Preconceptions

Whenever someone hears that I have a new novel coming out, the natural first question is “What’s it about?” For Reunion at Red Paint Bay I say it’s the story of a newspaper editor in Maine and his family who are engaged in a full-scale psychological battle with a stalker without even knowing it. Is it a mystery, a thriller, a suspense novel? Labels like this are tricky because they set up certain expectations in the reader’s mind. A standard mystery requires a crime, a prime suspect or two, a dogged detective and a definitive outcome. A thriller requires, well, thrills. A suspense novel has as its main goal keeping the reader on edge, worried about the fate of the main character. Reunion at Red Paint Bay has elements of each genre but is clearly not any of them. I’d prefer, in fact, that someone pick up my novel with no more preconception than that it is a good read.