Earlier I was talking to Dominique “Queene Mab” D. about crime novels. As part of the Write Here Right Now writing month she’s embarking on her first mystery. As someone who has my own mystery novel in progress, I happened to have a collection of links stored in my email about the genre.

Below you will find my collection of links along with a short blurb about what’s at the site. Here’s hoping you find some of them useful! Happy Writing!

Lisa Gardner’s fabulous articles about writing – Several wonderful articles about writing and with some great tips from crime writer Lisa Gardner. WARNING FILES ARE PDF FORMAT.

Mystery Writing Lessons By Kristi Holl – Seventeen Lessons on writing mysteries. Highly recommended for beginners to the genre!

Crime Scene Writer – Amazingly helpful Yahoo group.

A forum for asking and answering crime scene investigation, applied forensics, and police procedure questions for fiction or non-fiction writers. Writers are invited to ask and crime scene investigators, forensic scientists, and medical practioners are invited to answer. Of course, experienced writers are invited to help the newer ones and each other.

Crime Writers – Yahoo group.

A forum for those interested in writing or currently writing crime fiction. Police procedurals, noir, hard-boiled, etc.

Writing The Cozy Mystery – A nice webpage dedicated to writing cozies.

Mystery Writer’s Ink Tips – This page contains tips, tools of the trade, caveats, real-life experiences, and other “secrets” known by successful mystery authors.

Mystery Genres – All about Locked Room mysteries, Cozy mysteries, Hard-boiled mysteries and Police Procedurals.

Mystery Genre Study – A breakdown of the elements of the varied types of mysteries.

Categories Of Mysteries – A listing of the sub genres of mystery writing.

Writing the Mystery – Another site going a bit more in-depth about the sub genres of the mystery genre.

Plotting The Mystery Novel – A nice site with a formula for a classic 12 chapter mystery outline.

Gillian Roberts Writing Lessons – A lengthy webpage devoted to writing mysteries.

Tips On The Craft Of Mystery Writing – A site offering tips from character development, detail, outlining and agents.

Mystery Writing With Joan Lowery Nixon – A Writer’s Workshop online for writing mysteries. This is a bit  more geared toward a younger writer, but still some good info.

Mystery Writing Lessons From PD James – A short, but helpful list of mystery writing tips from author PD James.

Thundering Cliches – A short list of cliches in mystery writing. This is more geared toward PI types of plots.

Sleuths To Die For Writing Tips – This is the section of the site dedicated to beginning a mystery.

Whodunnit, Howdunnit andWhydunnit: 10 Tips For Writing Your Mystery Novel – Ten short, but useful tips for the mystery writer.

Classic Crime Fiction – The American Police Procedural – A site talking in depth about police procedural mysteries.

Writing Mysteries – A selection of links to articles about writing and researching mysteries.

What Is A Mystery Short Story And How Do You Write One? – An article dedicated to writing mystery short stories.

Mystery Story Checklist – A short list to keep in mind when re-reading and editing your novel/story.