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Kate Freiman

Mystery Musings (Pt2)

When we add romance to the mix, we have to increase the emotional components. (That’s why those hardboiled “dicks” never have real relationships: too icky for their manly readers who really want their cowboy myth updated.) In a romantic detective story, the romance has to be intricately involved with the detection in some way: perhaps the love interest knew the victim or knows one or more of the suspects; perhaps the love interest is an intended target; perhaps the love interest causes the detective to question the value of putting… 

Mystery Musings (Pt1)

Lately, some friends and I have been discussing the mystery genre from the perspective of writers and storytellers. Since I wrote my M. A. thesis on classical British detective stories of the 1920s and 1930s, I like to think I know a bit about the mystery genre. A mystery is a story about someone solving a murder, and it’s always a murder in a “real” mystery because that’s the gravest (pun intended) injury one can do to society. One of the distinguishing features of mystery/detection fiction, as opposed to suspense/thriller… 

All The Mod-Cons (Pt2)

Insurrection of the Doors and Drawers All of our new cabinets and drawers in our new house have what is called “soft-closing” mechanisms. This means there’s a sweet spot from where they close themselves quietly. Very convenient if the person closing them finds the sweet spot. Useless if the person closing them doesn’t, because then they just stay open, threatening heads passing by the upper cabinets and legs walking past open drawers. After over seventy years, my husband has not acquired the skill-set to close a door or drawer. But—pardon… 

All The Mod-Cons (Pt1)

Rebellion of the Plug-Ins – Part 1 We have a new house. While we didn’t buy any new furniture, we did acquire new appliances. All the “mod cons” (modern conveniences) as the real estate ads say. Now, I can’t imagine a situation in which I would want to—or need to—connect with my oven or washing machine via Bluetooth, but I could. There are apps for that, for all the new gadgets. Really. What I noticed as soon as we moved in is that just about everything that is plugged in…