tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/popular-fiction-8161/articlesPopular fiction – The Conversation2021-09-17T10:51:43Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1673242021-09-17T10:51:43Z2021-09-17T10:51:43ZFive of the best new crime novels to read this autumn (and one golden oldie)<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421636/original/file-20210916-15-2ip26t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-in-yellow-long-sleeve-shirt-lying-on-couch-4866043/">Pexels</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the nights draw in and we spend more time indoors, autumn can be a good time to get stuck into the literary world’s latest murder mysteries. And the last few months have seen the publication of major new works by some of the genre’s most respected authors. </p>
<p>So here are half a dozen recommendations that might help to keep you warm – or at least offer the homeliest of chills – on an evening in.</p>
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<img alt="Book cover shows back of person walking over a bridge." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421620/original/file-20210916-21-1gj8htf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421620/original/file-20210916-21-1gj8htf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421620/original/file-20210916-21-1gj8htf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421620/original/file-20210916-21-1gj8htf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421620/original/file-20210916-21-1gj8htf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421620/original/file-20210916-21-1gj8htf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421620/original/file-20210916-21-1gj8htf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1213&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Penguin</span></span>
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<h2><em>London Bridge is Falling Down</em> by Christopher Fowler</h2>
<p>Long trailed as the final outing for <a href="http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/">Christopher Fowler’s</a> duo of decrepit detectives, Arthur Bryant and John May, the <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/144/1443521/bryant---may---london-bridge-is-falling-down/9780857527837.html">20th book</a> in a saga that started in 2004 answers a lot of the series’ unanswered (and unasked) questions. </p>
<p>Fowler has recently hinted that this might not be quite the end for these stalwarts of London’s Peculiar Crimes Unit, whose adventures the series follows from the Blitz to the present day, through an extraordinarily erudite exploration of the mythic geography of the metropolis. Let’s pray there’s a little more life to be drawn out of these enthralling creations of Fowler’s absurdly fertile imagination. </p>
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<img alt="Book cover shows beach scene with birds" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421623/original/file-20210916-27-12h4y4x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421623/original/file-20210916-27-12h4y4x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421623/original/file-20210916-27-12h4y4x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421623/original/file-20210916-27-12h4y4x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421623/original/file-20210916-27-12h4y4x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421623/original/file-20210916-27-12h4y4x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421623/original/file-20210916-27-12h4y4x.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1134&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Penguin</span></span>
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<h2><em>A Line to Kill</em> by Anthony Horowitz</h2>
<p>This <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1117755/a-line-to-kill/9781529124309.html">third novel</a> in Anthony Horowitz’s chronicles of the adventures of private investigator, Daniel Hawthorne, again sees a fictionalised version of the author himself play biographer to the enigmatic consulting detective. He is Watson to Hawthorne’s Holmes, although he likes him rather less: while Hawthorne’s self-assured brilliance enchants others, it constantly infuriates Horowitz himself.</p>
<p>Set on the island of Alderney, Horowitz’s witty and crafty narrative is as evocative of the detachment and claustrophobia of rural isolation as last year’s Moonflower Murders: “The road didn’t seem to go anywhere. In the distance, a hillside rose steeply, blocking anything that might tell me which century I was actually in”. Unputdownable stuff.</p>
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<img alt="Book cover shows bridge with buildings in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421625/original/file-20210916-19-bppzc5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421625/original/file-20210916-19-bppzc5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421625/original/file-20210916-19-bppzc5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421625/original/file-20210916-19-bppzc5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421625/original/file-20210916-19-bppzc5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1195&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421625/original/file-20210916-19-bppzc5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1195&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421625/original/file-20210916-19-bppzc5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1195&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Hachette</span></span>
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<h2><em>1979</em> by Val McDermid</h2>
<p>Late revisions to <a href="https://www.valmcdermid.com/">Val McDermid’s</a> previous novel, published last August, brought us extraordinarily up to date with a Scotland teetering on the verge of the pandemic. By contrast, <a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/val-mcdermid-4/1979/9780751583090/">her latest work</a> harks back to four decades before COVID-19. Her tale of dodgy dealings in 1970s Glasgow, set against a backdrop of familiarly fervent independence controversies, introduces her latest heroine, the bright and determined young reporter Allie Burns. </p>
<p>Burns is a breath of fresh air, from her first appearance on a snowbound train returning to the city from a family Christmas, she is eminently sympathetic, engaging and likeable. And she doesn’t yet bear the baggage of McDermid’s long-running protagonists Carol Jordan and Karen Pirie (at least not to begin with). </p>
<p>McDermid invokes the shoddy, gloomy zeitgeist of the late seventies with her characteristic deftness of touch: “blizzards, strikes, unburied bodies, power cuts, terrorist threats and Showaddywaddy’s Greatest Hits topping the album charts; 1979 was a cascade of catastrophe”.</p>
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<img alt="Book cover shows an illustrated fox" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421629/original/file-20210916-25-tndze2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421629/original/file-20210916-25-tndze2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421629/original/file-20210916-25-tndze2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421629/original/file-20210916-25-tndze2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=922&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421629/original/file-20210916-25-tndze2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421629/original/file-20210916-25-tndze2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421629/original/file-20210916-25-tndze2.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1158&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<h2><em>The Man Who Died Twice</em> by Richard Osman</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/141792/richard-osman.html">Richard Osman’s</a> debut novel, The Thursday Murder Club, was the publishing phenomenon of 2020. That book was both clever and funny, but more importantly it was reassuringly parochial: a conundrum worthy of the golden age of detective fiction, investigated by an emphatically charming group of residents of a retirement community. </p>
