And in the Middle of Negotiations You Break Down*

If you think about it, just about every relationship we have involves at least some negotiation. It can be as simple as ‘What should we do about dinner?’ or as complex as, ‘Under what terms will your country establish a treaty with ours?’ A lot of people associate negotiation with adversarial relationships and of course sometimes that happens. But negotiation isn’t always bitter and angry. It’s really just the search for common ground. Negotiation is an important part of communication and it certainly plays a role in real-life and crime-fictional investigations. There’s negotiation among different agencies involved. There’s negotiation in an investigation team to determine who will do what and which direction the investigation will take. And when it comes to prosecution of crime there’s a great deal of negotiation among the opposing counsels and the judge or equivalent and that’s just scratching the proverbial surface of legal negotiation. We see this quite a lot in crime fiction, so I couldn’t possibly mention all of the examples of it in this post. I know I’ll be leaving a lot out, so do add your own examples.

We see a few different kinds of negotiation in Agatha Christie’s The ABC Murders. In that novel, Hercule Poirot works with Scotland Yard and local police to solve a series of murders that look like the work of a psychopath. That co-operation in itself involves negotiation in terms of who actually follows up on what and who will be involved in which part of the investigation. The killings begin with the murder of an elderly shopkeeper/newsagent. Her husband is the most likely suspect but Poirot received a cryptic warning before the killing that’s unlikely the work of the chief suspect. The police are just getting to work on that murder when Poirot receives another letter. Then there’s another death. And a third. At one point, Franklin Clarke, brother of the third victim, suggests that a group of friends and relations – ‘interested parties’ – of all three murder victims work together to try to come up with a strategy to catch the killer or at least a clue as to who that person is. In the conversations the group has, we see them negotiate what is important and what isn’t, and what should be done. Those conversations turn out to be very useful to Poirot as he eventually ties the murders together and finds out who the killer is.

In Peter Robinson’s Gallows View, we meet DI Alan Banks, who in this novel has recently moved to the Yorkshire town of Eastvale. He’s arrived in time to face some unpleasant situations. First, there’s been a series of house-breakings that have many of the residents worried. Also a voyeur has been making the lives of several of Eastvale’s women miserable and frightening. Then there’s a murder. As Banks and his team work to find out what’s behind all of these incidents, we see a lot of negotiation going on. For instance, Banks is in charge of the investigation so technically he’s the one who should direct it. However, he’s an ‘incomer,’ having recently moved from London. He knows that the locals don’t entirely trust him and he knows that he doesn’t know the histories of the people in the area. For that he has to depend on his second-in-command Sergeant Hatchley, who’s a local. So the direction the investigation takes involves negotiation between the two. It’s not always peaceful but it’s productive. As another thread in this story, local feminist Dorothy Wycombe has made a very public set of complaints that the police are sexist and are not doing all they can to catch the voyeur. Banks knows that to dismiss her entirely will lead to a media furor he doesn’t need. Besides, he agrees that the peeping is wrong and must be stopped. On the other hand, it’s clear that she doesn’t have a real appreciation for the time, money and staff required to do what she wants done. Working matters out with her (and they never exactly do become friends) takes a lot of negotiation.

Stefan Tegenfalk’s Project Nirvana begins with the deaths of four German scientists. German police authorities believe that Swedish national Leo Brageler may be involved in the deaths, but there isn’t a clear motive. So they request help from the Swedish National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). The NBI works with police detectives Walter Gröhn and Jonna de Brugge of Stockholm County CID and their team to track down Brageler and get some answers. All of this communication among law-enforcement entities involves quite a lot of negotiation. There’s the question of who gets access to what information, who does exactly what and who has jurisdiction. Then matters get even more complicated. Brageler and another possible suspect (also a Swedish national) disappear. And, the Swedish Security Service (SÄPO) starts to take a serious interest in the case. Then there’s a frightening hostage situation – another instance in which negotiation plays a major role. All of these events are related, and they’re tied to something much bigger than someone killing a few scientists.

