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I, too, remember enjoying the thrills of The Andromeda Strain. It's available to rent on the Amazon Prime channel. Doesn't seem so exciting these days.

Try this: The 68 Best Pandemic Movies to Binge In Quarantine. https://www.vulture.com/2020/03/best-pa … -more.html

There are also Westerns, Feel-Good Movies, Zombie Movies and on, and on. People with time on their hands can come up with a lot of lists!

Actually, let me correct my previous post. The piece was posted here, and I received 3 reviews, all of them complaining about the length of the sentence, none of them about that error.

Sometimes I wish I had never taken up  writing and exposed my stuff to critics. Because then I wouldn't have learned the "rules" and could enjoy books without being distracted by the breakage thereof. Case in point: I'm currently reading a John Sanford novel. It's replete with unnecessary dialogue tags and ellipses. He's a bestseller. Okay, he's in the club now and can do that without some editor telling him he can't. BUT - the "rules" would make his writing better. I would like to see the first novels of these bestselling authors to see if the rules were followed then. If so, that would prove the oft-held theory.

njc wrote:

No, John Dickson Carr, who also wrote as Carter Dickson.  His best?  Open to taste, of course, but I'd suggest =The Sleeping Sphinx= (Gideon Fell), =The Lost Gallows= (Henri Bencolin), and =She Died a Lady= (Sir Henry Merrivale).

Wikipedia puts him exactly within the Brit/Christie type, having lived in England in his 20's in the '30's. So, yes, probably not something I am interested in. Interested in an updated Chandler, perhaps.  Would also like a notion of what the expert editors and literary agents say sells in U.S. My guess is the "romance suspense" of Robyn Carr - also not something I am interested in.

dagny wrote:

Charles_F_Bell
This strikes me as a masochist's  success. You can get that from Wang Chung here in a "review" that is one-third correct, one-third wrong, and one-third only an opinion. To the ignorant/naive that may look like help.

Charles,
I really didn't see it that way, but as a hint that maybe I should invest in a mystery writing course to see how off base I really am. My ego says the man never read a mystery novel in his life, but my brain tells me that I don't know everything and a little education never hurt anyone. The course I chose is reasonably priced, has a six week duration and will show me what I know and what I don't.

I've gotten really good feed back from this site, Charles. Good editing, good plot advice and reviewers have asked me the tough questions a mystery writer needs to expose holes. I've tried every workshop online and this is the best for getting your work read right away instead of waiting weeks to get your work posted on the main page. So, I'm pretty happy here.

dags

Wandering off the import of my original comment on the topic, opening lines, you have though made an interesting point about entering into a field of genre writing one may not be immediately competent to pursue. My mind is set on writing what I like and liking what I write, but suppose on a lark, let's say I did decide to write a murder mystery, what be the advice I should follow in the first chapter that you might have learned from the referenced site?  For example, I get the sense from reading a few murder mysteries, but mostly having watched movies and TV shows of that genre, the dead body will or will not be introduced quickly within the plot.
Hypothetical first line:
It was a dark and stormy night when Ferd Berfal entered Winterfalls Mansion to find his uncle lying dead in the anteway.
I cannot fathom a logical explanation for rejecting this except to point out that successful murder mystery writer P.D. James does not do that. In fact, she takes a long time before exposing the crime at all. As (an impatient) reader I find that annoying and prefer the Law And Order approach to lay out the crime within the first two minutes. How does an editor draw a line?

If you do not like this example, pick one of your own. Getting past spelling, punctuation, grammar, and basic elements of style, what in particular did you find helpful from the referenced site to write the opening lines of a murder mystery?