Voices In the Coalbin by Mary Higgins Clark - How authors write a story?
This article is about Voices in the Coalbin by Mary Higgins Clark. I have read and enjoyed some of her books as well as her short stories. She is an excellent writer of suspense. If you are interested in learning how to write suspense stories, you will benefit from reading her books and short stories such as the one we are going to discuss: Voices in the Coalbin.
Voices in the Coalbin
This story is found in the anthology titled The Best of Sisters in Crime edited by Marilyn Wallace. The author started out by mentioning the time of day. She said, "It was dark when they arrived. Mike steered the car off the dirt road down the long driveway and stopped in front of the cottage. The real estate agent had promised to have the heat turned up and the lights on. She obviously didn't believe in wasting electricity." (137) The beginning also revealed the character, Mike, and what he was doing. He was going to a cottage in the country. After that, the author described the outside of the cottage. Then, he climbed out of the car to stretch his legs because he had been driving for several hours.
Mike and Laurie, his wife, drove from New York to Oshbee Lake, which was forty miles from Milwaukee. They were going to spend some time in his grandmother's cabin. Since she passed away, the cabin was up for sale, but he was allowed to take her there for a vacation.
Flashback and Other Clues
The author used flashback by describing what happened four months ago. This was done so that readers would know something about the couple and why they needed to take a vacation. The author revealed that Laurie had been having nightmares that have caused her to be extremely depressed. She had been seeing a psychiatrist about her depression. The doctor felt like it would be good for Laurie and Mike to take a vacation to his grandmother's cottage by the lake.
Suspense starts to build when the psychiatrist warned Mike to be careful and keep an eye on Laurie since the cottage was by a lake. He wasn't sure what Laurie would do since she was depressed. (This is also a clue that something might happen to Laurie.)
After they entered the cottage, it wasn't like Mike had expected. The furniture and the cottage had not been taken care of like he thought. Things were wearing out and smelled musty. He almost wished he had gone to a motel. He asked Laurie if she wanted to go to a motel or stay. Laurie wanted to stay.
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