<p>Osman’s writing is reminiscent, in its tone and textual economy, of <a href="https://sophiehannah.com/">Sophie Hannah’s</a> splendid reboot of Hercule Poirot (as ingenious as Christie but rather more nuanced and progressive). His <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/315816/the-man-who-died-twice/9780241425428.html">sequel</a>, a tale of stolen diamonds, involving the Mafia, MI5 and multiple murders, all kicked off by “an invitation from a dead man”, has just come out, and will likely send Penguin’s printing presses into overdrive.</p>
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<img alt="Book cover shows young boy walking at night in residential area." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421632/original/file-20210916-21-ce40lu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421632/original/file-20210916-21-ce40lu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421632/original/file-20210916-21-ce40lu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421632/original/file-20210916-21-ce40lu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421632/original/file-20210916-21-ce40lu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421632/original/file-20210916-21-ce40lu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421632/original/file-20210916-21-ce40lu.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Penguin</span></span>
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<h2><em>A Change of Circumstance</em> by Susan Hill</h2>
<p>October sees the publication of the <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1117031/a-change-of-circumstance/9781784742775.html">11th book</a> in <a href="https://www.susanhill.org.uk/">Susan Hill’s</a> series of Simon Serrailler novels. Hill’s elegant provincial cop may be the most rounded of today’s fictional detectives. As with <a href="https://pdjames.co.uk/stories/">P. D. James’s</a> Adam Dalgleish, it seems the author herself is a little enamoured of her dashing but troubled hero – romantically misguided and prone to a perhaps unnecessary degree of listlessness. </p>
<p>As she drags him onto another emotional rollercoaster, her readers surely cannot fail to share that bittersweet attachment. Approaching her 80th birthday in February next year, Hill’s writing has lost none of its immediate relevance and urgency – this time focusing upon the impacts of county lines drug-running networks. Fans of the series will find the prospect of an update on the lives of its central characters absolutely irresistible.</p>
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<img alt="Book cover shows dead bird with metal window bars in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421637/original/file-20210916-21-1aj2t37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/421637/original/file-20210916-21-1aj2t37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421637/original/file-20210916-21-1aj2t37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421637/original/file-20210916-21-1aj2t37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=952&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421637/original/file-20210916-21-1aj2t37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421637/original/file-20210916-21-1aj2t37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/421637/original/file-20210916-21-1aj2t37.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1197&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1008042/birdman/9780553820461.html">Bantam/Penguin</a></span>
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<h2><em>Birdman</em> by Mo Hayder</h2>
<p>In July, British fiction suffered the loss of one its most compelling and commanding voices. If there is to be any consolation from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/aug/02/mo-hayder-obituary-clare-dunkel">Mo Hayder’s</a> death, at the age of 59, then let it be that it might draw a new generation of readers to her work. </p>
<p>The best place to start is her stunning breakthrough novel, the justly celebrated <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1008042/birdman/9780553820461.html">Birdman</a>, published at the turn of the millennium. The opening ordeal for her problematic protagonist, Detective Inspector Jack Caffery, offers readers a gripping ride – one that makes the darkest of Nordic noir look decidedly beige by comparison. Hayder’s work will take you through autumn, to winter and beyond.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167324/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alec Charles does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Criminal reads to warm your autumn nights.Alec Charles, Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of WinchesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1524822021-03-08T19:04:49Z2021-03-08T19:04:49ZMy favourite detective: Martin Hewitt, the cheery yet gritty antidote to Sherlock Holmes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383699/original/file-20210211-17-1w5iweq.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C5%2C1171%2C988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Portrait of Vasily Mathé by Boris Kustodiev (1878-1927). Later used as cover art for a set of Martin Hewitt detective stories. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kustodiyev_Mate.JPG">Wikimedia Commons/Russian Museum</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/my-favourite-detective-95869">this series</a>, writers pay tribute to fictional detectives on the page and on screen.</em> </p>
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<p>Arthur Morrison’s detective <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24778309-martin-hewitt">Martin Hewitt</a> first appeared in <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/47374">The Strand</a> magazine in March 1894. It was four months after Conan Doyle had published <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4702372-the-adventure-of-the-final-problem">The Final Problem</a>, reporting the death of Sherlock Holmes, in the magazine. Hewitt was Morrison’s replacement for, and conscious opposite to, the “great detective”. Hewitt is unassuming, practical, democratic — and admirably realistic.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/95961.Arthur_Morrison">Morrison</a>, also famous for the <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7577357-tales-of-mean-streets?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=UxNQ3cgYGx&rank=2">Tales of Mean Streets</a> (1894) and the novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1252770.A_Child_of_the_Jago?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=YSMY2lf0EJ&rank=2">A Child of the Jago</a> (1896), wrote tough East End realism — drawing on his own place of origin. He objected to the improbabilities of Holmesian detection. Both investigators watch people in detail, but Hewitt never offers the operatic deductions and insights that made Holmes mythically famous: he simply follows up the implications of what he has carefully observed.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-favourite-detective-jules-maigret-the-paris-detective-with-a-pipe-but-no-pretence-150747">My favourite detective: Jules Maigret, the Paris detective with a pipe but no pretence</a>
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<h2>Looking for clues</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383698/original/file-20210211-14-19z4ibo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383698/original/file-20210211-14-19z4ibo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383698/original/file-20210211-14-19z4ibo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383698/original/file-20210211-14-19z4ibo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383698/original/file-20210211-14-19z4ibo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=815&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383698/original/file-20210211-14-19z4ibo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383698/original/file-20210211-14-19z4ibo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383698/original/file-20210211-14-19z4ibo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1024&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Goodreads</span></span>
