The more pedantic amongst you will be thinking that there are a lot of things in this world that my book is not.
It's not a ten-tonne turkey in a top hat, for instance, or a Mayan temple, or a philosophical treaty on the nature of cat hair, and how it gets literally everywhere.
At least this guy thinks that was funny, right?
But if we narrow it down to books, specifically of the Mystery genre, let's talk about what The Problem With Dead People isn't.
Well, it isn't fluffy.
Unlike these guys
Don't panic, I'm not back to talking about cat hair.
I mean how a lot of mysteries are very light in terms of danger.
Which is great, don't get me wrong. I appreciate a light and fluffy mystery when I'm in the mood for one, but the personal problems of the characters in The Problem With Dead People are more serious than whether the amateur sleuth's bakery business gets the cookies on the counter on time, or whether the hunky detective will finally ask her on a date, then you won't find any of that here.
In The Problem With Dead People, there are death threats that won't be ignored, confessions gone wrong, and a love rival that might just be unhinged enough to do some crazy things to get Clara's attention.
That's not to say there's anything thriller-worthy going on that'll keep you up at night, though.
There's no deranged serial killers kidnapping children or chopping people up or any of that kind of thing, and the gore level is very light as I'm pretty squeamish and my head goes all swimmy just thinking about blood.
It's somewhere in the middle - around the Agatha Christie and Midsomer Murders level of mystery - that'll keep your lights on well past bedtime, but not because of what might be lurking in the shadows.
Hey, I guess that's two things!
What's next?
Well, despite the ghosts, it's not a ghost story, or anything close to horror (see above note re: squeamishness).
In fact, it's not creepy at all.
No, but it really isn't. Honest.
As I said in the previous post, the ghosty element is really just a way of getting information to Lucas.
The information isn't always complete or accurate, of course, but that's a different matter.
In fact, the ghosts aren't very important to the story at all - at least, not because they're ghosts.
I could have just had them as living people, but it's much more fun to make Lucas appear to talk to himself.
Sorry, Lucas.
Okay, so it's not spooky, despite having ghosts in it. What else isn't this book?
Hmm...
It isn't totally serious. It's not strictly a comedy either, but there's the occasional one-liner in there to tickle your funny bone.
It's also not a book that gives my amateur sleuths an easy ride. They're not super intelligent Poirot or Sherlock types, or even with any special skills beyond a little lockpicking. They're average people working average jobs, trying to work out how to solve murders to Lucas isn't haunted forever.
Which I guess is pretty un-average.
Oh, and that reminds me - it's not a "glamorous" book. Lucas and co are not members of the upper classes. They all work hard for their livings, watch the pennies, travel by public transport rather than a chauffered Rolls, mend their clothes, and so on and so forth.
There's no privilage for my lot, because I wanted to write what "normal" people would have been doing in the 1920s, not just those born with a silver spoon in their mouth.
Of course, this means I've mostly done myself out of being able to talk about the beautiful fashions of the era, to they might have to make good at some point so I can dress Clara in pretty frocks
Okay, to in summary, The Problem With Dead People is a non-fluffly, non-thriller, non-spooky paranormal mystery with non-posh amateur sleuths muddling along because they aren't hyper-intelligent detectives.
If you're in a more positive frame of mind and want to find out what it is, though, head on over to the previous post.
Or, even better, go grab a copy now and give it a read :)
I'll catch you tomorrow, when I've got a character profile of my main man Lucas to share with you.
See you then!
Love, Saff xx
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