I began to read fiction, especially murder mysteries, at a young age. The first book I remember reading is “Mystery in the Pirate Oak”, a paperback I bought through a program school that distributed a catalog of purchasable books every couple of months (Scholastic Books).
Many of the books I’ve read have created inspiration for what I write. On this page I will review books that have influenced me or which I have particularly enjoyed.
In the 1960s three friends attend a county fair where a fortune teller predicts that one of the three, Frances, will be murdered. Frances then spends the rest of her life obsessing over who would want to kill her, as well as how, where and when. She goes as far as to create a library of ‘evidence’ she finds that may help to answer these questions.
When she is finally murdered 60 years later it is revealed that the vast majority of her estate will be left to the individual who solves her murder. The chase is on, placing many of those seeking to solve the murder in the cross hairs of the actual murderer.
The story bounces back and forth between the three friends in the 60s and the present day. One of the friends remains alive and descendants of others are on site for the funeral. I picked up this book because I was intrigued by the title. I wasn’t disappointed.
As a writer I tend to read many ‘craft’ articles which discuss the process and best practices for writing fiction. The authors of most of these books tend to mention books which influenced them or which are noteworthy for other reasons.
Trent’s Last Case is a book I saw referenced in multiple sources over the last year. I was inspired to find a copy a my local library (https://gapines.org/eg/opac/home) and then to include it in my Work in Progress, “Pathological Secrets”.
Trent’s Last Case was first published in 1913 and has been cited as the first book classified as detective fiction. Agatha Christie called Trent’s Last Case “One of the three best detective stories ever written”. [From blurbs from the back of the 1978 Harper and Row Perennial Library paperback edition.] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent%27s_Last_Case_(novel))