Earlier this week I shared my list of 14 Murder Motives. Now, I’d like to share a popular list of 8 Basic Plots  for books, movies, and other tales. There’s been a lot of discussion over exactly how many plots there are, ranging from just 1 to over 40, but this is the list I like best. What books and movies can you think of that fit into each category? 

PLOT 1 - CINDERELLA

The protagonist’s true potential for happiness and fulfilment is at last realised after many ups and downs.

PLOT 2 - ACHILLES

The fatal flaw of the main character.

PLOT 3 - FAUST

The debt that must be repaid when fate finally catches up with you, as Faust did when making a deal with the devil.

PLOT 4 - TRISTAN

The eternal triangle.

PLOT 5 - CIRCE

The spider and the fly.

PLOT 6 - ROMEO AND JULIET

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy finds girl again (put these in any order you like).

PLOT 7 - ORPHEUS

The gift that is taken away.

PLOT 8 - THE INDOMITABLE HERO

The hero takes on all comers.

I’d like to share with you my list of Murder Motives!

Motives for Murder:
(love, lust, lucre, and loathing)

• To keep a secret
• Revenge
• Frustration/hate
• Money/Greed
• Sex/Jealousy
• Property Dispute
• Personal Vendetta
• Political
• Class Conflict
• Narcotics
• Other Felonies
• Urge to Protect

I highly recommend that you check out Melanie Thorne’s new book, HAND ME DOWN, available for pre-order now!

People Magazine gave HAND ME DOWN 3.5/4 stars, and Publisher’s Weekly described it as “an intriguing first outing by a talented new writer.” HAND ME DOWN is about a series of family betrayals that propels fourteen-year-old Liz Reid across California and Utah on a dark journey of broken promises and dangerous secrets as she searches for a safe home for herself and her sister. Author Pam Houston says, “Hand Me Down is a compelling, intelligently contemporized version of a traditional coming of age story,” and I can personally vouch for it being sad, strong, evocative as hell, and all together terrific.

You can pre-order HAND ME DOWN here!

Melanie won the Maurice Prize in Fiction at UC Davis, an award that I created and named after my father. She’ll be joining me for a book signing at Book Passage in Corte Madera on Tuesday, April 24th- I hope that you can make it!

I hope you get a laugh out of this video of my tapdancing skills! My dance “partner” in this video is Joan Hansen, founder and guru of Men of Mystery. This year’s Men of Mystery conference, on November 17, will feature me and James Rollins. Check out the event information here!

Does Taylor Kitsch look like Wyatt Hunt to you?

Last month, I held a poll to see who you thought would be the best Abe Glitsky. Now I want to know who you would cast as Wyatt Hunt! My vote is for Taylor Kitsch, but what do you think?

So now answer in the comments below-

Who would you cast as Wyatt Hunt?

I’ll gather together my top picks from your comments on this blog post, and we’ll have a poll to discover once and for all- what does Wyatt look like?

Last week I held a poll to see who you think looks most like your idea of Abe. From your participation in the poll, Danny Glover came out on top!

There were a lot of other suggestions from fans about their own personal picks, which I very much enjoyed reading! Just a few of the many suggestions…

• Ray Campbell
• Morgan Freeman
• Dennis Haysbert
• Eriq LaSalle
• Tony Todd

I’d like to throw my hat into the ring for Delroy Lindo!

Thanks everyone for participating! I really enjoyed reading your responses!

Stay tuned for future polls, contests, and book give-aways…

You can get “the lowdown” on my most recent book, THE HUNTER, by reading Robert Carraher’s review:

John Lescroart is officially credited with writing two series (actually four) of legal and crime fiction. Dismas Hardy and Abe Glitsky. But in the world of the reader,what he has really done is write crime and legal novels that tell wonderful stories featuring San Francisco as a setting and have many of the same characters. Sometimes those characters are just background characters and some times they are the main protagonist or a minor protagonist from one book to the next. It’s like a chronicle of a group of acquaintances and friends over a lifetime.

Read the rest over here!

Who would you cast as Abe Glitsky? I compiled some of the most suggested actors from previous comments into the poll below- cast your vote, or leave another option in the comments below!

Danny Glover	Robert Gossett
Samuel L Jackson	Terrence Howard

 

Will we see more of Dismas Hardy in the future?

I’ve received this question a lot recently, and would like to let you all know that the answer is YES!

The book I’m writing now – as yet untitled – is a Hardy/Glitsky courtroom drama, in the vein of The 13^th Juror or A Plague of Secrets.

I really enjoyed this photo from Twitter user j0hnnymac of his “collection”:

Do you have a Lescroart-nook on your bookshelf? I’d love to hear about it!

You can follow me on Twitter and send more fan photos here!