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<p>Hewitt’s base is humble: his office is up a “dingy staircase” where a “dusty ground-glass upper panel” on its door simply reads “Hewitt”. He does, like Holmes, have a narrator-friend. Named Brett, he is a fairly inactive bachelor lawyer-turned-journalist and the two are simply acquaintances, not in a lord-and-master relationship like Holmes and Watson.</p>
<p>In personal terms Hewitt is unlike the hyper-heroic Holmes, being a “stoutish, clean-shaven man, of middle height, and of a cheerful, round countenance”, with a “cheery, chaffing good nature”. </p>
<p>The major difference between Hewitt and Holmes though is their method of detection: Brett notes Hewitt: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… had always as little of the aspect of the conventional detective as may be imagined. Nobody could appear more cordial or less observant in manner, although there was to be seen a certain sharpness of the eye. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Holmes has both rich historical recall and remarkable, even improbable, powers of deduction. Hewitt possesses “no system beyond a judicious use of ordinary faculties”. While Holmes shows only contempt for the police, Hewitt welcomes their cooperation. The American scholar <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/147253.E_F_Bleiler">E. F. Bleiler</a>, editor of The Best Martin Hewitt Stories (1976), saw Morrison’s detective as “deliberately low-key”.</p>
<p>Hewitt’s background also bestows him with some radically non-Holmesian powers — in one story a grim crime is solved through his ability to speak the Gypsy language. Elsewhere he shows a fluent command of London criminal slang, with explanatory footnotes. But it is Hewitt’s realistic, commonsense method that is the two characters’ main separation.</p>
<p>In one early story a house has seen three thefts of small jewels. Access to the rooms is impossible. In each case a used match is found near the missing object’s location — yet nighttime robbery is also ruled out. Hewitt studies the matches closely, then checks everyone linked to the house. One of them, as he expected, has a parrot. The bird has been trained to fly in through slightly open windows, drop the beak-marked match (held there on command to stop it squawking), and bring a jewel to its cunning owner.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-favourite-detective-kurt-wallander-too-grumpy-to-like-relatable-enough-to-get-under-your-skin-149277">My favourite detective: Kurt Wallander — too grumpy to like, relatable enough to get under your skin</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Taking notice</h2>
<p>Hewitt’s observation can be brisker. In another case a man is distressed by the loss of his plans for a very valuable torpedo. The detective watches as two staff search the office: suddenly a cross man appears, waving his hat and stick, demanding to see the designer. After they send him away, Hewitt settles them all down in the inner office — and produces the missing plans.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383697/original/file-20210211-23-1s6ql5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383697/original/file-20210211-23-1s6ql5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383697/original/file-20210211-23-1s6ql5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383697/original/file-20210211-23-1s6ql5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383697/original/file-20210211-23-1s6ql5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=960&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383697/original/file-20210211-23-1s6ql5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1206&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383697/original/file-20210211-23-1s6ql5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1206&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383697/original/file-20210211-23-1s6ql5o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1206&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.storytel.com/ae/ar/books/1220836-The-Complete-Works-of-Arthur-Morrison-Including-Martin-Hewitt-Detective-Mysteries-Sketches-of-the-Old-London-Slum-Tales-of-the-Supernatural-Illustrated">Storytel</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>He explains he noticed that on arrival the hyperactive man had carefully placed a walking-stick in the umbrella-stand — and taken one away as he hurried off. The remaining stick, Hewitt found, was a metal tube with a wooden cover, and a screw-cap: the plans were rolled up inside. The man had copied and returned them, helped by a young assistant who confesses to the theft.</p>
<p>Hewitt continued his calm observation and meticulous detection for ten years and 24 stories. In later tales he travels more and, like Holmes, becomes involved in espionage matters, but also in interesting crimes based on anarchism, and even hypnotism.</p>
<p>After <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7064899-the-red-triangle?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=qOB5ikjcjl&rank=5">The Red Triangle</a> (1903) there were no more Hewitt-focused narratives. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/my-favourite-detective-why-vera-is-so-much-more-than-a-hat-mac-and-attitude-149530">My favourite detective: why Vera is so much more than a hat, mac and attitude</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Less hero, more detection</h2>
<p>Morrison was a restless and inventive spirit, as well as a realist who could turn his writing skills to varied genres and subjects. Before his Hewitt stories he had published a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35906155-the-shadows-around-us">set of ghost stories</a> (1891), then an illustrated series about animals called <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks15/1500391h.html">Zig-Zags at the Zoo</a> (1892). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383686/original/file-20210211-22-4d3p8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man in black and white photo in living room" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383686/original/file-20210211-22-4d3p8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383686/original/file-20210211-22-4d3p8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383686/original/file-20210211-22-4d3p8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383686/original/file-20210211-22-4d3p8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=841&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383686/original/file-20210211-22-4d3p8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383686/original/file-20210211-22-4d3p8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383686/original/file-20210211-22-4d3p8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1057&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Author Arthur Morrison at home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Picture_of_Arthur_Morrison.jpg">Wikimedia Commons/The Bookman</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Alongside Hewitt, he published The <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2061460.The_Dorrington_Deed_Box?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=BKbcoH093Y&rank=2">Dorrington Deed-Box</a> (1897), six stories about a “respected but deeply corrupt private detective”. Dorrington’s activities are “of a more than questionable sort”, including getting tangled up in murder. In a final development Morrison, who lived till 1945, became an expert on <a href="https://biblio.com.au/the-painters-of-japan-by-morrison-arthur/work/2098671">Japanese art</a>.</p>
