LOCAL>> How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America

Join bestselling authors Lee Child, Laurie R. King, Gary Phillips, and Jacqueline Winspear live for a one-of-a-kind, personal introduction to the new bestseller: How to Write a Mystery: A Handbook from Mystery Writers of America.

Edited by Lee and Laurie, How to Write a Mystery, contains essays from 70 of the most successful mystery writers in the business—including Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, and Charlaine Harris. This must-have guide offers established and aspiring mystery writers alike practical, current, and inspiring advice on how they can write the next great mystery.

“What piece of writing advice do you wish you’d had at the beginning of your career?” is the core question driving How to Write a Mystery, as experts share personal anecdotes, tried and true tips, and guiding questions for readers to consider when practicing their own writing.

The handbook touches on a wide range of topics necessary for any writer—distinguishing genres, developing well-crafted characters, mastering the art of pacing and plotting, effectively presenting diversity and inclusivity, and understanding the business side of publishing. With entirely new content shared by the most accomplished mystery writers of our time, How to Write a Mystery is a ticket to the greatest mystery-writing workshop ever.

Previously a television director, union organizer, theatre technician and law student, Lee Child is the author of the bestselling Jack Reacher series.

Laurie R. King is the NYT bestselling author of eighteen Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes novels, five Kate Martinellis, two Stuyvesant-Greys, five standalones, various short stories and novellas, and edited a number of anthologies and nonfiction works. She has won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Lambda, Wolfe, Macavity, Creasey dagger, and Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, has an honorary doctorate, and is a Baker Street Irregular.

Gary Phillips is a critically acclaimed author of mysteries and graphic novels. Raised in South Central Los Angeles, Phillips grew up reading comics, classic pulp and detective fiction, and the likes of Iceberg Slim and took inspiration from all this when he created his first series character, Ivan Monk, in the early 1990s. He has also found success in the field of graphic novels, penning illustrated stories such as The Rinse and High Rollers. When not writing, he spends his time smoking the occasional cigar and pondering why his poker abilities haven’t improved.

Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestselling Maisie Dobbs series, which includes In This Grave Hour, Journey to Munich, A Dangerous Place, Leaving Everything Most Loved, Elegy for Eddie, and eight other novels. Her standalone novel, The Care and Management of Lies, was also a New York Times bestseller and a Dayton Literary Peace Prize finalist. Originally from the United Kingdom, she now lives in California.