5 Museum Thrillers you cannot miss !!

Museums and mystery go hand is hand, like crime and cop. Never does a museum exist without a mystery revolving around it. Every article placed in a museum carries a history with it which makes you go back in time and reciprocate on the life that once was. A life that is beyond one's imagination, especially due to modernisation. For those who love thrillers and mysteries, a museum is a delight. I am someone like that and every city that I visit, I make it a point to visit the famous museums of that city.

My fascination drove me to write my very first novel. Titled as “Columbina”, this book is based set against the most brutal prisons of all times, “Alcatraz”. This prison currently functions as a museum and draws a number of visitors every year. A murder takes place along the shores of this museum. Detective Martin Herd is hired to solve the mystery that would require re-opening the prison’s hidden secret. With just a key found in the corpse’s pocket, Martin has to untangle the chords and find the murderer whose past is buried in the prison walls. 

A number of interesting books have been set against museums. Here is my pick, (Every book mentioned below is in one way or the other connected to “Columbina”.)

The Da Vinci Code: The 2003 bestseller by Dan Brown has every single reason to top the list of museum thrillers. After a murder in the Louvre Museum in Paris, symbologist Robert Langdon and cryptologist Sophie Neveu are summoned to decipher the mystery which in turn pulls them into a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Die.

The Lost Van Gogh: Author A.J. Zerries’s novel revolving around the theft of Vincent Van Gogh’s Portrait of Monsieur Trabuc is a must read. The book is based on a piece of art that gets stolen from a famous museum.

Relic: Set against the popular New York Museum of Natural History, Douglas Preston’s famous novel titled, “Relic” is a thriller that is based on the savage murders of visitors in the museum’s dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human. 

 The Bone Vault: In the Metropolitan Museum of Art's exquisite Temple of Dendur, a controversial new exhibit is fiercely opposed by many among the upper echelon of museum donors. Incidentally, a young museum researcher has been murdered and her body is shipped to the Met in an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. This crime thriller written by Linda Fairstein cannot be missed.

The Murder Room: The 2003 detective novel written by P.D. James is set in the Dupayne Museum on the edge of Hampstead Heath in the London Borough of Camden. The Dupayne Museum is an eclectic collection of English memorabilia from the period between World War I and World War II. The Murder Room of the title refers to a room displaying relics of murders that occurred during these years. A murder in this room leads to the summoning of Commander Dalgleish to investigate.

 Which book are you going to pick up next to place in your book shelf? Anyone from above? Do the above Museum-thrillers excite you? Do you love history and the vicious circle that it is surrounded with? They why not pick up, India’s first ever Double Header Book, “Frozen Summer and Columbina”, written by Geetha Madhuri and Me. 

Character Sketching in a novel

What is the first thing that lingers in your mind after you've completed a novel? The story? The Writer? The Characters?

Which one of the above do you use to relate to the story? I'm sure it is the 'characters' in your story. Well, for me it has always been the characters who live even after the story dies away over a period of time. 

Harry Potter, Hercule Poirot, King Lair, Sherlock Holmes etc are a few of the may characters that live in our hearts even today. Although they were all characters that never lived a human life, all of us know the way they looked, the way they thought and the way they lived. Thanks to the literary geniuses who brought them into our lives through their work of art. 

Now doesn't that sum up why characters form an integral part of every story.

Image source here

Character sketching is something that should given the same importance as the plot of the story does. If your characters are explained well then you should be sure that half of your work is done in having your story leave a lasting impact in the hearts of its readers. This means that you need to spend a lot of time in defining your characters and giving them life. 

Here are a few points that could help you in creating your characters. 

1. Giving your characters a name and identity: It is very important to choose proper names for your characters. When it comes to choosing names, choose ones that are easy to pronounce and unique. Do not use names that are similar for the different characters in your story. Keep each name unique so that the readers are not confused. Give them a proper identity. By identity I mean define their age, gender, nationality and other demographical data.

2. Appearance: Only when you've described the way your characters look i.e their height, the way they dress, the color of their eyes and hair. These factor are important and they make the reader visualize a character and it makes it easier for them to connect with the story.

Image source here

3. Occupation: The occupation is another aspect that should be given to a character. Occupation need not be the most clichéd ones. It can be anything that makes the character real. When you meet a new person the first thing you would want to know is what he/she does. In the same way the reader would want to know what the main protagonist of the story does. 

4. Outward behavior: The behaviour of a character makes a lot of differenc to the story. Many a times you can surround an incident in your story to revolve around the behaviour of your character.

Image source here

5. Deepest thoughts: A reader is a very inquisitive person. A writer should never undermine that. He wants to know how the character feels and what his deepest and innate thoughts might me. So be sure to describe how your character thinks.

6. Define their past: Always create a story around the past events related to your character. When you've decides on a period or timeline for your story, describe how the character was earlier. It is always nice to create a story around the character's past. You need not always go to the time of his birth to describe about his past. 

Always remember that the strength of your story relies on character sketching. Create characters that come alive with your story. They should leave a lasting impact on the readers minds. Your readers should be able to connect with te characters. Make them believable and draw inspirations from the people around you when you create characters. 

What do you think could be added to character sketching? Drop in your inputs in the comments below...