If You Are in a Crime Novel . . .

I don’t mean if you are deep in a crime novel and don’t want to be distracted.

I mean if you are a character IN a crime novel, there are certain things you have to do.

One is, if you are driving on a winding road to anywhere, with or without pursuers, you have to snake your way through the trees, the brush, or whatever the terrain offers.

Gone are the days of winding roads; if they aren’t straight, they are snaking their way through the wilderness or up a mountain.

If a mechanical object is a potential sound-maker, when someone uses it, it [does its thing] into life.

It started a few decades a...