When readers cannot trust what they are reading

[John Dean]

I recently taught a creative writing course part of which focused on the unreliable narrator, a character who tells a story that the reader cannot take at face value.

It can be a good technique to use and one I employed when writing The Vixen’s Scream, one of the DCI Jack Harris crime novels, in which the reader is privy to the thoughts of a serial killer but soon comes to doubt what they are being told.

The technique has been used for many centuries but only became known as the ‘unreliable narrator’ in the 1960s.

Sometimes, the narrator is unreliable by the nature of the character, such terrible people that they cannot tell their stories objectively and resort instead to lies and deceit.

There is another type of unreliable narrator. This narrator is unreliable due to having incomplete or incorrect information, although initially neither the narrator nor the readers is aware of this.

Or the unreliable narrator may simply be deluded, suffering perhaps from an illness which clouds judgement (dementia is becoming a popular theme for many writers and one I used in one of the DCI Blizzard novels, The Secrets Man).

All are terrific techniques but there are dangers. For a start, readers do not always understand that a narrator is unreliable.

To counter that, the unreliability of the narrator can be gradually revealed. It is important to plant clues along the way.

How can a writer do this? There are a number of ways, including showing the reactions of other characters, thereby telling the reader that all is not as it seems.

Although usually, the unreliability of the narrator is gradually revealed, some writers opt for a revelation at the end which shocks the reader.

The Vixen’s Scream is available in ebook, paperback and audio book at

https://www.amazon.co.uk/VIXENS-SCREAM-captivating-featuring-Detect...

The Secrets Man is available in ebook and paperback at https://www.amazon.co.uk/SECRETS-MAN-gripping-murder-mystery-ebook/...