Comments on: A Killing in the Hills by Julia Keller – a review

By: Barbara

Barbara — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:29:59 +0000

There are rules and rules. Elmore Leonard has ten of them (though makes it clear that you should break them if it is going to work). I think they are a mix of advice and a list of his pet peeves. Never start with the weather; never use any verb other than “said” to indicate who is talking – not “retorted” or “insisted” – and leave out the parts readers skip. But I also once skimmed through a “how to write a mystery” book (they are legion) and it was basically “here’s how to write a formula mystery.” That was kind of depressing, though helpful if that was what you were trying to do.

But there are also creative writing class rules (or so I understand – having never taken one) which include not being too precious with your descriptions, or as it usually is relayed (and I have no idea who first said it) “you must murder your little darlings.”

In Keller’s case, if there were any similes that made her smile, they probably were ones that made me smile too. There were a lot of them, and in other hands they could have been irritating, like those “aren’t I clever” lines of dialogue that private eyes often overdo, but she did it very well.

By: kathy d.

kathy d. — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 09:26:31 +0000

Very good review here. I agree with it wholeheartedly. What I found was that it zeroed in on a small town in West Virginia and showed the impact of the economic crisis on the people there — the joblessness or low-wage, dead-end jobs, foreclosures, car repossessions, lack of health insurance, hunger, hopelessness and desperation. The book said so much about this.
This is all juxtaposed with the beauty of the environment.
I didn’t catch any forbidden cliches so I was fine with the writing.
It’s interesting that you compare this book with Denise Mina’s writing. I can see that.
Now that I’m in the midst of Broken Harbor by Tana French, I’d say there are parallels here, too. There is the economic crisis n Ireland,, with the lay-offs and lack of income, with increasing desperation.
These writers all look at the bigger picture. They’re writing a murder mystery in the context of larger social issues and crisis.
For me this is always good. I can’t think of a better way to get the feel for a country, for a city, for what people are going through, than with a good mystery.

By: bernadetteinoz

bernadetteinoz — Sat, 22 Sep 2012 01:02:59 +0000

There are rules? such strict ones? who decides what is essential and what isn’t? I suspect this is why I get annoyed by the genre-isation of fiction – I like description when done well as it is here (or in the books of Adrian Hyland or Denise Mina as you compare her to). Books devoid of ‘non-essential’ description are (in my mind) things like Lee Child’s which I find boring and unengaging. So all power to the rule breakers :)

By: Barbara

Barbara — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 23:43:04 +0000

Thanks – I found I loved the descriptions, though I did at first think of the “rules” that ask you to strip out anything that isn’t essential (unless you are writing literary fiction, I would guess…which seems often quite focused on describing things in clever ways, with momentum optional). It was such an interesting mix because it is quite a rich and loving picture of a place, which nevertheless doesn’t shy away from its very serious problems.

I get a similar sense of fond frustrated affection in Denise Mina’s books for Glasgow. Perhaps its my advancing age, but I want some honest affection for humanity and for everyday experiences in my books, not just lyrical cynicism.

By: Maxine

Maxine — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 09:18:29 +0000

Ditto, I really liked this book (knowing nothing about it or the author before I read it), and glad you did, too.

By: bernadetteinoz

bernadetteinoz — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 03:51:37 +0000

Great review Barbara and not just because I agree with your opinion about the book. Though I do…read it some weeks ago now and still can remember it quite vividly which is not always a given…I loved the description of ‘the shabby afterthought of a town…’and didn’t know it was using some thing considered a no no in writing circles – I found that whole passage made it really wasy for me to picture the place and the juxtapostion of natural beauty with the decline of the man-made environment. Agree too there are similarities to Mina’s work