And of course, hostage negotiation is a very important thread running through other crime fiction too. In fact, it’s a major part of Max Kinning’s Baptism. London Underground train driver George Wakeham is a former musician and writer who always wanted to make a real impact on society. That hasn’t happened though and he’s currently driving for the Northern Line. One morning his predictable life is shattered when three strangers invade his home and capture his wife and children. His family’s only chance, so Wakeham is told, is to do exactly as the hostage-takers say. He’s given a mobile ‘phone and told to go to his job as usual and follow all instructions as they are telephoned to him. Wakeham does so and soon finds out what the people who’ve taken his family want. They want to capture everyone on his train – about 400 people – and they need his driving skills to get the train into the tunnel where they intend to trap everyone aboard it. DCI Ed Mallory, who is a skilled hostage negotiator, is called in to find out exactly why the hostage-takers have captured these people and what exactly they want. Part of the tension in this novel comes from the interactions among Mallory, Wakeham and Tommy Denning, who’s leading the hostage-takers. Another source of tension in this novel is the negotiation between Mallory, who has one view of what ought to be done, and his superiors, who have another. In the end, that negotiation is part of what leads to the way Mallory and his team deal with this crisis.

And then there’s the negotiation that PI Jayne Keeney conducts in Angela Savage’s Behind the Night Bazaar. Keeney lives and works in Bangkok, but travels north to Chiang Mai to visit her friend Didier ‘Didi’ de Montpasse. Then de Montpasse’s partner Nou is murdered. Shortly afterwards de Montpasse himself is shot. The official report is that de Montpasse killed his partner and then violently resisted arrest when the police came to confront him with the evidence. Keeney is certain that’s not true though and begins to look into the matter. She soon learns that these two murders are tied in with a truly ugly case of corruption, child trafficking and the Thai sex trade. Keeney knows that she can’t stop the corruption and sex trade single-handedly, much as she would like to. The one thing she does want though is for de Montpasse’s name to be cleared. He wasn’t a murderer and she wants that to be made public. Once she finds out the real truth behind the murders, she feels she’s in a position to negotiate. I don’t think it’s giving away spoilers to say that her exchanges with the people who are on ‘the other side of the table’ in this case show how negotiation works in the real world.

You’ll notice that I haven’t mentioned the many fine legal mysteries and thrillers that involve negotiation among parties. That’s in part because there are so many of them; that would be a post in and of itself. But I do want to at least mention that negotiation is a critical part of these novels, as it is in real-life legal cases.

Most of know that almost any interaction with another person involves at least a little negotiation. Sometimes it’s low-stakes; sometimes it’s high-stakes. Always it’s interesting and it can add a solid level of tension to a crime novel.

 

 
 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from the Beatles’ You Never Give Me Your Money.

In The Spotlight: Max Kinnings’ Baptism

Hello, All,

Welcome to another edition of In The Spotlight. In the past few decades, the thriller sub-genre has broadened its scope so that now there are many different kinds of thrillers. Although they have in common the tension buildup, the pacing and the suspense that characterise the sub-genre, they’re also increasingly diverse. Today let’s buckle ourselves in for the ride and take a closer look at the thriller. Let’s turn the spotlight on Max Kinnings’ Baptism.

The novel begins when Tommy Denning and his twin sister Belle leave Madoc Farm, a monks’ retreat and the seat of an Evangelical Christian group in Snowdonia. With them is Simeon Fisher, who also lives at Madoc Farm. Not long after they leave, we learn that their destination is the home of George Wakeham, a London Underground train driver. Wakeham has always wanted to make something of himself creatively; he played bass in a band called Crawlspace, he wanted to write, and he wanted to somehow make a real impact. That hasn’t happened for him though and now he drives for the Northern Line.

One morning, Wakeham is getting ready to leave for work when three hostage-takers break into his house and capture his family. Wakeham himself is told to go to his job and follow every instruction he gets through a special mobile ‘phone he is given; otherwise his family will die. With no other option he does as he’s told and soon takes his place in the driver cab of his train. Tommy and Belle Denning and Simeon Fisher, who are the hostage-takers, board the train as well and it’s not long before Wakeham finds out to his horror why he and his family were targeted. The hostage-takers intend to capture everyone on the train and they needed Wakeham’s driving skills to trap the train in an underground tunnel.