<p>Hewitt was the first and sharpest of the many Holmes variations and responses in busy 1890s London, as detective stories really took off. Another notable creation was <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3656023-the-experiences-of-loveday-brooke-lady-detective?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=gZVeUvqKh8&rank=3">Loveday Brooke</a>, the lively female detective produced by Catherine Pirkis in 1894. </p>
<p>Hewitt is a memorable, admirable critique of the pomposity of Sherlock Holmes. The latter’s romantic heroism remains less credible than the observant achievements of Martin Hewitt, Arthur Morrison’s plain-man detective.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152482/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Knight does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Created in response to Sherlock Holmes, detective Martin Hewitt is less operatic and more pragmatic.Stephen Knight, Honorary Research Professor, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/777892017-05-23T20:23:41Z2017-05-23T20:23:41ZPirates of the Caribbean 5: there be some good science in that there film<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169703/original/file-20170517-24330-1kp21no.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3982%2C2670&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The iconic Captain Jack Sparrow in action.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney Enterprises, Inc</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s hard to believe, but it has been more than 13 years since the first <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325980/">Pirates of the Caribbean</a> film set sail on our screens. The fifth instalment, out this week, is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1790809/">Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales</a>.</p>
<p>Like the third film in the series, it opens with a powerful scene showing an emotional father-son reunion following events of the previous films.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169668/original/file-20170517-24325-1swxyfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169668/original/file-20170517-24325-1swxyfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169668/original/file-20170517-24325-1swxyfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169668/original/file-20170517-24325-1swxyfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169668/original/file-20170517-24325-1swxyfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169668/original/file-20170517-24325-1swxyfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169668/original/file-20170517-24325-1swxyfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169668/original/file-20170517-24325-1swxyfr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jack wonders how to unshrink his beloved Black Pearl.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney Enterprises, Inc</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Dead Men Tell No Tales introduces a new nemesis for the iconic Captain Jack Sparrow (played by Johnny Depp), in the Spanish Navy ghost captain Armando (played delightfully evil by Javier Bardem). He’s not the only villain, with Australian actor David Wenham adding to his growing list of villainous roles as well.</p>
<p>Salazar leads a ghost crew intent on eliminating every pirate on the seas. Jack, aided by the feisty astronomer Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario), scrambles to find the magical Trident of Poseidon with which he may defeat Salazar.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/V1FNZRu4U0k?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Official Australian HD Trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="http://pirates.disney.com/">Pirates films</a> have always deftly combined a basis in the “Golden Age of Piracy” with supernatural fantastical themes and regular departures from reality.</p>
<p>In this science review, I’ll examine some of the phenomena shown in the film to see whether the filmmakers have gone for entertainment (always understandable), realism or both. But beware, there be moderate spoilers ahead.</p>
<h2>How ships turn</h2>
<p>Salazar has a good reason to want his revenge on Sparrow. During an encounter in Jack’s youth, he tricked Salazar into following his ship into danger, only to lasso a nearby rock outcrop and execute what on land would be called a <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Bootleg%20Turn">bootleg turn</a>.</p>
<p><img width="100%" src="http://i.imgur.com/CFSrKGy.gif"></p>
<h4>Sneaky Jack Sparrow executes a bootleg turn. (Walt Disney Studios)</h4>
<p>During the bootleg turn, Jack’s ship leans inwards. Water vessels behave very differently during turns, depending on a number of factors, and some will lean inwards during a turn, others outwards.</p>
<p><img width="100%" src="http://i.imgur.com/cYCo41b.gif"></p>
<h4>Executing a bootleg turn in a ship. (123rf.com/rustamank/Daria Yakovleva/blueringmedia/Michael Milford)</h4>
<p>When a ship turns, there is a centrifugal force that appears to act on the ship (red arrow in the animation, above). The only force available to counteract this one is the reaction force from the water the ship is immersed in.</p>
<p><img width="100%" src="http://i.imgur.com/SYtZFV9.gif"></p>
<h4>Tilting inwards or outwards during a turn. (123rf.com/Miro Kovacevic/Michael Milford)</h4>
<p>A ship has a centre of gravity (shown by the black and white circle, above) that stays in the same position relative to the structure of the ship, unless cargo is moved around inside the ship. The centre of gravity is the point where one can consider the gravitational force to act on the ship.</p>
<p>A ship also has a centre of buoyancy (shown by the red and white circle, above) that moves around depending on the tilt of the ship hull. It represents the location of the centre of gravity for the volume of water that the hull displaces.</p>
<p>In the left image, the water reaction force pushes in a line that passes below the centre of gravity. This force is trying to twist the ship hull in an anti-clockwise direction, tilting it to the left. The buoyancy force counteracts this, trying to twist the ship hull back in a clockwise direction.</p>
<p>In the right image, the water reaction force pushes in a line that passes above the centre of gravity. This force is trying to twist the ship hull in a clockwise direction. So the ship has tilted to the right, so that the buoyancy force can counteract it.</p>
<p>This is a bit of a simplification, in part because this is a dynamic process where the centre of buoyancy moves around as the ship tilts.</p>
<p>In Dead Men Tell No Tales, Jack throws a rope out to lasso the rock and turn his ship around. The rope is attached to the ship fairly high up, pulling at the ship most likely above its centre of gravity, and hence tilting the ship towards the rock. So that’s a plus for the science plausibility.</p>
<h2>Robbing the bank</h2>
<p>Jack hatches an audacious plan to hitch horses to a one tonne safe and drag it out of the bank. The plan comes undone when the safe doesn’t budge and the horses drag the entire bank building through town instead.</p>
<p>But can 12 horses pull a one tonne safe along the ground? What about an entire bank building?</p>
<p>I initially thought the one tonne safe was plausible but the building was ridiculous. But horses are incredibly strong, with <a href="http://modernfarmer.com/2015/12/how-much-can-a-horse-pull/">pairs of draft horses pulling up to 50 tonnes</a>.</p>
<p>This video (below) shows two draft horses pulling about 5.4 tonnes. For 12 to pull a building along a street isn’t so far outside the realms of possibility.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hf9yN0TEkjA?wmode=transparent&start=36" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Watch the draft horses pull a mighty weight.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Whirling guillotine</h2>
<p>In possibly the most memorable scene of the film, Jack is just about to be executed by guillotine when a cannonball smashes into it. What follows is the farce of the guillotine blade getting closer and then further away from his neck as the entire guillotine spins in the air.</p>
