Book versus Phone
My debut novel is a young adult murder mystery set in Co. Cork, written specifically to address one of the biggest challenges facing reading culture today: the dramatic fall-off in young readers. On the surface, this book is a fast-paced, humorous whodunnit. At its heart, is an attempt to put a book back in the hands of those teenagers (mine included!) who have put books down.
I could see it every day – a screen killing my daughters’ capacity to sit with just words on a page. Her losing the attention span required to follow a novel, to hold characters in her mind across chapters, to feel tension build over pages rather than seconds.
When stacks of unread teen books became a nuisance around my house, I knew I needed to have a conversation with my daughter about her tendency to read chapter one (and maybe chapter two) and to then walk away, phone in hand, never to return to the book again.
Why was that?
Her answer:
‘Because it’s boring, the characters aren’t very interesting and the stories are just not exciting. Oh, and they don’t make me laugh.’
Murder, Great for My Social Skills
I delved deeper, asking what her idea of the perfect book would be.
‘A murder mystery that’s funny and happens somewhere like here, where we live. And the chapters must be short,’ was her reply.
‘Ok,’ I said, ‘I’ll try to write a book especially for you.’
Murder, Great for My Social Skills is the result.
The story is centred around 14-year-old Caroline Kenny and her family. If Caroline wants her Revolut card topped up, then she must help her mother with their car boot sale stall once a month. A task also meant to improve Caroline’s poor social skills. She despises everything about this – the weather, the customers, the risk of being spotted by her peers, and the weird customer who might be following her. When a dead body turns up at the car boot sale, Caroline is thrust into the middle of a real-life murder case.
She must suppress her antsy attitude and join forces with her brothers, along with her friends, to unravel a series of clues and solve the case. Hiding stolen evidence, deceiving the police, navigating the alien world of Facebook and racing through the countryside, the group of friends close in on the answers.
With its fast pace and lovable teen characters, this murder mystery hits different. It is full of action and will treat you to both laugh-out-loud and edge-of-your-seat moments, keeping the reader guessing and glued to the page.
Competing with TikTok
Attempting to write a book that was going to have to compete with TikTok was daunting, to say the least, but it was a reality that I couldn’t ignore. Teenagers today are accustomed to content that moves fast, sounds natural, and holds their attention without asking them to wait. Murder, Great for My Social Skills had to be built around those same rhythms: short, punchy chapters, dialogue-driven scenes, voices of real teenagers, comic timing, and a plot that never lets up. Long descriptive passages were not going to cut it.
Not that a single novel can undo the pull of TikTok, but the right story at the right moment can remind a young person of what it feels like to be gripped, to be desperate to know what happens next, to choose pages over a screen. If my novel can hook one reluctant reader, it might just open a door that stays open.
A Dollop of Romance
And while it is, first and foremost, a murder mystery, my friend, who is a principal of an all-girls secondary school, insisted that it wouldn’t be complete without a dollop of teen romance; and she was right! Who doesn’t love an old bit of teen romance?
So, what started as a way to encourage my daughter to read, snowballed into a much bigger project. Once I had started writing, I couldn’t stop. I finished the book, she enjoyed reading it and I thought, maybe others would like to read it too. Interested in their suggestions, I gave it to nieces and nephews and the reviews were very encouraging.
With a big leap of faith, I self-published the book in March of this year and, so far, feedback from teenagers and parents alike has been fantastic. Parents (and grandparents!) are enjoying the book as much as the young ones! They are enjoying a setting they recognise, characters who sound like their friends, and good old-fashioned Irish family dynamics, that we can all relate to.
Although I don’t have a formal background in writing, I have caught the writing bug, and a follow up book, Murder, Great for My Holiday Fund, is well underway. I set aside one hour a day for my writing (and sanity) and that has worked well for me. In everyday real life, I’m a regular Mom who loves reading and who dearly wants to pass that gift on to my daughter. I run a machinery sales business in Donoughmore, Co Cork with my husband and twenty-one year old son.
(c) Claire Hartnett
https://www.clairehartnett.com
About Murder, Great for My Social Skills:
If 14-year-old Caroline wants her Revolut card topped up, then she must help her mother with their car boot sale stall once a month. A task also meant to improve her poor social skills. She despises everything about this – the weather, the customers, the risk of being spotted by her peers, and the weird customer who might be following her. When a dead body turns up at the car boot sale, Caroline is thrust into the middle of a real-life murder case. She must suppress her antsy attitude and join forces with her brothers, along with her friends, to unravel a series of clues and solve the case. Hiding stolen evidence, deceiving the police, navigating the alien world of Facebook and racing through the countryside, the group of friends close in on the answers.
With its fast pace and lovable teen characters, this murder mystery hits different. It is full of action and will treat you to both laugh-out-loud and edge-of-your-seat moments, keeping the reader guessing and glued to the page.
Order your copy online here.
And read more Writing & Me articles on Writing.ie here.
