Critique Partner Mystery Novel

Critique partners are worth their weight in gold. So (checking financial page) like $20,000 a pound.
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nikki12
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Joined: January 8th, 2020, 11:57 am
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Critique Partner Mystery Novel

Post by nikki12 » January 8th, 2020, 12:57 pm

Hello,

I am looking for a critique partner for my mystery WIP.

The basic premise is - When hurricane Harvey hits Texas, absent-minded single mother Ria takes refuge at her friend's house and becomes a suspect in the friend's husband's murder.

The genres I usually read - Psychological suspense, mystery, thriller, women's fiction, some romance.
I wouldn't be the best person to provide feedback on Fantasy or Sci-Fi.

Cheers!

SusanA
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Joined: February 24th, 2020, 10:03 pm
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Re: Critique Partner Mystery Novel

Post by SusanA » February 24th, 2020, 10:08 pm

I too have a mystery/police procedural. It's set in Austin, Texas and is about 90,000 words. My one sentence is not very good, but for what it's worth here it is.
To The Core:
Someone is murdering people in Austin and it’s Det Callie Fuentes and partner Dorian Yates’ job to find the killer. Problem is Callie falls hard for a suspect. He might be the killer, but she can’t resist him. A cat and mouse game for sure .Question is who’s the mouse.

I have my MFA in writing and think I am in the final throes of revision. I'm seeking a critique partner who is in a similar situation.

EMWolff
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Joined: March 31st, 2020, 4:12 pm
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Re: Critique Partner Mystery Novel

Post by EMWolff » April 1st, 2020, 8:05 pm

Hi, Susan and Nikki. I lived in San Antonio for 25 years and Austin for 5, so know your settings pretty well (my brother lived in Houston for 10 and I spent a lot of time there as well). I’m a former alt-weekly editor and have read and commented on many styles. I’ve got a 65,000-word political thriller set in a city much like SA (I don’t think it’s finished - it’s probably an 80,000 word novel but I need feedback at this point). Happy to work with either or both of you. My synopsis:

Ida Harrington is the charismatic mayor of a major American city and the daughter of the its most infamous political boss, Frank Harrington. She’s played it safe her first term - jobs, sidewalks, tough on crime - but with an easy reelection on the horizon she has more controversial game in her sights: kneecapping the lobbyists and expanding the non-discrimination law to include LGBTQ citizens. Ida’s plans are rolling out like a red carpet to the future when her loudest critic turns up dead steps away from her marquee project, a makeover of the city’s long-neglected museum.

Now a patrol cop is MIA in the same neighborhood as the victim, and the investigations are playing into the hands of Ida’s opponent, an ambitious inheritor who’s more than happy to dredge up the sins of her father, a ruthless, self-made charmer who never let a funding shortage or a few bodies hold him up. While Ida and her cutthroat chief of staff are wrestling with her public enemies, a crew of rogue police and hungry bloggers are muddling their way into the ugly past. And Frank? He’s still willing to bury a problem, even if it’s his own kid.

Featuring a motley cast of movers and shakedown artists, Clarksville is a scandalously entertaining ride through local power and politics.

Bruce_S
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Joined: August 7th, 2020, 11:34 pm
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Re: Critique Partner Mystery Novel

Post by Bruce_S » August 7th, 2020, 11:56 pm

I’m looking for a critique partner for my 90k word crime novel/psychological thriller. I sent it to agents but was rejected and I’m wide open to critiques to improve it. My criteria for critiquing your book is your protagonist and storyline have to engage me.

Storyline:
Journalist JuShon investigates the death of a young woman found dressed in an ancient Roman gown, lying in the redwood forest above Oakland. Meanwhile, a former high tech executive stalks a woman who does expressive dance to jazz on a stripper’s pole. As the first body becomes two then three, JuShon finds she is being investigated in return.
Opening:
To reach the body before the crime scene techs threw a tent over it, JuShon ran through the gloom, dancing between dark the potholes and erosion ditches that pocked the hard clay trail. Rounding a bend, she stopped short—a policeman lit by the orange glow of his cigarette, stood at the entrance to the forest path up the mountainside. A young couple sat on a stump near the cop, arms wrapped around each other, hunched over like mushrooms in the moonlight. She couldn't distinguish words, but heard the boy's choked fearful tone, and girl's soothing response. Witnesses.
JuShon checked the gps Video-Bob had sent her. Due west, up the slope. She grabbed branches and pulled herself up, and with her phone on dim, side-stroked through intertwined oak and thorny nettle. V-Bob had promised her the body was “ultimate cool, blow-out news.”
Bright spotlights twinkled through the brush, and she clawed her way to the edge of an illuminated teardrop shaped clearing of grass and brush. A policewoman unrolled yellow crime tape, tying it to trees, while two techs walked a grid pattern, eyes on the ground. Two more knelt, working on something hidden behind bright yellow flowering scotch broom—the body.

If interested, please respond.

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