<p><img width="100%" src="http://i.imgur.com/bMx5Lgj.gif"></p>
<h4>Don’t try this at home kids. (123rf.com/Milosh Kojadinovich/Michael Milford)</h4>
<p>If you’ve ever spun something attached to a string, you know that if you spin it fast enough, the string stays taut.</p>
<p>To avoid the guillotine chopping Jack’s head off, it has to spin fast enough so that the acceleration of the cutting bit outwards at least counteracts the acceleration of gravity. Let’s say the guillotine is four metres tall, which is the radius <em>r</em>. We can work out the time period it takes to do one revolution, <em>T</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>acceleration = 4 × π<sup>2</sup> × r / T<sup>2</sup></p>
<p>T<sup>2</sup> = 4 × π<sup>2</sup> × r / acceleration</p>
<p>T<sup>2</sup> = 4 × π<sup>2</sup> × 4 / 9.81</p>
<p>T = 4.012 seconds</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The guillotine would need to spin in a full circle at least once every four seconds. In the film it appears to be spinning much more quickly so Jack surviving is plausible.</p>
<h2>Longitude by chronometer</h2>
<p>While navigating on the ship, astronomer Carina uses a chronometer, a highly accurate time piece developed over a long time period in the 18th century.</p>
<p>Efficient navigation at sea requires knowing both your latitude and longitude, and the chronometer was one of the critical technological developments in seafaring history. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170334/original/file-20170522-25041-l3jwp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170334/original/file-20170522-25041-l3jwp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170334/original/file-20170522-25041-l3jwp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170334/original/file-20170522-25041-l3jwp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170334/original/file-20170522-25041-l3jwp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170334/original/file-20170522-25041-l3jwp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170334/original/file-20170522-25041-l3jwp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170334/original/file-20170522-25041-l3jwp3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Longitude and latitude.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">123rf.com/lukaves</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Latitude is easy to find, for example by looking at the altitude of the sun at noon (its highest point). Longitude was much harder to find at sea, and required the combination of a knowledge of the stars and the time at a reference location, such as in Greenwich, England.</p>
<p>The chronometer kept time accurately, enabling sailors to navigate much more efficiently and reliably than ever before. The long race to win this technological race is a fantastic story and has been the subject of an award winning book, <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4806.Longitude">Longitude</a> by <a href="http://www.davasobel.com/">Dava Sobel</a>.</p>
<p>It’s quite refreshing to see the film accurately portray some of the aspects of navigating on the open seas hundreds of years ago, a big plus for the science.</p>
<h2>The verdict</h2>
<p>The film itself is a lot of fun, with several moments of genuine pathos which were missing from some of the recent instalments. </p>
<p>Depp, Rush and Bardem are great as always. Kaya Scodelario does well, although she’s hamstrung by scripting at times. </p>
<p>Like all long running film series, it also benefits from the stronger familiarity and emotional investment by the audience in key characters - whether bringing them back or killing them off.</p>
<p>In terms of the action and the science, the film has a surprising amount of both. Much of it is explicit, usually through astronomer Carina, who at various times re-calibrates an astronomical telescope or uses a chronometer to work out their longitude. Other aspects are implicit in the many chases and fight scenes. </p>
<p>Also surprisingly, a lot of the science stacks up reasonably well.</p>
<p>As to the science behind ghost sharks? Well, we already have those in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/animal/chimaera">chimera (also known as ghost sharks)</a>, even if they aren’t quite as snappy as the ones in this new film.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169666/original/file-20170517-24354-cqw6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/169666/original/file-20170517-24354-cqw6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169666/original/file-20170517-24354-cqw6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169666/original/file-20170517-24354-cqw6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169666/original/file-20170517-24354-cqw6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169666/original/file-20170517-24354-cqw6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/169666/original/file-20170517-24354-cqw6f0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=316&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ghost sharks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Disney Enterprises, Inc</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p><em>Acknowledgements: The author thanks <a href="http://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/789">Ross McAree</a>, <a href="http://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/164">Peter Jacobs</a> and <a href="http://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/500">Alexander Klimenko</a> at the University of Queensland for their assistance with some of the theory. Any mistakes are entirely the fault of the author.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/77789/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Milford is a Chief Investigator at the Australian Centre for Robotic Vision, an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Microsoft Research Faculty Fellow and Founding Director of the education startup Math Thrills Pty Ltd. He receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the Queensland Government, Caterpillar Corporation, Mining3, Microsoft, the Asian Office of Aerospace Research and Development and AMP.</span></em></p>Captain Jack Sparrow sails the high seas again in the fifth outing of the Pirates of the Caribbean series. So did the filmmakers get the science right in the action packed adventure?Michael Milford, Associate professor, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/752612017-04-03T11:16:42Z2017-04-03T11:16:42ZWhy you don’t need to write much to be the world’s bestselling author<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163139/original/image-20170329-22789-yi2qf2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When we speak of bestsellers, we’re often referring to books that have sold fewer copies than one might think. By the estimation of award-winning author Donal Ryan, there are times when <a href="http://www.hotpress.com/Donal-Ryan/Bestselling-Irish-Author-Forced-To-Return-To-Day-Job/19563073.html">300 sales might be enough</a> to make a chart topper – the bestseller mantle tends to have more promotional than monetary value. Of course there are the literary blockbusters — titles like Harry Potter and The Da Vinci Code — books that ship hundreds of millions of copies. But combine the sales of JK Rowling and Dan Brown, even throw in John Grisham, and you’re still lagging behind the sales figures of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/apr/05/james-patterson-author-bestseller">the world’s true bestselling author</a> — James Patterson.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/29/business/media/james-patterson-best-selling-crime-novelist-is-starting-an-imprint-for-childrens-books.html?_r=0">According to his publisher</a>, Patterson has written no fewer than 114 New York Times bestsellers. His total bibliography is upwards of 150. He is, without doubt, one of the most prodigious literary figures that the world has ever seen. </p>
