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| From The Times April 21, 2008 Serial Thriller Dickens would be delighted with the return of the serialised novel Bit by bit is more exciting. A box of chocolates scoffed in haste is pleasure too speedily spent. Anyone who has watched a whole series of 24 can testify - blearily - that cliffhangers lose their impact when taken at the rate of five in an afternoon. And novelists have found that stories grip not just a reader but the nation when published piecemeal. The master was Dickens, the Elvis of the serial. When his Old Curiosity Shop appeared chapter-by-chapter, it is said that, as the book neared its climax, crowds in New York harbour cried out to a liner steaming in from Britain: “Is Little Nell dead?” The serial has fallen out of favour since Victorian times, but it has lately re-emerged. The Japanese love all things miniature and receive on their telephones tiny chapters of novels with teeny titles like If You and Love Sky. Such micro-masterpieces made up half of Japan's ten bestselling novels last year. This method of publishing has too much potential to be abandoned, and is due for another flowering. Having noted that, when Dickens serialised Great Expectations, it outsold The Times, times2 has pre-empted this undesirable outcome by serialising a novel itself. They have chosen The Front, a detective novel by Patricia Cornwell, a bestselling novelist 20 times over. Today's episode introduces a sharp detective and a frightening District Attorney. Was the blind British girl they discuss the Boston Strangler's first victim? It cannot yet be revealed. Readers must wait for the next instalment. But we live in faster times than Dickens's first fans, and episodes will appear daily rather than weekly, and be posted online. Modern murder. Enjoy. |