The Connection Between Audience and Author

In the world of literature, various authors often utilize an assortment of unique writing tools to develop a strong relationship between him/herself and the reader. This relationship between author and audience is the most important that an author must consider when writing his/her literature. Especially true in detective fiction, authors are frequently searching for matchless ways to keep their audience involved and searching for the next piece of evidence. This is particularly the case when dealing with the two stories My Brother Jack, by Garry Disher, and A Mystery of the Sand-Hill, by R. Austin Freeman. In many ways these two stories are very similar; the use of a side-kick, by way the detective investigates and puts evidence together, or how there is one central problem that everyone is commonly working towards are just to name a few. However, these two stories are not so comparable at all. And although the two stories differ in general ways, the main, less obvious, yet, more defining difference is the author's use of his audience in context. If too personal, the addressees may get the wrong idea about a particular author. If too general, the story will make no sense and be too hard to follow along with. If too complicated, only the most attentive readers will even attempt to deal with the story. If too easy, the reader will not feel challenged, thus, killing the spirit of the classic mystery novel. Both authors, Disher and Freeman, are masters at keeping their stories just gripping enough to keep the reader wanting more. However, they both have different ways of doing so. R. Austin Freeman, author of A Mystery of the Sand-Hills, goes with the simpler and more traditional approach to detective fiction. The Sand-Hills story describes the main detective in the second person – his sidekick, or friend, being the narrator. Freeman takes his audience through the story clue by clue as the detective uncovers them; much like the traditional detective