Nancy G. West, author of Risky Pursuit, is visiting Ascroft, eh? today to why she has written a young adult novel.

Welcome, Nancy. I’ll turn the floor over to you –

Having written a series of successful cozy Aggie Mundeen Mysteries (aka rom/com mysteries), and psychological suspense, why would I write a book about an 18-year-old high school senior who plays baseball?  Because, just as Aggie Mundeen popped into my head and wouldn’t leave, Decker Savage moved into my brain until I had to write about him.

While Aggie’s main concerns are staying young despite passing 30, and helping her hunky detective friend solve murders, Decker’s stakes are higher: he grieves from the loss of a baby brother, his parents are about to divorce, his new friend might die, he has crossed a legal line, and an anonymous man writes notes threatening him and his family. Decker is worthy of sustained effort. While many young/new adults get a bad rap for being solely interested in sci-fi, fantasy,  and sex, Decker, an ordinary young man facing a dark dilemma, longs to grow enough courage to confront and derail the mystery man torturing him so he can preserve his family, safeguard his friend’s health, and have a future – the kind of character who can become unforgettable. 

Authors always strive to write a better book than the ones before. We love mystery/suspense, and we work to add elements of literary fiction to fast-paced stories to make our prose and characters memorable.

Consider these authors and their books: William Shakespeare’s tragedies, James Joyce’s Ulysses, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, William Kent Kruger’s Ordinary Grace, Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See, Kristin Hannah’s The Nightingale, Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, and Ann Patchett’s State of Wonder.

Krueger and Doerr are pegged as the mystery writers among them, but all of them present dilemmas and puzzles to solve, depict crime, and create suspense.

Mystery fiction restores justice. Shakespeare is big on retribution, or he plants the seed that justice will ultimately prevail. Joyce has his characters feel justified.

Prevailing wisdom says literary fiction is darker and less optimistic than mystery fiction. Yet, many mysteries are dark and pessimistic.

Literary fiction supposedly deals with more complex themes. Yet Krueger and Doerr, pegged as mystery writers, deal with complex themes, as do many others writing crime fiction.

That leaves memorable prose, pacing and emphasis. In mystery novels, events change the trajectory of the story more frequently. Slower-paced, melodic literary fiction gives the reader more time to absorb the prose and think…”perchance to dream”…perchance to  switch books.

While mysteries emphasize plot and pacing, a reader who isn’t captivated early by the lead character will search elsewhere. If When literary fiction emphasizes character over plot, it does so at the risk of having the reader long for something to happen.

Judging by books written by the last six authors listed above, it appears there’s increasing crossover between literary and mystery fiction. Master Shakespeare, of course, gives us exquisite language, moving plots, unforgettable characters, pathos, and humor, along with murder, mystery, and mayhem.

Harper Lee takes a serious subject, creates unforgettable characters with beautiful writing, a palpable sense of place, gravity, and humor, and produces a classic literary mystery.

William Kent Kruger creates an idyllic world where chaos should not happen; yet it does. We are so enmeshed with the  characters and descriptions, we tremble that events will destroy their world. Our world.

Anthony Doerr buries us in the hearts and minds of his characters until, as the evil of the past envelopes them, breathless chapter to breathless chapter, we can hardly bear it. Is this not the pacing of a mystery with literary prose?

Kristin Hannah starts with the lyrical, measured sense of place and deep characterization intrinsic to the literary novel.

 Then the increasing pace of horrific events fills us with such anxiety and urgency that we are propelled faster and faster to a heart-stopping climax on the very last page. Brilliant. Literary. Suspenseful. A mystery. 

Celeste Ng gives us ordinary families who create unintended chaos for others much like themselves. As they reveal their hidden evil deeds through her memorable prose, we ache for them.

Ann Patchett gives us love, greed, egotism, mystery, danger, suspense, and a touch of sci-fi in one literary novel.

While crime writers love mysteries, danger, suspense, and puzzles, we want order restored, justice achieved, and our prose and characters to be memorable. So we toil at our craft, trying to incorporate the elements of great fiction into our stories. A tall order. We change genres, ages, sexes, and dilemmas as new people like Decker Savage take up residence in our brains and induce us to tell their stories. We are compelled to keep working to find that sweet spot: literary mystery fiction. 

Thank you for sharing this with us, Nancy, and good luck with Risky Pursuit. Readers can learn more about Nancy G. West by visiting the author’s website and her Facebook page.

The book is available online at Amazon

About Nancy G. West: Nancy West is a recovering business major who discovered that creating stories is a lot more fun than accounting. Her novel of psychological suspense, Nine Days to Evil, won the Clue Award, and The Plunge, a mystery/suspense novella, was a June 2019 selection for ALA’s book club and is Book 1 of the spinoff series, Aggie Mundeen Lake Mysteries. Her Aggie Mundeen Rom-Com Mysteries included a Lefty Award Finalist, Chanticleer Awards, and a Raven Award from Uncaged Book Reviews. She loves writing stories about ordinary teens and adults thrown into dangerous, suspenseful situations…a literary thriller, like Risky Pursuit.