Why Kill the Innocent Review

C.S. Harris has presented us with another thrilling installment of the Sebastian St. Cyr series. Since 2005, we have traveled with Sebastian and Hero through the west end of London, the seedier alleyways of the city, and even the countryside of Regency England. The characters are well-drawn, the descriptions transport us, and the plotlines keep us guessing. In the very best way!

My goal today, though, is to address an aspect of the writer's craft that Harris does very well.

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One pratfall inherent in writing a mystery series is the tendency to restate a character or setting description in exactly the same way, using the same words even if a different order. This may not matter very much when your novels are spaced out over a time frame of two years or more.

It will be obvious, however, when your readers come to the series three or four books in and decide to binge-read in quick succession, like eating a whole bag of potato chips in one sitting. In that case, book two is separated from book one by a matter of days, or perhaps hours. They'll notice.

So how do we come up with fresh description?. The reader needs to be reminded of setting, perhaps, but it needs to be different. I wanted to provide you with two examples from Harris's novels, but I can't.

Because she does it so well.

Instead of describing Sebastian's dark hair and feral yellow eyes on the first page of the newest release, she deliberately and skillfully weaves the description through the narrative. In Why Kill the Innocent, she didn't tell me he has feral eyes until the second third of the book, because that's where it fit the narrative.

Readers of a series form a mental picture of the characters with the first book. By book 13, I can picture Sebastian clearly. She doesn't need to tell me he has feral eyes until his ability to see in the dark is relevant to the story.

As writers, we want to think of our writing as art. It is. But it is also skill, and skill must be practiced, studied, and sought after. What are you doing to improve your craft?