Neil Nyren
A legend in mystery world
The 2025 Thriller Legend. The former EVP, associate publisher, and editor in chief of G.P. Putnam’s Sons and the winner of the 2017 Ellery Queen Award from the Mystery Writers of America. He’s edited most of the mystery writers you’ve probably read. Curators of Crime had the chance to interview Neil for his perspective and experiences in publishing some of our favorite mysteries.
You are still active in publishing, with regular columns in THE THIRD DEGREE, BOOK TRIB, THE BIG THRILL and CRIME READS. What type of mystery ‘news’ piques your interest?
In some ways, those are some of my favorite pieces, because they’re all about debut authors. Every month, I pick a new debut, read it, interview the author, and then write a feature piece about both which appears in BOOKTRIB first, and then THE BIG THRILL. They’re the closest to my heart because I know how much they mean to the authors. After all the blood, sweat, and tears they’ve poured into their book – and sometimes their path to publication has been really rocky – they get to celebrate their accomplishment, to talk about where the book came from, how it evolved, what they learned along the way. It’s great!
I also serve on one of the major first-novel award panels, and between the pieces and the panel, I get to read pretty much every debut, and I’ll tell you what’s most inspiring about it, besides the fact that so many of the authors have had to overcome significant odds to get to this point. I find that there are always lots of interesting and capable new writers coming down the pike – but there are also a handful of books that are so blazingly good that you look at them and say: Where did you come from? How did you learn to write like that? And that’s every year. That’s why I never worry about what we all do here in crime and suspense – the talent just keeps on coming.
The other pieces you mention in your question are different, but also satisfying. The CRIMEREADS pieces are deep dives into the life and work of classic authors – and by “classic,” I mean anybody I like. Hey, it’s my column! And the pieces in the MWA’s THE THIRD DEGREE give me the chance to write about whatever aspects of writing and publishing catch my interest, and tell a few stories about what goes on behind the scenes.
You also regularly participate on panels at crime fiction conventions and conferences. What are the kinds of questions you get that you enjoy answering and what are the ones that make you cringe?
As with the pieces in THE THRI, I enjoy discussing what really happens in publishing – the myths and the truths. The more informed people are, the more they can understand how it works. Publishing can seem like a Berlin Wall sometimes, and people don’t know how to get over or under or through it, but really the industry’s no monolith. Most of the people working in it are just decent, hard-working folks who love good books and love sharing them with whomever they can get to read them. I do have a few pieces of advice, though, and for that, we’ll go to the next question.
The publishing industry has changed in the last decade. What changes would you say are most important/most worrying? Would you say writing itself has changed—if so, how?
First of all, don’t write to trends. By the time you’ve written the book and managed to get it sold and it’s finally published – that trend may well have disappeared, except for some top-drawer talent that made the trend happen in the first place. Write your book.
Second, ignore all the noise that can accompany publishing. What’s hot? What’s not? Who just got a big deal? What publisher is cutting back? It’s all just a distraction, and you have no control over it. What you can control is your work. Write the best book you can. And then – do it again.
Third, never forget why you wanted to write a book in the first place: this story with these characters. Before any agent or publisher entered the scene, it was just you and your computer (or lined yellow pad!). Remember the joy of it. That’s what’ll get you through the tougher times.
“Publishing can seem like a Berlin Wall sometimes, and people don’t know how to get over or under or through it, but really the industry’s no monolith.”
“I never worry about what we all do here in crime and suspense – the talent just keeps on coming.”
Craft can be studied and learned—is that enough, or is something more needed? What writing mistakes have you found most prevalent?
Craft is extremely important, and it’ll get you a long way – but inspiration is what separates the competent books from those that are transcendent. Can inspiration be taught? I have no idea! We can’t all be Barishnikovs! But we can become damn good at our trade. So what I always like to advise people is this: First of all, if you want to be a writer, you must write. Sit yourself down in your chair every day and turn out some pages – I don’t care how many pages, as long as you’re disciplining yourself. But besides that, you must not only write, but read. Read everything. Read the people you like and the people you never heard of. Read the genres you’re partial to and those you never dreamed of trying. Read it all. See what works. Figure out why it works. Then bring it all together to create your very own style.
