The A-Ha! Moment

The Alphabet in Crime Fiction - The concept was started by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. This week's letter is the letter A


Here are the rules: By Friday of each week participants try to write a blog post about crime fiction related to the letter of the week. Your post MUST be related to either the first letter of a book's title, the first letter of an author's first name, or the first letter of the author's surname, or even maybe a crime fiction "topic". But above all, it has to be crime fiction. You could write a review, or a bio of an author, so long as it fits the rules somehow.

The A-Ha Moment

Definition: an instant at which the solution to a problem becomes clear

The problem: Usually the clue comes after moments of reflection - through dialogue with someone or internally - and that reflection can often be dry and a bit boring to write.

How to spice it up: Add conflict. How?

(a) Perhaps have the two detectives disagree with how the case should be solved. Or they disagree with how the evidence should be interpreted.

(b) Let the character or characters doubt their own conclusions

(c) Could their be a deadline of some sort (like an execution) that causes the characters to have to step it up

How have you handled A-Ha moments?

Also, authors I want to check out that start with the Letter A:

Ann Cleeves

Ann Cleeves (born 1954) is a British crime-writer. In 2006 she was the first author to win the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the richest crime-writing prize in the world, for her novel Raven Black. Hidden Depths has been dramatised as the new TV detective series Vera on ITV, starring Brenda Blethyn in the lead role as Vera Stanhope. It made its debut in May 2011.

George & Molly novels

• A Bird in the Hand (1986)
• Come Death and High Water (1987)
• Murder in Paradise (1988)
• A Prey to Murder (1989)
• Another Man's Poison (1992)
• Sea Fever (1993)
• The Mill on the Shore (1994)
• High Island Blues (1996)

Inspector Ramsay

• A Lesson in Dying (1990)
• Murder in My Backyard (1991)
• A Day in the Death of Dorothea Cassidy (1992)
• Killjoy (1993)
• The Healers (1995)
• The Baby Snatcher (1997)

Vera Stanhope

• The Crow Trap (1999)
• Telling Tales (2005)
• Hidden Depths (2007)
• Silent Voices (2011)
• The Glass Room (2012)

Shetland Island Quartet

• Raven Black (2006); Gold Dagger Award
• White Nights (2008)
• Red Bones (2009)
• Blue Lightning (2010)

Ann Granger

Patricia Ann Granger (born 1939) is a British crime writer. Granger was born in Portsmouth, England. She took a Modern Languages degree at the University of London, taught English for a year in France, but eventually went to work in the visa sections of British consulates and embassies in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Austria. She married a work colleague in the foreign service and went with him to Zambia and Germany before returning to live in England with their two children. Her first novels were historical romances published under the nom de plume Ann Hulme. After her return to England, her first crime novel, Say It With Poison, was published in 1991.

Mitchell & Markby mysteries

• Say It with Poison (1991)
• A Season For Murder (1991)
• Cold in the Earth (1992)
• Murder Among Us (1992)
• Where Old Bones Lie (1993)
• Flowers For His Funeral (1994)
• A Fine Place For Death (1994)
• Candle For a Corpse (1995)
• A Word After Dying (1996)
• A Touch of Mortality (1996)
• Call the Dead Again (1998)
• Beneath these Stones (1999)
• Shades of Murder (2000)
• A Restless Evil (2002)
• That Way Murder Lies (2004) (the final Mitchell & Markby novel)

Fran Varady mysteries

• Asking for Trouble (1997)
• Keeping Bad Company (1997)
• Running Scared (1998)
• Risking It All (2001)
• Watching Out (2003)
• Mixing With Murder (2005)
• Rattling the Bones (2007)

Lizzie Martin Mysteries

• A Rare Interest in Corpses (2006)
• A Mortal Curiosity (2008)
• A Better Quality of Murder (2010)

Campbell & Carter mysteries

• Mud, Muck and Dead things (2009)
• Rack, Ruin and Murder (2011)

 Sources: Wikipedia and Amazon.com
Writing and selling your mystery novel by Ephron