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Articles about Nite Owl Books
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Killer murder tales - Writer uses flavors of Arizona to spice up whodunit mysteriesby Barbara YostThe Arizona Republic Wednesday, August 18,1999 |
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Science has changed the 150-year old art of mystery writing.
Edgar Allan Poe, grandfather of the crime story, never had to contend with such notions as DNA testing when he laid out the plot of his seminal work, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, in 1843.
Even fingerprinting had yet to be identified as a tool for solving crimes when Poe became known for the element of detection in his macabre tales.
Today's writer, Valley mystery author Sylvia Nobel says, has to be a master not only of literature but also of technology. When a fellow author proposed a plot involving suspects burned beyond recognition in a car, she had to point out that even the tiniest bit of human remains can now be gleaned for DNA.
Writer, Nobel says, must keep abreast of such scientific advances or risk looking, well, clueless.
"Crime writing is tougher now than it was even 20 years ago," she says.
If that makes mystery writing seem like a challenging genre to execute, Nobel comes to the rescue. At 2 p.m. Sunday, she will be at Changing Hands Bookstore, 6428 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, to share her thoughts on detective fiction.
Her presentation is "The Timeless Fascination of 'The Whodunit': Exploring the Components of the Mystery Novel." It covers the elements that make for a good mystery. She also will sign her latest book, The Devil's Cradle.
Fans of the suspense novel are legion, Nobel says from her vacation lair in San Luis Obispo, Calif., where she is relaxing before returning to the Valley to finish her fourth novel.
"People are fascinated by the unknown, tantalized by unanswered questions," she says. "Most people live according to the rules. There is a fascination for those who defy convention."
Convention is exactly what makes a good murder mystery work, she says. Certain rules must be obeyed lest the writer be accused of not playing fair with the reader.
All clues to solving the crime must be revealed. Readers can be misdirected but not misled. Red herrings are included for fun, to throw the reader off the scent. Language sets the tone and creates ambience.
We are aware that we are in a battle of wits the reader from beginning to end." Nobel says. "It's the only genre that involves reader participation."
Before beginning to write, Nobel plots the beginning and end of her story. The middle, she says, remains a mystery. Unexpected characters might pop up.
In Devil's Cradle, she brings back her popular heroine, a feisty, redheaded newspaper reporter, Kendall O'Dell, news hound for the Castle Valley Sun. Since writing her first mystery novel, Nobel has received more than 500 fan letters, all positive, she says.
Nobel is a native of Pennsylvania whose family moved to Cave Creek when she was 15. She sets her stories in locations around Arizona. In Devil's Cradle, which takes place in a town based on Wickenburg, reporter O'Dell and a young acquaintance travel to an even smaller town, which Nobel has based on the Arizona community of Gleason, population seven.
In the book, she boosts the population to about 200 and renames the mining town Morgan's Folly.
Scrupulous research takes the bulk of Nobel's work on a novel. For Devil's Cradle, she made eight trips to Bisbee to explore the atmosphere of a mining community, venturing down into a mine, and studied the ambience of Wickenburg.
Although some authors might find such preliminary work tedious, Nobel prides herself on patience and says, "I love the research."
Most of her plots come from the media, ripped from the headlines of daily newspapers.
"Then I 'what-if' it into a story," she says.
Nobel takes her own advice to keep current on scientific technology by becoming involved in such organizations as Sisters in Crime, a group for writers and readers of mysteries, and Mystery Writers of America.
Her first mystery, Deadly Sanctuary, has been bouncing around Hollywood since Nobel hired a screenwriter to turn the book into a script. It has reportedly caught the attention of such starts as Tom Selleck, Sharon Stone and Jamie Lee Curtis.
Who would make a good Kendall O'Dell?
Nobel imagines Sandra Bullock or redheaded actress Nicole Kidman.
Unlike Kidman's current film, the racy Eyes Wide Shut, Deadly Sanctuary would contain no graphic sex or violence. Nobel intentionally aims her books at a broad audience from teens to senior citizens who can enjoy the stories together, which she said she believes could prove to be a film marketer's dream.
Nobel says she is charting "new old territory" with plots that challenge the mind and leave much to the imagination.
She call O'Dell "a grown-up Nancy Drew," one of her girlhood idols.
Nobel, who says she began writing short stories when she was 7, worked in public relations and marketing for several years before launching her literary career in 1988 with a romance novel, Scent of Jasmine. That book has now sold well not only in English but also in Danish, Hebrew and French translations.
Next year, she plans to finish a book, Nighthorse
Pass, which takes place in a border town based on Ruby and involves
illegal immigrants crossing into Arizona from Mexico. It's another
thriller ripped from today's headlines.
Foothills Book Review - AZ Book Publishing Assoc. voted "Deadly Sanctuary" Best Mystery of 1999
by Cheryl Duncan-DudgeonFoothills Sentinel
July 21 - July 27, 1999
Sylvia Nobel, author of "Deadly Sanctuary" is one of those rare and gifted authors that writes with the natural intrigue, mystery, romance and flare of her predecessors at the turn of the century.
Her mystery novels are written with a tremendous amount of research lending a true sense of authenticity to the situations. The reader is so caught up in the moment that it is truly hard to put the book down as you continually remain on the edge of your seat.
Nobel moved to Cave Creek, Arizona with her family at the age of 15. "A lot of the information that is used in my books is drawn from early memories of living in Cave Creek," she said. "I love the rugged terrain of this state and it lends the perfect background for my novels."
"Deadly Sanctuary" is based on the town of Wickenburg as Nobel introduces us to her main character, Kendall O'Dell. She is a feisty, redheaded reporter that moves to Arizona from back east to start a new life. She has accepted a job as an investigative reporter for a small town newspaper even though she has never done this type of reporting.
