The secret to creating instant atmosphere in your novel
‘In the distance a dog barks.’ When I read that sentence recently, in Sworn to Silence by Linda Castillo, it gave me pause for thought. Hadn’t I encountered variations on that phrase countless times before? My leisure reading tends towards undemanding thrillers, with high body counts and maverick crime-fighters unmasking unlikely serial killers. Which is possibly why the phrase seemed familiar – some hapless character in these novels is always setting off alone into the forest or down some mean street, usually in a swirling mist or at the dead of night, when somewhere in the distance, a dog barks. It never ends well. Once you notice distant barking dogs you realise they are everywhere.