HOW TO WRITE A MYSTERY has become something of a bible for writers. In your chapter, the opener, “The Rules and When to Break Them,” you mention cross-genre books. They are still a hard sell. Have series like The Thursday Murder Club made editors and agents more likely to give them a chance?
I think cross-genre is really pretty great, and I’m seeing a lot of interest in it. Crime/horror, crime/SF, crime/romance. Serial killer novels, told through the eyes of vengeful women out to adjust the scales of justice, one asshole at a time. Historical crime fiction – 1880s Washington State, 1870s Paris, 1890s England, 1950s San Francisco, 1940s Washington, DC – told through the lens of queer fiction. My BookTrib piece for August is a novel called The Once and Future Me by Melissa Pace. A woman wakes up in a transport bus in 1954 taking her to a psychiatric hospital. Is she a paranoid schizophrenic, as everyone says she is? Or are her vision flashes of a disease-decimated world and herself being sent back in time to erase the source of the disease the true reality? I can guarantee you, you’ll stay through every page. And, yes, The Thursday Murder Club and its sequels have opened up the doors to books that once seemed like cozy territory, but are now full-fledged crime and suspense plots that Jessica Fletcher never dreamed of.
As ‘Curators of Crime’ we like mysteries that explore themes about art – either art crimes or the passions art can inspire, or even the artist as the investigator or the murderer. In your long career as editor, you must have edited some mysteries about art or the art world. What are your favorites and why?
My favorites have to be several books I did with Daniel Silva, featuring his art restorer and sometime spy Gabriel Allon. Why? Because it’s Gabriel Allon, and Silva’s a hell of a writer! I mean, c’mon. I also did a couple of books with an art-gallery owner named Clarissa Watson, whose artist/amateur sleuth kept managing to get into trouble. There weren’t many of them, but the Washington Post loved her “bright, witty commentary on the world of private galleries and artistic fads,” and no less than Olivia de Havilland proclaimed she could “hardly wait to read the next one”!
Also among my personal favorite art mysteries, anything with Iain Pears’ art expert Jonathan Argyll, and Ngaio Marsh’s Artists in Crime, wherein Marsh’s redoubtable Inspector Roderick Allyn meets his match – and future wife – in artist Agatha Troy.
I’m sure writers ask for advice from you all the time, and for your entire career. What advice would you offer to each of these types of writers:
Unpublished or debut authors
Mid-list authors looking to grow their audience
Long term writers of established series
As far as advice goes, you can see some of the above for much of it. For long-term writers of established series, though, the key point – and, believe me, they all know it already – is to keep their books fresh. Never leave the reader wondering, “Didn’t I read this one already?” Keep moving forward – add new complications to your hero’s life and work. Refresh the cast of characters. Vary the crimes. Throw your hero into unfamiliar circumstances, and force him to dig himself out. Don’t do anything that we’d regard as a betrayal of our trust – don’t make your hero or heroine do something that we know they’d never do. We’ll never forgive you. Never make it seem like you’re just going through the motions now – the staleness will waft off the pages. If you’re still interested in your characters, it’ll shine through.
Do you still do any editing, for any of your former authors that you can share?
Yup, I still edit two – and just two – of my longtime authors: John Sandford – whom I had the pleasure of introducing at this year’s Edgars as one of the two new Grand Masters – and C. J. Box (as far as I’m concerned, a future Grand Master).They’re both a joy to work with, we know each other’s minds; I couldn’t ask for better partners in crime.
You had a leading role in the publishing industry and still have a leading role in the mystery community, which is why you are being honored as this year’s “Thrillerfest Legend.” How do you feel about getting the award and where do you see your next chapter going?
I’m very honored to get the Thriller Legend award – it’s certainly nothing I ever imagined coming my way! But I’ve spent most of my life with crime and suspense fiction, first as a fan, then as an editor, and then a publisher, and now as a writer about crime and suspense. It has given me countless hours of joy. It has let me meet many of my heroes, and even work with some of them. I’ve been a lucky guy. None of that will change. The next chapter? I’ll keep doing what I’m doing now – and I’ll never go through the motions. No staleness wafting off the pages here!
“I’ve spent most of my life with crime and suspense fiction, first as a fan, then as an editor, and then a publisher, and now as a writer about crime and suspense. ”