Showdown with a Cliffhanger

In his second book about the Mysterious Benedict Society, Trenton Lee Stewart gives us a wonderful cliffhanger about halfway through the book. It's a showdown between the secret agent, Milligan, and three of the evil Ten Men (named so due to the fact that they have ten ways of killing you.)

But this showdown isn't your straight-forward cowboy standoff. In many ways, it's a good old-fashioned spoof. The Ten Men aren't just thugs. They dress as elegant businessmen and use office supplies as their weapons of choice. And here they are up against our hero (the adult hero, anyways): Milligan.

"Another bold move!" came McCracken's voice as Milligan ducked behind a beam. There was an electrical hum the air from the Ten Men's watches. "But you'd still have done better to surrender. It is three against one, you know!"

"Not for long," Milligan growled, and he jumped out from behind the beam.

So began on the fiercest and strangest battles ever fought, a battle that involved all manner of business supplies, elegant clothing and accessories, and no shortage of trickery and taunts. It was a battle that would rage for hours, and which, when at last it came to an end, would leave the abandoned village entirely in ruins and only one man standing to survey the wreckage. It was also a battle that would leave the young members of the Mysterious Benedict Society in even greater danger than before -- for alas, the one man left standing wasn't Milligan.

Taken from:
Stewart, Trenton Lee. The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey (2008), p. 360.

How did I rate this book? 4 1/2 stars

Begin with a Cliffhanger

The Cliffhanger.

Leave the character in a suspenseful situation. Make the reader keep reading to find out what happens next. You'll find them (usually) at the end of a chapter. Sometimes at the end of book.

But Dodie Smith has a different approach to cliffhangers in her book I Capture the Castle. Oh, it may not be a cliffhanger in the original sense of the word. Nobody is hanging off a cliff. But the cliffhanging art of suspense is certainly present.

However, instead of dropping her teaser at the end of a chapter, she puts it at the beginning!

Okay, a bit of background on this book. It's written in the format of a journal. The writer is 17-year-old Cassandra, the protagonist of the novel. Cassandra's passion is to become a writer. And this journal is her outlet. Chapter X begins with these lines:

Oh, I long to blurt out the news in my first paragraph -- but I won't! This is a chance to teach myself the art of suspense.

Smith is almost too obvious here. Yet, coming through Cassandra's voice, it works. Cassandra wants to become an author, so it makes sense that she'd try to work on her technique.

And guess what? It also does the trick. The reader does want to find out what it is that Cassandra is holding back. Smith does this same thing later on in Chapter XIII -- this time, it's a little less obvious...

Oh, how bitter it is to read that last line I wrote little over three weeks ago -- now when I cannot even remember what happiness felt like!

I didn't read back any further. I was too afraid of losing the dead, flat, watching myself feeling which has come this morning for the first time. It is utterly dreary but better than acute wretchedness, and has given me a faint desire to empty my mind into this journal, which will pass a few hours. But shall I be able to write about the wicked thing I did on my birthday? Can I bring myself to describe it fully? Perhaps I can work up to it.

Yes, the suspense is just as powerful. Perhaps even more so...

And yes, it comes at the opening of a chapter.

Taken from:
Smith, Dodie. I Capture the Castle (1949), pp. 189, 268.

How did I rate this book? 4 stars