PERFORMANCE PIECE by Janice Law I made the happy discovery recently that I have a “performance piece.” Normally I don’t venture into such high flown territory, confining myself to novels, short stories, articles, these blogs, and the occasional splenetic letter to the editor. “Performance pieces” are for folks with artistic pretensions and deep thoughts about […]

GOODNESS by Janice Law The late Jean Kerr entitled one of her books of essays The Snake Has All the Lines, and, boy, was she right. I think anyone who writes fiction, and not just mystery writers, would agree that while evil is easy—or as easy as anything ever is in fiction—goodness is hard. Evil […]

THE TRICKY ART OF SUSPENSE by Janice Law Joseph Cotton as Howard Graham, Everett Sloane as Kopeikin, and Orson Welles as Colonel Haki in the 1943 film version of Journey into Fear I used to tease some of the less enthusiastic readers in my sophomore level lit course that Jane Austen was one of the […]

ONWARD AND UPWARD AND THE ART OF THE POSSIBLE by Janice Law More literary spelunking this week with a descent back to 1910 and the birth of Lady Molly, that’s Lady Molly of Scotland Yard should you have a number of titled lassies on your speed dial. She was one of the later characters created […]

REMEMBRANCE OF CRIMES PAST by Janice Law I’ve just come back from a family visit to Chicago, the Windy City, Hog Butcher to the World, City of Broad Shoulders, etc., etc., a burg with more epithets than you can shake a stick at. One usually omitted from the list might be called “City Proud of […]

WHAT’S IN A NAME? by Janice Law “What’s in a name?” asked Juliet, but she was being disingenuous, knowing quite well the vast difference between being Juliet of the Scullery and the heiress of the Capulets. Her creator surely knew, too. While many of his characters’ names were set by history and legend, he let […]

FAN FAVORITES by Janice Law One of the nice things about book chats—and blogs—is the chance to promote favorite authors. Some, perennial inhabitants of the best seller lists, need no introduction. But there are others, equally worthy in the fan’s estimation, who never reach the popularity their quality would suggest. Magdalen Nabb Two of those […]