Like Agatha Christie and Raymond Chandler, Sara Paretsky and Thomas Harris, you, too, can learn the trade secrets of quality detective fiction. It's true.  Just one year from now, you can deliver a completed mystery novel to a publisher--by writing only on weekends.  Authors Robert J.  Ray and Jack Remick guide you through the entire mystery-writing process, from creating a killer to polishing off the final draft.  Each weekend you'll focus on a specific task--learning the basics of novel-writing, the special demands of mystery-writing, and the secrets professionals use to create stories one scene at a time, building to a shivery, satisfying climax.  Using Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library as a model for the classical mystery tale and Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park for the hard-boiled mystery, this unique step-by-step program gives you all the information you need to reach your ultimate goal: a finished book in just 52 weeks!   Let two successful masters of the genre show you how... Discover: Why you must create your killer first The tricks to writing dialogue that does it all--moves your plot, involves your reader, and makes your style sizzle How to "bury" information (and corpses) for your reader to find Why you should NOT build your book around chapters Special techniques for clearing writer's block Plus: examples from Sue Grafton, Dashiell Hammett, Patricia Cornwell, Thomas Harris, Raymond Chandler, and more. Christie and Raymond Chandler, Sara Paretsky and Thomas Harris, you, too, can learn the trade secrets of quality detective fiction. It's true. Just one year from now, you can deliver a completed mystery novel to a publisher--by writing only on weekends. Authors Robert J. Ray and Jack Remick guide you through the entire mystery-writing process, from creating a killer to polishing off the final draft. Each weekend you'll focus on a specific task--learning the basics of novel-writing, the special demands of mystery-writing, and the secrets professionals use to create stories one scene at a time, building to a shivery, satisfying climax. Using Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library as a model for the classical mystery tale and Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park for the hard-boiled mystery, this unique step-by-step program gives you all the information you need to reach your ultimate goal: a finished book in just 5 Just one year from now, you can deliver a completed mystery novel to a publisher - by writing only on weekends. Authors Robert J. Ray and Jack Remick guide you through the entire mystery-writing process, from creating a killer to polishing off the final draft. Each weekend you'll focus on a specific task - learning the basics of novel-writing, the special demands of mystery-writing, and the secrets professionals use to create stories one scene at a time, building to a shivery, satisfying climax. Using Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library as a model for the classical mystery tale and Martin Cruz Smith's Gorky Park for the hard-boiled mystery, this unique step-by-step program gives you all the information you need to reach your ultimate goal: a finished book in just 52 weeks! Robert J.  Ray is the author of the writing guide The Weekend Novelist and eight Matt Murdock mysteries, including Murdock Cracks Ice.   He has taught college literature, writing, and tennis.  He lives in Seattle. Jack Remick, a writer and teacher, writes poetry, fiction, and non-fiction.  He has been teaching for twenty years. Introduction The world of mystery writing is a vibrant and exciting place.  The vibrancy comes from the thrill of the hunt, the chase, the sacred quest.  Like the knight on horseback questing for the Dragon or the Holy Grail, the modern-day sleuth takes on the challenge, and the strict moral burden, to root out evil, to assign guilt, and to impose good. In simplest terms, the object of the quest is payment.  The quester who brings home the Grail ( treasure, secret, amulet, sacred child, et cetera) is rewarded by money or love, by a flagon of ale, or perhaps by a royal pardon.  On the other side of the equation, the evil dragon who steals the child or who devastates the peaceful village must pay for the crime in dragon's blood.  And if you replace the evil dragon with a more modern monster--the killer fish of Jaws, for example, who disrupts the tourist trade in the peaceful seaside hamlet of Amity, Long Island--the payment is still made in blood.  In a classic clash of Good versus Evil, the fish who eats people dies to make the town safe.  And whether the evil force is a dragon, a fish named "Jaws," or a serial killer called "The Beast," payment happens at the climax of the story. In mystery fiction, the killer is the ancient dragon who pays for taking the victim's life.  By killing, the evil killer rips a jagged hole in the fabric of society.  The jagged hole makes everyone edgy.  Edgy people respond with panic: What if the fabric rips some more?  What if t