When word of the captured train gets out, DCI Ed Mallory is assigned to try to communicate with Denning and the other hostage-takers to find out what they want and what they intend. Mallory is a skilled hostage negotiator who has a special ability to sense subtleties in people’s voices and manner; he was blinded in a previous hostage-taking incident so he depends on his other senses to help him establish contact with hostage-takers and try to open up lines of communication with them.

As Mallory and the police work to find out who the terrorists are and what their plans are, George Wakeham does his best to stay alive and to keep his family and the train passengers alive too. What they all discover is that the terrorists have a very specific goal. The key to saving the passengers is finding out as much as possible about Tommy Denning, as they way he thinks and what he wants is crucial.

This is a thriller, so there is a very strong element of pacing, timing and action in this novel. There is also an element of psychological tension as Wakeham, Mallory and Denning work to outwit and outthink one another. We see this for instance in the driver-cab scenes between Denning, who’s taken up position there, and Wakeham, who’s trying to keep everyone, including himself, safe.  We also see it as Mallory tries unsuccessfully to convince the authorities to take a certain course of action to free the train. Many (‘though certainly not all) thrillers contain violence and Baptism shows its colours as a thriller in that way too. Readers who prefer to avoid a lot of violence will be disappointed (or may want to peek through their fingers at some points in the novel).

The characters of Ed Mallory and George Wakeham are important elements in this novel too. Wakeham is an ordinary man who always wanted to be extraordinary, but doesn’t realise just how extraordinary he can be. He has to find courage he never thought he had and it’s interesting to see how his perceptions of what he is and ought to be change as the novel goes on. For his part, Mallory has plenty of personal baggage, especially regarding the case that left him blind. He has to deal with the fact that a hostage died during that negotiation and that now, the person in the best position to help free the train captives is that dead hostage’s widower. That said though, Mallory isn’t a stereotypical haunted cop. He deals with his life the best he can and it’s not hard to be on his side and Wakeham’s as they try to stop Denning.

One of the other elements that runs through this novel and adds to the tension is the sense of fear and claustrophobia as the train passengers realise that they’ve been trapped and try to escape. We get a real sense of what that might be like, and the passengers’ reactions are realistic. That tension builds as we discover exactly what the hostage-takers plan to do.

Although we know very quickly who the terrorists are, we don’t know at first much about them or exactly what they want. Nor do we know how and why they chose to capture train passengers and why they chose George Wakeham’s train. That information is revealed little by little as the novel evolves. Readers who dislike ‘information dumping’ will be pleased that backstories and other details are given as they’re relevant. The story is told from different points of view, and we see the hostage-taking play out from different characters’ perspectives. Readers who prefer one consistent point of view will be disappointed. But it’s clear throughout the novel whose point of view is being shared and Kinnings’ use of multiple perspectives allows us to see what’s happening on the train, in the driver cab, on ‘the outside’ and so on.

Baptism is a modern thriller with an innovative setting and some very high stakes. It features the sympathetic characters of George Wakeham and Ed Mallorty and plays out with the fast pace, tension and action that keep the story moving along. But what’s your view? Have you read Baptism? If you have, what elements do you see in it?

 
 
 

Coming Up On In The Spotlight
 

Monday 1 October/Tuesday 2 October – One Coffee With – Margaret Maron

Monday 8 October/Tuesday 9 October – The Sins of the Fathers – Lawrence Block

Monday 15 October/Tuesday 16 October – Raven Black – Ann Cleeves

And the Rhythm of the Rails is All They Dream*

There’s something about trains that makes them really effective contexts for a crime fiction novel if you think about it. For one thing, all kinds of people are brought together on a train. That allows for a lot of possibilities for character development and interaction. Trains are one of those places where complete strangers – people who likely wouldn’t meet under other kinds of circumstances – end up sitting next to each other. Then too trains can be just a little claustrophobic and that can add to the tension in a story too. There’s also a certain kind of mystique about trains . Granted you might not think about the overcrowded and loud commuter train you may ride each day as having mystique, but trains have a fascinating history. They’ve been a critical part of travel, commerce and sociopolitical development for a long time so it’s natural that they play a role in crime fiction too.

