What I like to read.

Another grey, wet and cold day. Nothing to do but write lists so here’s the start to: What I look for in a book. I put this on Facebook but it's really a bit long for that magazine-mind place.

1. A cast of clearly defined, well drawn characters with an interestingly complex central character, preferably one with as many problems, hang-ups and chips as me. Male or female, sex is unimportant, in fact Stig Larsson managed to have one of each in ‘Millenium’; Salander and Blomkvist.

1. A strong core plot with interwoven sub-plots involving the various supporting personalities.
2. A single or restricted setting (I hate galloping all over the place). Schools, hospitals, monasteries, nunneries, villages, universities, Innes of Court, New Age Communities, are all good hothouse backgrounds seething with fermented passions. 
3. A bit of mystery, mythology and/or magic is nice, but only if it isn’t explained away at the end. Ditto for extraterrestrials. (e.g. K-Pax)
4. Detailed detective work and if it is a murder it must abide by the rules and present the killer and clues upfront. I enjoy a good autopsy.
5. Realistic dialogue, each character having their own distinct voice. Repetitive obscenities get boring, as does over emphasised local dialect.
6. Humour. Usually the best humour arises from the quirks of the characters; jokes, unless included in dialogue to illustrate the personality of the speaker are not a good idea. Morse, Dalziel, Frost, even Poirot, all have their funny little ways.
7. Writing that comes from the heat. I’m a fan of Marion Keyes because I think she does just that.

I have to add a few turn-offs:

1. Shoot-ups, guns and gangsters. All Crime fiction that isn’t in some way Detective fiction. That’s OK for the boys. Detective fiction needs to follow the rules - clues and characters all upfront so we can have a fair shot at working it out.
2. Spin-offs from successful originals. The Code was bad enough.
3. Gloom, unmitigated, self-pitying, gloom. Feminist writers who write constantly about dreary downtrodden females, getting their characters tortured and hideously misused in every chapter. Wonder who I’m talking about here?
4. Proselytising, religious, or green issues, or any other.