Ruth Rendell Quotes

Occasionally, I have written about stories related to crime, but I have never attempted a traditional detective story. So I want to write a true detective story.

Murder mysteries are puzzles that are fun to resolve.

Mysteries and thrillers are not the same things, though they are literary siblings. Roughly put, I would say the distinction is that mysteries emphasize motive and psychology whereas thrillers rely more heavily on action and plot.

But the first published thing I did was a detective story, detective novel, and I did that on my own.

Crime fiction is a way of satisfying that nosy need to know.

The great thing about detective stories, in particular, the case can always be interesting as well as the characters.

I developed 'Trapped' because I was fascinated with the idea of a terrible crime in a small town cut off from the rest of the world.

...and then a murder mystery will occur.

What would you have if you didn't have a murder in a mystery? You'd have something for the lower-level readers. When you get up into the upper levels, there's nothing that will engage you or compel you or get your emotions churning like a murder. It's the ultimate stakes.

With a thriller, you're going to have your red herrings, as different suspects are thrown up as possible culprits. You can only explore that for so long - if you do that more than a few times, it starts to get a little redundant.

The thing about being a mystery writer, what marks a mystery writer out from a chick lit author or historical fiction writer, is that you always find a mystery in every situation.

I am more of a suspense writer. A mystery writer solves mysteries. I am a 'high suspense' writer.

I read a lot of detective novels.

What the detective story is about is not murder but the restoration of order.

Crime fiction makes money. It may be harder for writers to get published, but crime is doing better than most of what we like to call CanLit. It's elementary, plot-driven, character-rich story-telling at its best.

A mystery is a whodunit. You know what happened, but not how or who's behind it. A thriller, or a suspense, is a howdunit. You know what happened, and you usually know who did it, but you keep reading because you want to know how they pulled it off.

I never have liked detective dramas. I try to watch all of them to see what's going on, but I don't like them.

Mystery fiction was considered a stepchild of literature.

The detective genre is not easy because you've got to get to a conclusion that is unexpected.

I liked the idea of a whodunit revolving around a marriage.

I've been surprised that 'Elizabeth is Missing' has been so well received as a crime book. I love mystery stories, and that is what I decided to write.

'Unforgotten' was a bit of a no-brainer. I'm a big fan of crime dramas, but often the 'investigation' part goes much too smoothly - and you don't get that with this.

I'm really into the detective drama genre.

Where there's a will there's a detective story.

I thought I might write mysteries for the rest of my life.