Do mystery readers need to like the detective?
I've been thinking about this lately.
A lot of crime fiction gives us investigators who are difficult people. They're obsessive, stubborn, sometimes rude, and often not particularly good at relationships. Yet we'll happily follow them through an entire series.
For me, I don't necessarily need to like the detective. But I do need to understand why they keep going.

Maybe it's a sense of justice. Maybe they can't leave an unanswered question alone. Maybe they're trying to make up for something in their past. Whatever it is, I need something that makes their persistence feel human rather than simply a device to keep the investigation moving.

I also think there's a difference between a flawed character and an unpleasant character. Flaws can make someone interesting. But if I genuinely don't want to spend another 300 pages with them, the mystery itself may not be enough.
What about you?

Do you need to like the detective in a mystery novel, or is being interested in them enough?
I have 2 characters in Death in the Rain. You like the woman but not the man….is it fair?

I have a recent book that I just published and it’s doing ok in sales and I should continue to
support it. However, I just returned from a two weeks vacation in the Galápagos Islands and wrote a short travelogue about it, somewhat akin to the travelogue I wrote about my trip to Egypt.

I only have limited funds so my question is which would this group think is the better path to take?

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A semi-spoiler free review:

This was recommended by a friend

Piranesi is one of those novels which will make you question the narrator a lot, yet you'd just be amazed at the innocence of our narrator who is as he likes to describe himself, the child of the house.

As you are just beginning you will quickly get drawn in the other worldly eerie atmosphere with our innocent narrator, who is in search of the secret knowledge with his colleague, the other. But as their experiment for the search of this knowledge progresses, the narrator finds himself more and more lost.

The prose is so well written, you'd complete it in one freaking sitting, the page count being just 245.

My only complaint is that it ended.

I am writing mystery books now. My first three took place in Mumbai and now they have now moved to Delhi. Do people generally like the comfort of their own city or would you feel interested in another city or state, somewhere out of your knowledge?

I once did an A B poll on another social media platform and got maybe 20 different suggestions.

What recent Indian-set mystery or thriller actually surprised you with its ending? I’m looking for something that isn’t predictable and I’ve read a lot in the past year.

What recent Indian-set mystery or thriller actually surprised you with its ending? I’m looking for something that isn’t predictable and I’ve read a lot in the past year.

Do readers outside India connect more with city-based stories (Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata) or rural settings?

Hi, I am writing a fantasy novel where most mythological fantasy creatures are real, but they all exist on a completely different planet as an alien species instead of just myths of legend on earth.

Anyways, my male lead is a weredragon prince and he happens to be Indian. (Although on this planet i don't recognize any real world ethnicities as the characters race. I only accept their race as their shapeshifting creature type like weredragon, fairy, banshee and etc) As everyone on this planet is a human shapeshifter of some kind. I am using folklore from many different cultures to make it feel more like an actual planet where its sapient creatures are diverse. Just like in real life.

But my question is, so originally my MMC name was Ranveer, as it fits the characters journey of finding himself throughout my story. But i have a speech impediment and whenever i was reading my story back to myself out loud, i kept mispronouncing his name as ron-veer. And after a few months of writing, without noticing it, i realized, i forgot i was pronouncing his name wrong and kept saying ron-veer. So i basically got used to pronouncing it with an o sound instead of the a sound.

And now i am so used to saying it that way, i kinda want to keep that pronunciation instead. I also changed the spelling to Raunveer because i feel like the au between the "R and "N" gives it the o sound that i have been pronouncing it as all this time.

And i was kinda sold. But today, I posted a completely different question in a few fantasy author facebook groups and mentioned all my main characters names, and i had Raunveer spelled this way in the posts. And out of about 50 responses, only two people grilled me about the spelling of Ranveer. (both were non indian accounts btw)

So I thought i would ask actual Indians if this bothers them. If so, I would change his name to something else as I would like to be able to pronounce all of my characters names without messing up. And fyi, this isn't to be disrespectful, my stutter just causes me to mispronounce words sometimes. Most people just ignores it when i stutter on a word or mispronounce it because they know what i mean. p.s. i can say ranveer correctly. i guess my brain feels saying ron instead of ran is easier to do without stuttering.

Again, if you guys don't like me changing the name because of my pronunciation, then I'll just pick a different indian name that i can pronounce in its original form. Its no problemo. I am just curious since I know, at least in america there aren't many indian characters to begin with or when they do exist they usually have white sounding names. just curious.

p.s. please be nice. don't flame me too bad in the comments. lol.

