Myth and Ritual in Women's Detective Fiction

Rating:
Summary: Student
Review: Hi:
I was happy to see that people love this book. I am a student of Christne Jackson, and the way she writes is also the way she teaches. She draws you into her world of reading and writting and at the same time gives you some hope that you too can bring out the best in you.

I am glade to know this wonderful writer and person in life and I hope that people who will read this book will come to enjoy it as one of their favorites.
Mo
From Florida.

Rating:
Summary: Great tool for novelists
Review: I purchased and read her book, and have found it a springboard for creative thought about myth -- that invisible thread that holds a story together and leaves traces in the reader's mind, long after the details of the plot are forgotten. For those who are using myth intuitively, her book will pump up the imagination. For those whose stories do not have a mythical dimension, her book is a must read.

Chris Jackson does not just theorize. She takes her examples from the classic and bestseller lists: Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Sue Grafton, Barbara Parker, Patricia Cornwell, Lisa Scottoline, Nancy Cohen and many others. She shows how the stick-to-the-ribs qualities of stories from these authors derive from artistic understanding of things such as mythic time, magic and transformation, search for identity and rites of passage.

And more amazing still, most of the great examples of myth were worked out by the ancient Greeks. It is interesting to learn that what is propelling our best mystery stories today comes from themes that were perfected around campfires during ancient centuries.