by Susan Hammerman

In 2023, I was delighted to get approval from the board to launch SinC’s quarterly Reading Like a Writer Book Club, with the goal of exploring how crime fiction novels are crafted. Through curated readers’ guides and panel discussions with established crime fiction authors, members dissected book club picks, focusing on the authors’ narrative choices, such as story openings, the placement of clues, and the choice of tense or point of view. This approach helped SinC members to deepen their understanding of writing techniques, enabling them to make more deliberate, effective choices in their own work. The book club wasn’t only for writers. It also welcomed readers, offering an up-close look at the tricks crime fiction authors used to make their novels so twisty and propulsive. The inaugural book club selection was The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, in which Agatha Christie’s use of first-person narration is essential to the structure of the mystery. The Reading Like a Writer Book Club is still going strong and fits in well with SinC’s commitment to professional development and learning. 

About Susan Hammerman:

Susan Hammerman, a former rare book librarian, writes crime and neo-noir short stories. Her stories have appeared in Mystery Magazine, Dark City Mystery Magazine, Blood and Bourbon, Suspense Magazine, Retreats From Oblivion, Mondays are Murder, and the Stories (Within) anthology. She has served on the SinC National Board, and has been a member of Sisters in Crime since 2015.

Website: https://www.susanhammerman.com/

For More on the History of SinC: https://www.sistersincrime.org/page/history