Is a murder being investigated? Some puzzling event? What is the problem that needs to be resolved? Perhaps your detective discovers that the problem is completely opposite what he thought it was.

I have an agent

Bravo, Gud! I'm so pleased for you!

thoughts?

A red herring is traditional.

A blue turbot could be unique.

What is your B plot? Like the detective is solving a mystery, but also has to deal with her BFF being unlawfully evicted, and she has to step in and finds something out about the Bff's landlord. Something which saves the friend AND maybe sheds light on the main mystery.

yeah, there's a murder, and my narrator's nephews kind of look good for it, but they're not.(The killer is in the family, though...) there's also a houseful of musicians planning a tribute concert(dead guy is a record producer)...maybe some weirdness could show up there, or with the tape my singer narrator is trying to find

Someone doesn't want the concert to go on, because they despised the producer, and that person becomes a suspect but isn't really.

Congratulations Gud!

What Scrappy said about a B plot, erika. Have something going on in the detective's personal life concurrently, even if you have to go back and add it in. Since most mysteries or crime novels are part of a series, it will provide an establishing point for the character outside of the job, and then you develop it in each book.

Link to which this is a rebuttal: [link]

Ah, another holier-than-thou person who turns up his nose at a genre. Time columnist Joel Stein writes that “The only thing more embarrassing than catching a guy on the plane looking at pornography on his computer is seeing a guy on the plane reading “The Hunger Games.” Or a Twilight book. Or Harry Potter. The only time I’m O.K. with an adult holding a children’s book is if he’s moving his mouth as he reads.”

Oh, dear. By these standards, I, and millions of adult readers of young adult fiction, clearly must be quasi-illiterate socially-impaired persons clearly not able to either (A) move past adolescence and/or (B) unable to parse the sophisticated language used in “adult” books, and therefore are incapable of understanding all of them there books for grown-ups. I am covered in shame. SHAME, I tell you!

Actually, I am not. I am laughing my overeducated head off. This article has be a sad cry for attention, right? He admits he’s never read “The Hunger Games,” and as he mentioned the Harry Potter books, I wonder if he has read them either.

Mr. Stein, I’ll let you in on a little secret: to criticize a book or, indeed, an entire genre of books, one must ACTUALLY read them. Otherwise, you operate from a place of ignorance, and dare I say it – it makes you look…well, not so smart.

Mr. Stein: “I have no idea what “The Hunger Games” is like. Maybe there are complicated shades of good and evil in each character. Maybe there are Pynchonesque turns of phrase. Maybe it delves into issues of identity, self-justification and anomie that would make David Foster Wallace proud. I don’t know because it’s a book for kids. I’ll read “The Hunger Games” when I finish the previous 3,000 years of fiction written for adults.”

Ooh, you read PYNCHON! And David Foster Wallace! You must be ever so much smarter than YA readers. By the way, I’m sorry that you are such a slow reader. (Also? There are millions of “adult” books out there, not three thousand.) Personally, I prefer to judge a book on its merits after I have performed the revolutionary and logical act of reading the book for myself and formulating my own opinion. YA, just like any genre, contains books that are truly awful – and like “adult” books, some books that are amazingly well-written, sophisticated in their themes, tropes, plotting, characterizations and prose, and are altogether amazing examples of literature, regardless of the demographic to which they are marketed.

It makes me sad, as an inveterate reader, that you have cut yourself off from many excellent novels because of prejudice. And, it might be said, sexism. Let me analyze your previously quoted statement (bolding is mine): “The only thing more embarrassing than catching a guy on the plane looking at pornography on his computer is seeing a guy on the plane reading “The Hunger Games.” Or a Twilight book. Or Harry Potter. The only time I’m O.K. with an adult holding a children’s book is if he’s moving his mouth as he reads.”

Your intimation is that adult readers are mostly women, and that readers of YA fiction forego the brawny, gritty, excellent-prose strewn world of “adult” books for easy, dumbed-down YA fiction. It draws a parallel between an adult reading YA to a person watching porn – it’s just that embarrassing to read The Hunger Games or the Harry Potter books in…*gasp* PUBLIC.

For the record, I am a proud reader of YA literature. And adult literature. And any other damned type of literature I want to read because it looks like a good story. You stated “I’ll read “The Hunger Games” when I finish the previous 3,000 years of fiction written for adults.” I’m not “too busy” reading these books; I’ve read most of them, loved many and thought other were complete tripe. And I’m not an outlier.

A little background, since there’s plenty of oh-so-amusing background on you, sir. I read up to twenty books a week — of all genres. I taught (continued...)