<p>Patterson’s success is unusual, in that he isn’t quite a household name; rather, he is a master of the airport novel, an author whose success has largely been achieved as a writer of commuter fiction. Patterson <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/24/magazine/24patterson-t.html">divides opinion</a>: Stephen King describes his work as “terrible”, reviewers have deemed it “subliterate”; yet in 2015 he received the <a href="http://www.nationalbook.org/literarian.html">National Book Foundation’s Literarian Award</a> for his philanthropic efforts in encouraging Americans to read.</p>
<p>Patterson’s prodigious output is accomplished through the use of collaborators: co-authors offered a chance to make their name under the tutelage of the world’s most commercially successful author. He is engagingly <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2012/03/30/james-patterson-explains-his-why-his-books-sell-like-crazy/">transparent about his process</a>: co-authors work from a narrative framework provided by Patterson, who either then re-writes what they come up with or provides notes on bi-weekly drafts. The narrative frameworks he provides emerge from his understanding of the literary market, informed by his years of experience as an advertising executive. He has been described as a <a href="https://hbr.org/product/a/an/505029-PDF-ENG?cm_sp=doi-_-case-_-505029-PDF-ENG&referral=00103">co-publisher</a>, more of a brand than a writer. This is a distinction worth exploring, because it is Patterson’s name that looms largest on his covers. </p>
<h2>Digital detectives</h2>
<p>Using digital methods, if sufficient samples are available, the extent to which someone actively contributes to the actual words of a text can be tested. The field is called <a href="https://journal.r-project.org/archive/2016-1/eder-rybicki-kestemont.pdf">stylometry</a>, and it has been previously used in author attribution studies involving popular figures like <a href="http://dh2016.adho.org/abstracts/70">Harper Lee</a> and <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-a-computer-program-helped-show-jk-rowling-write-a-cuckoos-calling/">JK Rowling</a>.</p>
<p>A colleague and I applied stylometric methods <a href="http://www.digitalhumanities.org/dhq/vol/11/1/000286/000286.html">to the work of Patterson</a> in order to form an impression of how much he contributes to the writing of his books in terms of the actual words used. The results of the study show that, in each of the collaborative novels (we checked all where there was a relevant sample to test against – where the co-author had written individual texts), the dominant style is that of Patterson’s co-authors. This is quantitative evidence that, when collaborating with a junior party, Patterson’s contributions to the literary process are more concerned with plot than style. This isn’t a “gotcha!” moment: Patterson has always given the impression that he’s more about the plot. But it is confirmation that the world’s bestselling author may not principally be a writer.</p>
<p>At a superficial level, this tells us something about Patterson’s practices, how it is that he has managed to sustain such prolific output. But it also challenges notions of authorship — what is the significance of Patterson’s name on a dust-jacket? Is it mainly an endorsement, a valuable moniker which generates sales? Or is he properly seen as an author, just one who is attracted to the possibilities of narrative structure over those of language?</p>
<p>Patterson’s work might contain little to provoke the consideration of literary critics, but his restoration of the novel’s popular traditions — his approach to literary capitalism as both author and corporation, creator and trademark – gives us cause to query our own hierarchies relating to story and expression. After all, the novel’s 18th century beginnings are embedded in commercialism. Critics tend to value style over structure, yet the public are clearly drawn towards the latter. Is plot what makes an author, and style an artist?</p>
<h2>All about story</h2>
<p>The intention here is not to revive the tired debate between “high” and “low” art. Structure is rich in creative potential, and plot was essential to the novel long before movements like high modernism sought to subvert the popular by privileging style. At the same time, the role of the critic, and indeed, the reader, is to appreciate, interpret, and communicate that which is hidden in the nuances of artistic expression. One is unlikely to find an abundance of such nuances in a text that is all plot.</p>
<p>One could point to the film and music industries, where collaboration is the norm, in defence of Patterson’s approach. Most creative practices, certainly those that have been commodified, involve interaction with some form of producer or director. In the literary world, publishers and editors guide a manuscript before turning it into something tangible for dissemination. Patterson might be seen as a literary director, or even a producer, emulating the practices of contemporary ghostwriters or predecessors like Dumas, though this is something of an unfair comparison, considering Patterson’s 19th-century French counterpart was widely suspected of outright plagiarism, described as “<a href="http://www.cadytech.com/dumas/related/fourth_musketeer.php">only a myth</a>”.</p>
<p>Patterson is all about story. He has turned the instruments of late capitalism to the task of commodifying storytelling. He is far from the first author to attempt such a commodification: King, Rowling, Stephenie Meyer and many other popular writers have privileged story over style. But Patterson is a curious figure among his peers, and our research suggests that “author” in its widely accepted sense isn’t always the most appropriate term for his role within the writing process.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75261/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James O'Sullivan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>James Patterson – one of the world’s bestselling authors – may not principally be a writer.James O'Sullivan, Digital Humanities Research Associate, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/570902016-04-01T11:01:26Z2016-04-01T11:01:26ZHow to write a best-selling novel<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117080/original/image-20160401-6780-gm4957.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Picture: nito</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>So you want to write a novel? Of course you do. Everyone wants to write a novel at some stage in their lives. While you’re at it, why not make it a popular bestseller? Who wants to write an unpopular worstseller? Therefore, make it a thriller. It worked for Ian Fleming and Frederick Forsyth …</p>
<p>Every now and then I come across excellent advice for the apprentice writer. There was a fine recent article, for example, in <a href="http://www.thebigthrill.org/">The Big Thrill</a> (the house magazine of International Thriller Writers) on “<a href="http://www.thebigthrill.org/2015/12/craft-fix-lifting-the-middle-of-the-thriller-plot-by-james-scott-bell/">how to lift the saggy middle</a>” of a story. Like baking a cake. And then there is Eden Sharp’s <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/eden1664/the-thriller-formula/">The Thriller Formula</a>, her step-by-step would-be writer’s self-help manual, drawing on both classic books and movies. I felt after reading it that I really ought to be able to put theory into practice (as she does in <a href="https://universalcreativityinc14.wordpress.com/2015/06/22/book-review-the-breaks-by-eden-sharp/">The Breaks</a>).</p>
<p>But then I thought: why not go straight to the source? Just ask a “New York Times No. 1 bestseller” writer how it’s done. So, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-man-with-no-plot-how-i-watched-lee-child-write-a-jack-reacher-novel-51220">as I have recounted here before</a>, I knocked on Lee Child’s door in Manhattan. For the benefit of the lucky Child-virgins who have yet to read the first sentence of his first novel (“I was arrested in Eno’s Diner”), Child, born in Coventry, is the author of the globally huge Jack Reacher series, featuring an XXL ex-army MP drifter vigilante.</p>