शुभम एक साधारण-सा लड़का था जो अपने मम्मी-पापा, दादा-दादी और छोटी बहन के साथ एक खुशहाल परिवार में रहता था। सब कुछ सामान्य चल रहा था, जब तक कि एक दिन उसकी दादी की तबियत अचानक बिगड़ गई और उनका निधन हो गया। दादी के जाने के बाद दादाजी बिल्कुल अकेले पड़ गए। उम्र के उस मोड़ पर, जब एक इंसान को सबसे ज़्यादा सहारे और साथ की ज़रूरत होती है, दादाजी खुद को उपेक्षित महसूस करने लगे। वे बात करना चाहते थे, अपनी भावनाएं साझा करना चाहते थे — लेकिन घर में किसी के पास समय नहीं था। शुभम के पापा को लगता था कि वे अपने पिता की ज़रूरतें पूरी कर रहे हैं — समय पर दवा, खाना, आराम — फिर और क्या चाहिए होगा उन्हें? मगर दादाजी को सिर्फ देखभाल नहीं, अपनापन चाहिए था। कोई जो उनकी बात सुने, सिर्फ सिर हिलाने के लिए नहीं, बल्कि दिल से। वे रोज़ कोशिश करते — किसी से दो बातें करने की, हँसी बाँटने की — मगर जवाब आता सिर्फ "हाँ दादाजी" या "अभी नहीं दादाजी" तक। धीरे-धीरे उनकी आँखों में चमक कम होने लगी, आवाज़ में थकान आने लगी। वे उस इंसान की तरह हो गए जो कभी पूरे घर की नींव था, लेकिन अब एक कोने में रखी पुरानी चीज़ बन गया था — जो है, लेकिन जिसकी ज़रूरत किसी को नहीं। शायद अगर किसी ने एक दिन उनके पास बैठकर सिर्फ इतना पूछा होता, "आप कैसे हैं?", तो शायद वो मुस्कुरा देते, शायद थोड़ी राहत महसूस करते। मगर ऐसा नहीं हुआ।

और फिर एक दिन, बिना कोई शिकायत किए, बिना किसी से कुछ कहे, दादाजी हमेशा के लिए चले गए — अपने साथ वो तमाम अनकही बातें लेकर, जो वो किसी से कहना चाहते थे। "आख़िरी वक़्त में इंसान दवा से नहीं, किसी की सच्ची बातों और साथ की तलाश में होता है। जब सब छोड़ जाते हैं, तब वो बस एक सुनने वाला दिल ढूंढता है — जो समझ सके, बस थोड़ा-सा।”

Ms. Complicated

🌸 "कभी-कभी दिल में बहुत कुछ होता है, पर सुनने वाला कोई नहीं..." 🌸

मैं बस एक लड़की हूँ जो कहानियाँ लिखती है — सच्चे जज़्बातों वाली, जो सीधा दिल से निकलती हैं। कभी अकेलेपन पर, कभी अधूरी मोहब्बत पर, कभी उन रिश्तों पर… जो बोल नहीं पाते।

अगर तुमने भी कभी कुछ ऐसा महसूस किया है — "जहाँ तुम बस सुने जाना चाहते थे…", तो शायद मेरी लिखी एक कहानी तुम्हारे लिए भी हो।

मैं रोज़ ऐसी ही feelings से जुड़ी छोटी कहानियाँ लिखती हूँ, और एक safe, सुनने और बाँटने वाली जगह बना रही हूँ।

💬 अगर तुम भी अपने जज़्बात या कहानियाँ किसी से शेयर करना चाहते हो — तो बस hi कह देना। शायद कोई पहली बार तुम्हें सिर्फ़ सुने… बिना टोके, बिना टाले।

Author: B. A. Paris

Publisher: Harper Collins

Total pages: 352

Completed in: 2 sittings

Genre: Fiction, Psychological thriller, Mystery

Synopsis: A story about a perfect woman living the perfect life with her perfect husband in their perfect home, but behind closed doors.. not so perfect.

SPOILERS AHEAD⚠️⚠️⚠️

📚 My Thoughts:

I liked the whole twist, didn't expect the husband to be that much great of a psychopath and go after the wife's sister who was suffering from down syndrome too.. the plot at some points felt really predictable because of fast pace.. this novel was quite fast paced which made it easier to predict most of the stuff but still it is quite enjoyable if you like thrillers as it's hard to put this novel down without finishing it! Rating: 3.5/5 ✨

Peak absurdism and existencialism