The other day, I started a book billed as a mystery for fans of Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club. Premise, fine I guess. Characters, meh to mediocre. Overall story, tone and execution? Not for me. It takes a lot for me to put down a book, particularly before the first body falls, but in this case, I did it.
I only share books I like here, so I won’t mention the title. I will say that it’s lovely to find a reliable author. The good news is that Osman has started up a new series and I am looking forward to it. Here’s an interview with Osman and Lee Child, author of the Jack Reacher books.
And while I think the idea that writing is a good job for those who have already had careers is a mite limiting, it certainly has worked out for these two authors.
To me, it’s never about what happens. It’s about: why do I care what happens? And that’s all character…
My default is to write commercial fiction, because that’s just how my brain is. I want to do something that the maximum amount of people love; I want to write something that’s good and then sits right in the heart of popular culture. You want the sort of book where, if you’re on a long-haul flight and you open the first page, it takes you through that entire flight – that sounds trite, but it’s not, because how do you keep someone through an entire flight? You keep them with story, and you keep them with character, and you keep them with wit and with a personality that people want to spend time with.
— Richard Osman
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J.R. Johnson 
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