<p>It is a golden rule among members of the Magic Circle that, when asked: “How did you do that?”, magicians must do no more than smile mysteriously. Child helpfully twitched aside the curtain and revealed all. Mainly because he wanted to know himself how he did it. He wasn’t quite sure. He only took up writing <a href="http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/Magazine/article1650489.ece">because he got sacked from Granada TV</a>. Now he has completed 20 novels with another one on the way. And has a Renoir and an Andy Warhol on the wall. Windows looking out over Central Park. Grammar school boy done well.</p>
<h2>Cigarettes and coffee</h2>
<p>He swears by large amounts of coffee (up to 30 cups, black, per day) and cigarettes (one pack of Camels, maybe two). Supplemented by an occasional pipe (filled with marijuana). “Your main problem is going to be involuntary inhalation,” he said, as I settled down to watch him write, looking over his shoulder, perched on a psychoanalyst’s couch a couple of yards behind him.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117090/original/image-20160401-6820-1459dry.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117090/original/image-20160401-6820-1459dry.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117090/original/image-20160401-6820-1459dry.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117090/original/image-20160401-6820-1459dry.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117090/original/image-20160401-6820-1459dry.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117090/original/image-20160401-6820-1459dry.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117090/original/image-20160401-6820-1459dry.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lee Child and Andy Martin in NYC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jessica Lehrman</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Which was about one yard away from total insanity for both of us.</p>
<p>Especially given that I stuck around for about the next nine months as he wrote Make Me: from the first word (“Moving”) through to the last (“needle”), with occasional breathers. A bizarre experiment, I guess, a “howdunnit”, although Child did say he would like to do it all again, possibly on the 50th book.</p>
<p>Maybe I shouldn’t be giving this away for free, but, beyond all the caffeine and nicotine, I think there actually is a magic formula. For a long while I thought it could be summed up in two words: sublime confidence. “This is not the first draft”, Child said, right at the outset, striking a Reacher-like note. “It’s the only draft!”</p>
<p>Don’t plan, don’t map it all out in advance, be spontaneous, instinctive. Enjoy the vast emptiness of the blank page. It will fill. Child compares starting a new book to falling off a cliff. You just have to have faith that there will be a soft landing. Child calls this methodology his patented “clueless” approach.</p>
<h2>Look Ma, I’m a writer</h2>
<p>To be fair, not all successful writers work like this. <a href="http://www.ianrankin.net/">Ian Rankin</a>, for one (in his case I relied on conventional channels of communication rather than breaking into his house and staring at him intently for long periods) goes through three or four drafts before he is happy – and makes several pages of notes too. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117078/original/image-20160401-6809-glmqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117078/original/image-20160401-6809-glmqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117078/original/image-20160401-6809-glmqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117078/original/image-20160401-6809-glmqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=421&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117078/original/image-20160401-6809-glmqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117078/original/image-20160401-6809-glmqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117078/original/image-20160401-6809-glmqk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=529&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ian Rankin, creator of Inspector Rebus.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mosman Library</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And yet, with his Rebus series set in Edinburgh, Rankin has produced as many bestsellers as Child. Rebus also demonstrates that your hero does not necessarily have to be 6’5" with biceps the size of Popeye’s. And can be past retiring age too, as per the most recent <a href="http://www.ianrankin.net/book/even-dogs-in-the-wild/">Even Dogs in the Wild</a>.</p>
<p>Child has a few key pointers for the would-be author: “Write the fast stuff slow and the slow stuff fast.” And: “Ask a question you can’t answer.” Rankin also advises: “No digressions, no lengthy and flowery descriptions.” He has a style, and recurrent “tropes”, but no “system”. And Child is similarly sceptical about Elmore Leonard’s “<a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/feb/24/elmore-leonard-rules-for-writers">10 rules of writing</a>”. “‘Never use an adverb’? Never is an adverb!” And what about Leonard’s scorn for starting with the weather? “What if it really is a dark and stormy night? What am I supposed to do, lie?”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117077/original/image-20160401-6816-lkvp5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117077/original/image-20160401-6816-lkvp5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/117077/original/image-20160401-6816-lkvp5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117077/original/image-20160401-6816-lkvp5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117077/original/image-20160401-6816-lkvp5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=810&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117077/original/image-20160401-6816-lkvp5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117077/original/image-20160401-6816-lkvp5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/117077/original/image-20160401-6816-lkvp5y.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1017&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Elmore Leonard at the Peabody Awards.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peabody Awards</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Child never disses other writers. OK, almost never (there is one he wants to challenge to unarmed combat). But he is dismissive of a certain writerly attitude, a self-conscious mentality which he summarises as follows: “Hey, Ma, look – I’m writing!” And here we come close to the secret, the magic potion that if you could bottle it would be worth a fortune in book sales. Do the opposite. If you want to be a writer, the secret is: <em>don’t</em> be a writer. Try and forget you are writing (difficult, I know).</p>
<p>This is why both Child and Rankin speak with such reverence for the narrative “voice”. And why both privilege dialogue. The successful writer is a throwback to a vast, lost, oral tradition, pre-Homer. Another thing, fast-forwarding, they share in common: the default alter ego is rock star. It’s all about the vibe. Everything has to sound good when you read it aloud.</p>
<h2>Art is theft</h2>
<p>But if you seriously want to be a writer, think like a reader. Child explained this to me the other day in relation to his novel, <a href="http://www.leechild.com/books/gone-tomorrow.php">Gone Tomorrow</a>, set in New York, which is now often used to teach creative writing. “I introduce this beautiful mysterious woman. I started out thinking: I want my hero to go to bed with her. And then I thought: hold on, isn’t the reader going to be asking: ‘What if she is … bad?’” A small but crucial tweak: one letter – from bed to bad.</p>
<p>“So!” you might well conclude, “isn’t this bloke like one of those con men who offer to show you how to make a fortune (for a modest outlay) and you think: ‘Well, why don’t you do it then?’” Fair comment. Which is why I am starting a novel right now about an upstart fan who tricks his way into a successful writer’s apartment and steals all his best ideas. I don’t know why, it just came to me in a flash of inspiration. Maybe that, in a word, is the core of all great art: theft.</p>
