Welcome to the Club, Murderers...

Rule #1 Kill or be killed!

True confession: I have always wanted to be in a club like this. But rather than wait to find one or for one to find me I thought I’d set out to create it myself. Even if it is just a club with one member, myself, it will be worth it!

Our goal is always to kill’em with great stories of mystery and suspense. Were they to be alive today I would hope the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Agatha Christie would not only be members but would serve as co-presidents! Hopefully, that will help you to understand the kind of club this will be and already is.

For starters, we are all writers, or at least, readers of a specific genre of story; mystery and thriller.

It’s no all about blood and gore and violence. It takes much more skill and deference to details in order to weave a tale that will keep the reader guessing till the last sentence. I, myself, do not possess such a skill but with your help and through the books we’ll read and analyze along the way, I’m sure we’ll improve exponentially.

I’ll kick things off my recommending a book for us all to read. I’ll try to make sure the books are free in the public domain and therefore easy to find, but in the future I want us to expand to newer material. Perhaps short stories as well and not just novels.

Whenever possible I’ll host Watch Party’s for movies that we can watch together within the genres we are talking about. The Alfred Hitchcock Hour comes to mind as a possibility as well as other things.

But first, before I get all carried away, I want to thank you for opting-in to receive these emails. If you can introduce yourself in the comments and let us know a little bit about yourself, what you enjoy about murder, and what you hope to learn/do while a member of the club?

I’ll check periodically for new members and when I see a considerable number of newbies I will send another welcome email similar to this one. If you know of anyone who would enjoy to be a member of such a club (writer or reader) please do pass this email along to them and they can sign-up below:

Just remind them to OPT-IN to The Murder Pen Club or they won’t get any of these secret emails!

THE ASSIGNMENT

In the meantime, we will be starting by reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles. As murders go, it’s a doozy. Written by the Queen of Mystery herself, Dame Agatha Christie, it’s reported as being her first novel featuring the famed detective Hercule Poirot. It’s a great way to start us off in this club and I look forward to conversing with you on the reading every Thursday.

Mark your calendars for June 28th when we’ll have a Watch Party to see The Mysterious Affair at Styles together! Starring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot.