I finally read The Circular Staircase by Mary Roberts Rinehart, which is widely regarded as the original novel of the "had I but known" school of mystery. All of the dire hints are supposed to create suspense, but I found that they detracted from it for me. There are actual surprises, but they don't match the hints well. So the whole thing was a bit of a let-down.
I think that suspense is something like humor. The worst thing somebody can do when introducing a humorous storyteller is to tell the audience that they're about to hear something funny. It sets up an expectation that makes the rebel within the listener say "I dare you to make me laugh." Similarly, all of the "had I known what was to happen..." stuff sets up an "I dare you to shock me," which is inherently hard to live up to.
My biggest moment of suspense this week was the gift exchange at my knitting group. I ended up with a box of scarf patterns and "knit klips." The latter seem to be designed to hold something in place while you seam it, but I haven't quite sorted out how they work yet. There really weren't any bad gifts, frankly. Most people came up with books, yarn or notions, with some chocolate thrown in here and there. (And, yes, chocolate qualifies as a knitting-related gift.) As for what I was working on, I made good progress on a crocheted scarf for a charity project. It's a lovely yarn that I couldn't resist buying and I crochet faster than I knit, so I can knock off two or three of these easily. (Only one in any given yarn and pattern, though.) Most of the people in the group don't crochet, so they're more impressed by it than they should be.
Copyright 2007 Miriam H. Nadel