DBB meets ITW: A Thrilling Interview
Gwen asks good questions (no surprise there; she used to be a reporter), and here's one I had especial fun with:
Q: What do you look for when you review a book? Any make-or-break issues?Read the entire interview at http://thrillbegins.com/2016/02/04/an-interview-with-peter-rozovsky-of-detectives-beyond-borders/
A: No make-or-break issues come immediately to mind, though I prefer novels that do not begin with prologues marked “Prologue,” especially if those prologues are about a protagonist recovering consciousness and finding her or himself tied up, unable to move, in a dark room or a damp basement, etc. And especially if the prologue is set in italic type and narrated by a serial killer.
Our discussion is part of a series of interviews with reviewers, critics, publishers, editors, and authors that has so far included Todd Robinson, Janet Hutchings, Carole Barrowman, Benoit Lelievre, and Kristopher Zgorski,
© Peter Rozovsky 2015
Labels: Benoit Lelievre, Carole Barrowman, International Thriller Writers, ITW, Janet Hutchings, Kristopher Zgorski, The Thrill Begins, Todd Robinson
posted by Peter Rozovsky at 4:03 PM
2 Comments:
Peter
I quite enjoy flash forwards at the beginning of books and movies. Fight Club is a case in point.
I like it when narrators say "how did it come to this?" (usually some horrible situation) and then they unpack how it came to this.
I think thats why I enjoy the reality show Banged Up Abroad show so much. It always starts the same way: with some duped naive Westerner in some godawful 3rd world prison and then it takes you through the process of how this came to be.
I realise that a lot of readers/viewers enjoy the suspense and dont like the spoiler aspects of flashforwards but I do. I especially like it when you have an unreliable narrator giving you a flash forward (Fight Club) again.
Prologues I can take or leave.
Sure, but the stakes are high, An author who begins a novel with a "How did things come to this?" prologue had damned well better create a situation so perilous and nightmarish and, above all, singular, that a reader can't help turning the pages.
I suspect you'll remember how much I liked the opening to Fifth Grand. That is as good an example of a prologue that I can remember, though I think you showed the good judgment not to call it "Prologue."
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