<hr>
<p><em><a href="https://www.adcticketing.com/whats-on/literary/lee-child-andy-martin.aspx">Andy Martin in conversation with Lee Child</a> is part of the Cambridge Literary Festival on April 14.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57090/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andy Martin is the author of Reacher Said Nothing: Lee Child and the Making of 'Make Me'.</span></em></p>Because everyone’s got a book in them.Andy Martin, Lecturer, Department of French, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/192452014-01-02T19:46:42Z2014-01-02T19:46:42ZOther sides of midnight: what we can learn from Sidney Sheldon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36497/original/h6br93zm-1385691551.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Writers such as Sheldon are easy to knock – if you haven't read them. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">rocketlass</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>I was somewhere in the middle of Howard Jacobson’s 2010 Man Booker Prize winner <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Finkler-Question-A-Novel/dp/B00BV2NCVA">The Finkler Question</a> and finding it uncompelling. (Sorry, Howard.) </p>
<p>I needed a potboiler pick-me-up stat. What better than Sidney Sheldon’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Midnight-Sidney-Sheldon/dp/0446357405">The Other Side of Midnight</a>, published 40 years ago this year, rediscovered on my shelves during the resulting Man Booker dud purge? (Sorry again, Howard.) </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33201/original/84b2872t-1382010480.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33201/original/84b2872t-1382010480.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/33201/original/84b2872t-1382010480.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33201/original/84b2872t-1382010480.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33201/original/84b2872t-1382010480.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33201/original/84b2872t-1382010480.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33201/original/84b2872t-1382010480.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/33201/original/84b2872t-1382010480.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A book worth salvaging.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Luke Devenish</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A Fukishima of a bestseller when it wrecked your nana’s Glomesh way back in 1973, half of Indonesia was felled to satisfy publication demand and no one whinged for a twig of it. It’s time to re-embrace the Sidney love and in the process rediscover just why we all had a man-crush.</p>
<p>It’s like this: Sheldon is a marvellous writer. </p>
<p>The lessons to be learnt from his reader-savvy style are long, provided you’re up for a sex-and-sobs formula that still sets the pulse popping four decades on. Punchy, spare and never, ever florid, not one page is wasted. The plot is constantly, ingeniously, relentlessly furthered from the get go.</p>
<h2>The sex-and-sobs formula that works</h2>
<p>In The Other Side of Midnight, in a nutshell, preternaturally pretty Noelle Page is born on the wrong side of the doona in the piss-poor France of the 1920s and her dad pimps her out for <em>petit sous</em>. </p>
<p>Cue Maginot shocks and the second world war, add Gestapo ghastliness and one Larry Douglas, an Ivy League flying ace, who sweeps shop-soiled Noelle off her malnourished feet and promises to put a ring on it … just as soon as he’s back from a bombing. </p>
<p>He never gets his Act Two. Lovesick Noelle fears he’s fallen foul of Adolf and flies into a tailspin. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36493/original/hp9s3m33-1385689205.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36493/original/hp9s3m33-1385689205.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36493/original/hp9s3m33-1385689205.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36493/original/hp9s3m33-1385689205.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=871&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36493/original/hp9s3m33-1385689205.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36493/original/hp9s3m33-1385689205.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36493/original/hp9s3m33-1385689205.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1095&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sidney Sheldon’s Rage of Angels tore up TV screens in 1983.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">trainman74</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That’s when the gold gets good.</p>
<p>Wandering Jew Israel Katz picks up busted Noelle’s pieces, seeing her for what she <em>really</em> is: a supermodel. Before you can say <a href="http://www.dior.com/couture/en_gb/the-house-of-dior/the-story-of-dior/the-new-look-revolution">Dior’s New Look</a>, she’s turning those deprivation-honed cheekbones into fun and profit. </p>
<p>But can she get Lazza out of her tiny Tyra mind? In a classic Careful What You Wish For, Noelle digs him up again and the news ain’t nice. Larry’s alive and well and living in DC, married to the girl of his dreams.</p>
<p>What follows is <em>the</em> non-Man Booker Prize winning theme of the 70s and 80s: REVENGE.</p>
<p>The sordid scheme conceived by now-nutty Noelle could give the Byzantines a heads-up. To reveal it would be an unfairness; the sheer ingeniousness deserves to be savoured, like a bottle of six-dollar plonk that ought to be retailing for 20.</p>
<h2>Why revisit Sheldon?</h2>
<p>The Other Side of Midnight is very much of its time, yet it’s a time so worth re-visiting. This is a jet-set sort of novel, making you think of doomed 70s love affairs – Taylor and Burton, or Jackie and O. Glamorous, damaged types flit about the globe demanding sycophants and thrills. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36490/original/hdqs3y3h-1385688549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36490/original/hdqs3y3h-1385688549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36490/original/hdqs3y3h-1385688549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36490/original/hdqs3y3h-1385688549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36490/original/hdqs3y3h-1385688549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36490/original/hdqs3y3h-1385688549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/36490/original/hdqs3y3h-1385688549.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">They get relegated to the back shelves of op shops and fetes – but there’s a lot to learn from the humble potboiler.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lewis Walsh</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Noelle’s dizzying descent into vengeance fueled la-la-land is a Renault wreck, yet you won’t look away. There’s one especially shattering, truly shocking chapter somewhere in the middle that I shall not spoil, but needless to say, four decades on, it still kicks like a mule. It’s not that you don’t expect what happens, it’s more that you don’t foresee its extremity. </p>
<p>Writers such as Sheldon are so easy to knock. Anyone can do it – anyone who hasn’t read him. This shits me. The man writes with a showman-like boldness and a populist’s aplomb. There is not one skerrick of ambiguity in any single line. Character and story are pure. </p>
<p>Some people would have you believe that this is a bad thing. Some people don’t entertain squat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19245/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Devenish does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>I was somewhere in the middle of Howard Jacobson’s 2010 Man Booker Prize winner The Finkler Question and finding it uncompelling. (Sorry, Howard.) I needed a potboiler pick-me-up stat. What better than…Luke Devenish, Lecturer in Film and Television, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.