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Monday, February 23, 2015

Mystery Bingo

Today I am provided a Bingo card you can use while reading mystery books.  A little something to have fun while recognizing the current trends of the mystery genre.
 

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Let me give a little introduction to the Bingo Card.  In order to develop a Bingo card, I thought of the current trends of the genre.  Cliches, or tropes, are commonly used literary devises or motifs in creative works.  There are good and bad in such tropes.  
     Genre novels provide the reader with an experience we have come to expect for that category, thus certain cliches develop.  A cozy mystery has certain conventions to follow as opposed to a police procedural novel, and this ensures we, the reader, know what to expect when we pick up the book.  

     Some of these conventions have bred a pattern of certain aspects of the novel we can count on to be present in the story.  It is with these developed patterns that the mystery bingo can be used.  I am not making a judgement, it isn't a good or bad idea to fall within these patterns, so long as the book is entertaining! 

     But, these patterns provided enough common elements to fill the squares to the bingo card.  This particular bingo card is geared more towards the cozy mystery conventions we see today, so it won't work quite as well with thrillers or police procedurals.  But, you can investigate how many of your books fill the squares and before you know it....BINGO.

     Just a refresher of some bingo patterns to fill the squares to call a winner:  A horizontal line, a vertical line, a diagonal line, a diamond, four corners small or big, a square frame, or a blackout covering the whole card.  For a list of many patterns I found this website (click here).  But decide on the pattern before you begin playing, no cheating :-)  




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