then when plot and characters start to germinate - metaphorically like a good sourdough starter in that warm area in your kitchen - get back to me with your concept and I’ll help you develop it into a sure-fire Golden Dagger nomination.

Free hints that will help:

Move to a cute village, or coastal resort, or Mediterranean island, for at least one balmy summer (we’re outrageously lucky: we live between Marlow and Cookham: both not only been used for years for the ‘Midsummer Murders’ film crews but in addition - this proving my theory beyond doubts - one ‘author’ has already launched his own ‘Marlow Murders’ series - already now on telly too! Kerchinngg!).

Join a few clubs: golf club; bridge club; yoga studio, riding stables.. the more the better! Maybe even the church. But be careful - don’t get into deep with any cliques.

Find yourself a regular table in the bar of the local pub (if they haven’t all been boarded up yet). Thursday nights tend to be good for quiz nights: that brings out the characters.

Oh, and read a load of books as per the ones displayed above. Plenty material in there. Just try not to pull too many characters or plots from the same series. And don’t base them in Brighton: it’s been done to death. ( ‘Done to Death’…maybe that should be his next release?..)

Find a quiet place to plant your keyboard, pour yourself a stiff whisky (they all drink that apparently), and off you go!…

Should you get stuck, feel free to share your manuscript with me. I’m hardly likely to steal your ideas now, am I?..

Happy murdering!

Al