One of the trickiest and most annoying things about writing a novel, particularly anything at all plot driven, is having to turn your finished book into a synopsis. It's like painting a picture and then having to describe it to a blind person.
Despite the salience of synopses to commercial book selling, I've not found finished synopses easy to find. It's much easier to find film synopses than books'. And of course spoiler alert is the phrase that comes to mind. (Interesting that the word 'spoiler', in this sense, is very new. Apart from being an aerodynamic device on a racing car it traditionally meant a plunderer or robber, as in this enjoyable Desmond Bagley book I read many years ago http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Spoilers.html?id=-opiAAAACAAJ&redir_esc=y)
So as a way of improving my own plotting, I've prepared synopses of some successful books. Here is Tripwire, one of Lee Child's most satisfying books, a fairly early Jack Reacher novel. (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tripwire-Jack-Reacher-Lee-Child/dp/0857500066)
Whilst this is in no sense a review - I'm not making any value judgements, it's fascinating to coolly analyse how such a skilled writer gets his emotional effects. The synopsising process takes the 'excited' emotional response from our reading, thus enabling a careful study of the plot foreshadowing and character clues. But DON'T READ THIS if you have not yet read the book!
TRIPWIRE by Lee Child
Italic Prologue says that Hook Hobie has received two tips
off, from thousands of miles away, but doesn’t run. He decides to stand and
fight.
Reacher is working in Key West as a bouncer (and swimming
pool excavator). A private detective called Costello comes looking for him,
mentioning a client named Mrs Jacob. Reacher denies his name. Similarly with
two men who come to the nightclub.
In New York, the MD of a company making cameras and
projectors is shown in financial difficulties.
Reacher finds Costello murdered, fingers removed. He had identified
Costello as a New Yorker from his accent, and now travels to NY.
The company MD, Chester Stone, leaves his wife Marilyn at
home and goes to see a loan shark – Hook Hobie. A temporary loan is agreed,
secured on stock.
Reacher identifies Costello through a call to NYPD. He
learns that he only worked for lawyers.
Hobie’s two enforcers who have killed Costello were
unsuccessful in finding out who he was working for. They go to his office and
kill his secretary.
Shortly afterwards R. arrives at the office and finds it
empty. He obtains the name of Mrs Jacob’s law practice but finds out she is at
home in Garrison, north of NY. There he finds the aftermath of a funeral. The
funeral was for his old army boss Leon Garber. Mrs Jacob is his daughter,
Jodie. Meanwhile Hobie’s men have followed him and are watching the house.
When the mourners have dispersed, the enforcers confront R
& J but are fought off.
Back in NY they tell an embroidered version of the tale to
Hobie to justify their failure. He asks one of them to kill the other and bring
him his hand as proof.
J & R visit the hospital where her father was treated,
and are told he was very thick with an old couple called Mr and Mrs Hobie.
Some backstory about Hobie, mentioning Vietnam, losing a
hand, becoming a money lender.
Chester Stone’s FD tells him that the company’s stock has
been put on the market, at very low prices. This is Hobie’s work, but the FD resigns
in disgust. Now the company is almost worthless, the bank who was Stones’ main
creditor tells him it has sold their debt (to Hobie.)
One of the enforcers proceeds to murder the other, and brings the
hand to Hobie. He puts it in his fridge.
The survivor, plus another of Hobie’s men, attempt to kidnap
Jodie on the street, but R fights them off.
R goes to see the Hobies and discovers they have been
searching for years for details of their son, missing in action in Vietnam.
They paid for him to be traced and an investigator came up with a picture of a
man in a jungle being held at gunpoint.
Marilyn puts her house on the market via an estate agent
named Sheryl. Hobie poses as a buyer and kidnaps Sheryl and Marilyn. He needs
Chester’s signature on a stock transfer for the whole company.
R steals a gun on the street.
A relationship, based on an old infatuation, develops
between J and R.
R takes her to the zoo and reveals that the Hobies’ photo
was faked in a zoo conservatory. He visits the investigator, Rutter, beats him
up and makes him pay back the money they gave him, and also give him a car.
Bodies are seen being brought back from Vietnam to Hawaii,
with an old general in charge.
R and J travel to military archives and research Hobie’s
life, and then to Hawaii and meet the old general, Nash Newman. They view the
skeletons that have been brought back from a Vietnam helicopter crash site. One
of the skeletons was of a man named Carl Allen who was being returned under
arrest. Two other skeletons are of the MP’s escorting him.
Marilyn insists that Sheryl, injured by Hobie, goes to
hospital, and that a meeting with a lawyer is essential before Chester can sign
the stock certificates.
At the hospital Sheryl arouses police suspicions. Two cops
go to Hobie’s office, but (later) are killed.
It appears that Hobie’s body was not among the skeletons,
and that he survived and avoided his parents. Reacher discovers an old report
that a one-handed crash victim escaped from military hospital, killing an
orderly.
Marilyn arranges for a ‘lawyer’ to attend a meeting with
Hobie. In fact this is a private detective.
R finds an extra hand in the collection of skeletons.
He seeks a piece of identification information from Newman.
This is found via a search of dental records. We are not told what the
information is.
Hobie is bribing a captain in Newman’s unit, so knows that
R. is onto him. He contacts Jodie’s lawfirm and summons her to a meeting.
A meeting is set up, with Hobie and Stone, and two lawyers,
Jodie for one side and the disguised detective for the other side.
Arriving at Hobie’s office, the detective is immediately
spotted. He is disarmed, relieved of two small calibre pistols. He and Jodie
are taken hostage along with the Stones.
Hobie forces J to phone Reacher. Through saying ‘Hi Jack’ she
alerts him to the fact that she is being held captive. R lies about his
whereabouts then tricks his way into Hobie’s office by pretending to be a
postman. He kills one of the henchmen, removing his hand, so as to distract
Hobie. He shoots another henchman.
There is a showdown when Hobie threatens J with a gun while
R, already badly wounded, threatens Hobie. He tells Hobie he knows he is really
Carl Allen. R feigns a worse wound and deliberately takes a bullet from Hobie,
hoping the small calibre revolver round will not be fatal. He just has time to
make sure of Hobie with a shot to the head, before collapsing.
He awakes in hospital three weeks later, and explains to
Jodie that he realised ‘Hobie’ was in fact Allen, and that he had swapped dog
tags with Hobie as the sole survivor of the helicopter crash.