One of the most famous train-related crime fiction novels is of course Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express AKA Murder in the Calais Coach. That novel is set aboard the world-famous Orient Express train that’s carrying wealthy American businessman Samuel Ratchett across Europe. On the second night of the journey Ratchett is stabbed. The only possible suspects are the other passengers in the same coach since it can be proven that no-one else on the train had access to Ratchett at the time of the murder. Hercule Poirot is on the same train en route to London and he agrees to investigate. As if the fact of murder weren’t enough, a snowstorm strands the train, making everyone even more nervous. Poirot discovers who committed the murder and as he investigates we get a real sense of what travelling by this train must have been like at the time the novel was written. I’ve read that Christie was inspired for this novel in part by a personal experience of being stranded briefly on a train (‘though not with a murderer on board). Oh, and there’s also Christie’s 4:50 From Paddington AKA What Mrs. McGillicuddy Saw!, in which Jane Marple solves a murder that her friend Elspeth McGillicuddy witnesses while she’s riding on a train.

Another powerful train-related novel is Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train. In this story Highsmith capitalises on the way in which trains bring together all sorts of disparate people. Guy Haines is on a cross-country train journey to visit his estranged wife Miriam. He’s hoping to convince her to give him a divorce. Charles Bruno is on the same train and he and Haines strike up a conversation. It’s not long before Haines feels comfortable enough to tell Bruno about his situation and in turn Bruno tells Haines that he himself has a bad relationship with his father. Bruno then makes a fantastic suggestion. He proposes that he and Haines each commit the other’s murder so to speak. His logic is that if Haines kills his father and he kills Haines’ wife, there will be no motive for the police to track down. So each will get away with murder. Haines agrees, thinking it’s all a joke. But Bruno is quite serious about it and murders Miriam. Then he begins to demand that Haines keep his end of the bargain. Now Haines is trapped into feeling obligated to commit a murder.

In Ruth Rendell’s Adam and Eve and Pinch Me, three women’s lives intersect as a result of the terrible 1999 train wreck near London’s Paddington Station. Both Zillah Leach and Minty Knox get the awful news that their partners have been killed in the crash. The third woman Fiona Harrington meets her fiancé Jeff as a result of the Paddington wreck. All three women discover that they were duped by the same good-looking con man when he too is ostensibly killed in the crash. One of the con man’s “marks” is not so ready to stand by and do nothing though and finds a way to take revenge.

Anne Holt’s 1222 brings together a varied group of passengers, all of whom are en route by train to Oslo. Then there’s a train crash in which only the conductor is killed. The passengers, including former police officer Hanne Wilhelmsen, are rescued and taken to a hotel to make other arrangements for getting to Oslo. Then there’s a murder. Wilhelmsen doesn’t want to get involved in the investigation; in fact, she’s not too keen on getting involved with people for any reason. But then there’s another death. And another. Wilhelmsen reluctantly puts her skills to use to find out who the killer is.

Max Kinnings’ Baptism tells the story of London Underground train driver George Wakeham. One morning Wakeham is caught in a nightmare when three hostage-takers break into his home and seize him and his family. Wakeham is ordered to go to his job as usual and follow all instructions that he is given by mobile ‘phone if he wants his family to survive. He gets to his duty station and into the driver’s cab of his train. Only then does he learn to his horror why he and his family were attacked. The hostage-takers plan to take his entire train captive. Terrified that he and his family will die, Wakeham follows the instructions he’s given and drives partway through a tunnel. That’s when the terrorists order him to stop the train. Hostage negotiator DCI Ed Mallory is called into action to communicate with the terrorists and somehow free not just the Wakeham family but also the more than 400 other passengers on the train. This novel, like others that feature trains, takes advantage of the claustrophia, the reality of being cooped up with strangers and the vulnerability to technology that train riders face to add to the suspense.

Trains are so much a part of a lot of people’s lives that we really don’t think about them very much, especially those of us who use them to commute. But as crime fiction shows us, trains can be quite dangerous. Have a pleasant journey.
 
 
 

NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Arlo Guthrie’s City of New Orleans.