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How to Write a Mystery is the Larry Beinhart craft guide to the form, drawing on his career as a working political-satire and crime novelist (American Hero, Salvation Boulevard, the Tony Cassella mysteries) and his time teaching mystery-writing workshops. The book is practical rather than theoretical and covers the procedural mechanics of plot construction, character development, dialogue, and the specific genre conventions of the mystery form.
Beinhart's strength in How to Write a Mystery is the working-writer perspective. The advice is grounded in actual published examples and his own working drafts rather than in abstract craft principles. Fans of Lawrence Block's Telling Lies for Fun and Profit or Patricia Highsmith's Plotting and Writing Suspense Fiction will recognize the high-quality working-writer craft tradition.
The book is useful both as a beginner's guide and as a refresher for working writers stuck in a project.
Four stars. Recommended for aspiring mystery writers and for working professionals who want a useful refresher. The How to Write a Mystery Larry Beinhart guide stands among the better craft books for the form. Beginning writers should pair it with Block's craft work for the cleanest introduction to the practical end of the writing life.
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The Librarian
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The Librarian by Larry Beinhart review. A 2004 political satire about a young librarian recruited to organize a billionaire's archive. The Wag the Dog author's sharp post-9/11 form.
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Wag the Dog by Larry Beinhart review. The 1997 reissue of American Hero with the title from the David Mamet film adaptation. A Hollywood producer fakes a war. Sharper than the movie.
Salvation Boulevard
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Larry Beinhart's 2008 thriller about a private investigator working for a megachurch. Adapted as a 2011 Pierce Brosnan film. Solid satire.
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