by Matthew Marine
We are delighted to welcome suspense novelist Matthew Marine to Omnimystery News today.
Matt's debut mystery is Devil's Moon (Open Books Press, June 2012 trade paperback and ebook formats), set in his home state of Arizona.
Matt has written extensively about Arizona, contributing articles to Arizona Highways magazine and creating the outdoor/adventure website Experience Arizona. But he really wanted to combine his love for the state with a suspense novel. Setting is important to Matt, and is the subject of his post.
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The damp and murky alleys of London in the late 1800s. An expansive mansion in Beverly Hills. Or the barren landscape of the eleventh planet orbiting the twin suns of the Esdnar system. Setting. Every book has to have one. It can range from playing an insignificant role to being a major character. The question is: what function do you want the setting to have in your story?
Photo provided courtesy of
Matthew Marine; Matt is seen here with Cammie.
If you choose to have your setting play a minor part, then develop your characters and plotline keeping setting descriptions to a minimum. End of discussion.
If you're still reading, you probably wish to have the setting play a larger role in your novel. Settings can have their own set of character traits. They can be moody, angry, mysterious or quirky — as though it were another character. Think about the Mississippi River in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Or the town of Trenton, New Jersey in Janet Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum" series. The settings in these books are major characters in the story.
When I wrote Devil's Moon, I decided that I wanted the setting, Sedona, Arizona, to play a major role in the story. Sedona is one of my favorite places in Arizona, if not the world. The formations of red rock are amazingly beautiful, bordering on spiritual. It was this spectacular beauty that attracted me to use Sedona as my setting. I wanted to make a sharp contrast between Sedona's charm and the killer's ugliness. That something so beautiful could harbor such evil. I also wanted to use the rural setting that Sedona offers, giving rise to the intrinsic distrust between small town residents and outsiders. Exploring the inner and seedier side of human nature while the outside environment is pure and innocent intrigued me.
If you want to make your setting a key contributor to your story, here are some ideas you should to consider:
• Ensure your setting matches the intent of the story. If your story is light-hearted and funny, the setting should play to this. If your story is grim, the setting you choose should convey that mood. A dark mystery may work better in cloudy, rainy Seattle than a bright and happy California beach. Unless, of course you want to contrast these as I did in Devil's Moon.
• Make your setting a main character of your story. Ever read a story in which you can feel the place breathe? It not only drives plot, it seems to have a life of its own. A good example of this is the "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling. The school of Hogwarts was a character in her story. She made the castle move, trees had personalities and the paintings could interact with the characters. Some of you may think this is going a little too far, but you get the idea. Make your setting interact with your characters. Drive the plot line. Don't leave the protagonist to be the lone challenge to your hero. If the setting is well developed, it can test your main characters in unique and different ways. Maybe your novel takes place in Florida as a hurricane draws near. Not only has your hero been having to deal with the protagonist, but the weather has been thwarting his progress at every step. In the end, your hero must battle both the protagonist and the hurricane. You can also take it up a level. The setting can actually be the protagonist in the story. Think about survival stories, like Jack London's Call of the Wild.
• With the above being a good rule of thumb, be careful not to make your setting too cliché. How many mysteries have you read involving a New York City detective, working late nights in the gloomy streets of the Big Apple? Yes, this works for a reason, but maybe you can pick a new setting, which readers can come to know. One of the great things about reading new books is discovering times and places you have yet to experience. Again, think about the "Stephanie Plum" series. How many people knew (or cared) about Trenton before her books came out? Now, she's got a huge fan base with readers who are intimately familiar with Trenton and The Burg.
• Your book can have multiple settings, times and places. I remember reading Robert Ludlum as he took me on a worldwide tour. After reading The Bourne Identity the first time, I felt as though he was my personal travel assistant for Europe. James Rollins currently does this better than anyone I know. But your setting doesn't have to be grand in scale. How about Stephen King's novel Misery? Almost the entire book takes place inside Annie Wilkes' home.
• Write what you know — or better yet, create a setting that readers will fall in love with. For many of us, our settings are places we know well: a hometown we grew up in, where we currently live, or places we visit often. There's good reason for this. We know these places, local atmosphere, mood, culture and quirks. And this comes through when reading a book with a setting the author knows intimately. This level of personal knowledge can be difficult to extract from Wikipedia. That's not to say it isn't possible. I once read an interview with an author who had written a story in which the setting was a small town in the swamps and bayous of Louisiana. He received a glowing recommendation from someone who had lived there and was surprised that the author had never even visited the place. It can be done.
• And finally, setting is more than just a time and place. It's also about the atmosphere, mood and culture. Think of what makes your setting unique to your story. How many thousands of books have been written using New York as the backdrop to the story? Find one feature or distinct aspect of New York to make your story interesting and unique.
As you write the next New York Times Bestseller, develop your setting the same way you develop major characters. Give the setting a personality and have it interact with your characters. Your (and your readers) won't be disappointed. The bottom line: memorable books have memorable settings.
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Matthew Marine is an Arizona author who not only writes about the evils of rural Arizona, but also loves to experience Arizona through his popular outdoor adventure website, Experience Arizona. Matthew began his writing career as a contributing writer for Arizona Highways magazine spinning tales about his outdoor adventures. When his young daughters caught the Irish dancing bug, he authored a monthly humor column for Irish Dance magazine called Feis Dad. Now he concentrates on trying to combine his love of Arizona and writing into the perfect mystery. You can find out more about Matthew and Devil's Moon at MattMarine.com.
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Devil's Moon
Matthew Marine
Publisher: Open Books Press
Some small town secrets are best left alone.
Sedona, Arizona: A young woman is found mutilated in a police officer's basement, his confession scrawled on the wall above his lifeless body. The local police rule the case a murder-suicide, but the dead officer's sister isn't convinced. She persuades rundown FBI Agent Stuart Ransom to conduct an off-the-books investigation.
With her help, Ransom realizes that the police appear to be hiding the truth behind the gruesome murder. Now he must question everything — from the case to his own beliefs — before his past becomes the killer's next target.
