Writing notes on ‘Playing Nice’

Writers usually have something to teach other writers who read their work.

This morning I finished reading a gripping, well-written psychological thriller. Playing Nice by JP Delaney is compulsive reading. I am pretty sure I couldn’t come up with a plot as complex and compelling as this.

On the cover it says, ‘What if your child was really theirs?’ Turn the book over and you read , ‘Pete Riley answers the door one morning to a parent’s worst nightmare. On his doorstep is Miles Lambert, who breaks the devastating news that Pete’s two-year-old, Theo, isn’t Pete’s real son — their babies got mixed up at birth.’

From page one the writer grips the reader. There’s no let-up until the very end.

I looked the author up online, and found that JP is already a well-established author, who writes different kinds of books under different names.

Here’s something I read on PJ’s website that I want to keep reminding myself:

‘My relationship with the reader is always fundamentally the same. I never forget that I’m inviting them to come with me on a journey, and that as their host and guide it’s my duty to enthral them.’

My thoughts: I find it fascinating that fiction is stuff that’s made up, and yet it often exposes deep truths about being human.