O'Dell is soon put on an undercover assignment by the publisher to find out why another reporter mysteriously vanished while working on a story involving the deaths of two teenage girls.
How is the sheriff who is the publisher's brother-in-law involved? Was the death of a local rancher's wife really an accident? Why is the private mental institution that takes in runaway girls such a mystery to the locals? How is it that the new director of this institution just happened to show up one week after the previous director was killed in a hit and run?
Here is what some are saying about "Deadly Sanctuary".
"Ms. Nobel has given us a different spin on the modern Western; a lively romance with a mystery element credibly linking small town Arizona and its ranching communities with metropolitan Phoenix," said Barbara Peters, Owner of the Poisoned Pen Book Store in Scottsdale.
"This is one wild adventure! Lively characters, a fast-moving and engrossing tale. The main character, Kendall O'Dell is a welcome addition to the list of women sleuths - Kinsey Milhone, Deborah Knott and Carlotta Carlyle," said Georgia A. Staton, Attorney.
"A remarkable blend of creepy psycho-thriller and good old who-dun-it," said Thomas N. Thomas, MD, BCFE, Clinical and Forensic Psychiatrist.
"Deadly Sanctuary" is Nobel's 2nd novel and the 1st book in her "mystery series" introducing Kendall O'Dell. Her 2nd book in the series is already available in print and is called "Devil's Cradle" which is set near Bisbee, Arizona.
"Devil's Cradle" is also destined to be a hit as indicated by Jean Teller, Book Review Editor of Grit Magazine, "It's rare that a book captures my attention so quickly and as completely as did the 'Devil's Cradle'. It will take all your will power to put this one down before you've turned the last page. And, be prepared for all you guesses at whodunit to be flying out the window by the tale's end."
Nobel's books are available at most bookstores in
the area. She is also available to organizations to present her lively
"The Timeless Fascination of the Whodunit" which is a
discussion on the unique construction of this popular genre.
Top Shelf - Dark Moon Crossing
by Maureen Jones-RyanToday's Arizona Woman
June 2002
Beyond a mystery, Sylvia Nobel's latest page-turner opens our eyes to the pathetic desperation of illegal border crossers and the pathological, twisted course of White chauvinism, nationalism and racism. Shocking to the most mundaine, the reader will respond to media reports of border tensions with new insight and terror.
It's been over two months since our favorite journalist-cum-sleuth, Kendall O'Dell, had her last adrenaline fix, which may account for her headlong rush into the dangerous mystery of what became of her co-worker's family who vanished without a trace while being smuggled into Arizona from Mexico. In the otherworldly moonscape along the Arizona-Mexico border, Kendall encounters the dark depths of quintessential fear, the bedrock of courage and her love for Tally, which transcends both.
Sylvia Nobel, known for the exactitude of her
research, richness of character development, and spirited dialogue, does
not let us down in her most compelling novel yet, Dark Moon Crossing.
Top Shelf - Arizona Author
by Maureen Jones-RyanToday's Arizona Woman
June 2002
The name Nobel suits Sylvia to a tee. Not unlike her spirited heroine in her three mystery novels, Deadly Sanctuary, The Devil's Cradle and Dark Moon Crossing, Sylvia exudes nobility, integrity and a quiet self-confidence. Her slight build and gentle manner belie what her red hair understands: This gal knows her own mind, and, what is more important to readers, she knows how to write one heck of a mystery novel.
A Valley resident from the time she was 15, Sylvia writes her love of Arizona and the desert into her novels. Her impeccable research, evident throughout her work, enlightens and astounds the reader with insights into all manner of minutia that clearly speak to her vast intellectual curiosity.
Arizona can be proud to claim this author as our
own.
Arts & Entertainment
by Carolyn DryerThe Glendale Star
July 2007
Sylvia Nobel is at it again with her fourth book in the Kendall O'Dell mystery series. "Seeds of Vengeance," set for an October release, finds the feisty flame-haired reporter once again thrust into a perilous situation after the grisly remains of a prominent judge are discovered at a secluded Arizona guest ranch.
Nobel's unique writing style has found wide appeal among readers, young and old. The lively characters, crisp dialogue and colorful descriptions of Arizona will involve and mesmerize the reader from the beginning and hold them spellbound until the stunning final conclusion. The first chapters of Nobel's previously published works can be viewed on the Nite Owl Web site: "Deadly Sanctuary," "The Devil's Cradle," "Dark Moon Crossing" and "Chasing Rayna."
In "Chasing Rayna," readers who have lived in Arizona for any length of time find themselves traveling along familiar trails and highways, imagining hills and mountains they've climbed on their own adventures.
Born in Uniontown, Pa., Nobel learned to read by age 4, and began writing short stories by the time she was 7. When she was 15, she and her family relocated to Cave Creek, Ariz. After the first sweltering summer, she had doubts about her new home, but now passionately loves this rugged western state, which serves as the setting for each of her five novels.
Her first novel, a romance entitled, "A Scent of Jasmine," was published in April 1997 by Kensington Publishing of New York (Zebra Books) and more than 100,000 copies have been sold to date nationwide and overseas. Copies have been printed in Danish, Hebrew and French.
But Ms. Nobel's first love is the mystery genre and she is elated with the success of her Kendall O'Dell mystery novels.
Nobel is a sought-after speaker at bookstores, libraries, fund-raisers, clubs and other organizations.
Nobel is a member of Mystery Writers of America. To arrange for book signings or speaking engagements, contact Becky at Nite Owl Books (www.niteowlbooks.com). Phone (602)840-0132 or email niteowlbooks@cox.net.