MYSTERY LEADS MID-MONTH MONDAYS FROM SHANNON MUIR’S THE PULP AND MYSTERY SHELF put the magnifying glass the second Monday of each month on classic detective and crime fiction.

Shannon will take the time to talk about her own personal discoveries as she looks back at the masters and lesser known writers of the past and how it can inform us as writers and readers today.

This month’s column focuses on why Shannon decided to create the feature.

Hello, and welcome to this introduction to a new feature, MYSTERY LEADS MID-MONTH MONDAYS. The idea of MYSTERY LEADS began as kind of a book club for the site, where a topic would be suggested each month inspired by the types of titles featured on the site.

However, I soon found this to be limiting, as it didn’t encourage going back and reading backlist or classic titles.

Additionally, I took an online class in Mystery and Detective Fiction at Los Medanos College last fall and found myself excited and inspired learning more about classic authors and their works.

As a result of that, MYSTERY LEADS will be a once a month focus, the second Monday of the month (hence the catchy “mid-month Mondays” to help folks remember), to talk about those that have come before to inspire what mystery and crime writers do today. It will be driven a lot by my own personal adventures as I discover more of classic mystery and crime fiction, but I hope to evolve the related Facebook book club as an avenue for people to discuss classic mystery fiction together.

Come back this time next month when the feature officially kicks off.

Until then, keep following those mystery leads!

Best,

Shannon