And I’m Tangled Up in You*

When we think of fictional sleuths and criminals, it’s easy to think in terms of an adversarial relationship. The criminal kills and the sleuth’s job is to catch that criminal and see that the killer is brought to justice. But very often even in real life, the sleuth/criminal relationship isn’t that simple. Sometimes the sleuth has a good reason to be sympathetic towards the criminal. Sometimes the sleuth even has a personal relationship with the criminal. When that sort of thing happens it can lead to real complications in the traditional catch/arrest/try/convict procedure. In stories that sort of complication can add to the tension and suspense. Certainly it can make for an absorbing plot thread.

We see that for instance in Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile. Beautiful, wealthy and successful Linnet Doyle and her husband Simon are on a honeymoon cruise of the Nile. When Linnet is shot on the second night of the cruise, suspicion falls immediately on her former best friend Jacqueline ‘Jackie’ de Bellefort, who’d been engaged to Simon before he met Linnet. But Jackie can be proven not to be the murderer, so Hercule Poirot, who’s on the same cruise, has to look elsewhere for the killer. He finds out who the murderer is and that causes him difficulty because as he puts it, he has much sympathy for that person. Here is a bit of the conversation he and the killer have:

 

‘‘Don’t mind so much, Monsieur Poirot. About me, I mean. You do mind, don’t you?’
‘Yes…’’

 

And this comes from a detective who says more than once that he does not approve of murder. Thanks Moira for this inspiration. Your comment put me in mind of this topic.

There’s another kind of complex relationship between sleuth and killer in Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel. The people of the futuristic Earth depicted in this novel are more or less divided between two groups. One group, the Spacers, is descended from humans who explored space and then returned. The other group, the Earthmen, is descended from humans who did not explore space – who remained on Earth. The two groups have different cultures and values and they dislike and distrust each other for a variety of reasons. When noted Spacer Dr. Roj Nemennuh Sarton is murdered, Spacers begin to suspect that an Earthman is responsible. New York police commissioner Julius Enderby assigns Earthman Elijah ‘Lije’ Baley to the case. Not only does Enderby think Baley is a skilled sleuth, but he also wants to choose an Earthman as proof that this investigation will be transparent. As a further gesture, Enderby assigns Baley a Spacer partner R. Daneel Olivaw. And this in itself poses complications. Olivaw is a positronic robot and if there’s anything Earthmen dislike and distrust more than Spacers it’s robots. Still, Baley and Olivaw begin to work together on the case. They discover who killed Sarton and when they do, Baley has to deal with the fact that he already has a relationship with that person. So in that sense he feels quite conflicted about pursuing what most people think of as justice.

Craig Johnson’s Absaroka County, Wyoming sheriff Walt Longmire faces a conflict about a murderer too in The Cold Dish. Two years before this novel begins, three local boys were convicted of gang-raping sixteen-year-old Melissa Little Bird. They’ve just recently been released from prison when one of them, Cody Pritchard, is found murdered. Then there’s another death. It seems logical that someone in Melissa’s family is taking revenge for what happened to her so Longmire and his team look into the backgrounds and alibis of Melissa’s friends and relations. They don’t make a lot of progress at first but slowly, Longmire puts the pieces of the puzzle together. When he discovers who the killer is he finds it extremely difficult because he already knows that person (after all, the town Longmire lives is one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone). At the end of the novel especially we see how difficult it is for Longmire to deal with the identity of the killer.

In Karin Fossum’s He Who Fears the Wolf, Inspector Konrad Sejer and his assistant Jacob Skarre investigate the murder of Halldis Horn. She lived alone in a somewhat remote area, so when her body is discovered, there aren’t many witnesses who can give a lot of information. But the information the investigation team does get suggests that a young mentally ill man named Errki Johrma is probably responsible. The only problem is that he seems to have disappeared so Sejer can’t interview him. At the same time, Sejer and Skarre are also investigating a bank robbery and hostage-taking situation. These two events are related, and as Sejer and Skarre unravel what really happened, Sejer develops a kind of relationship with the person who turns out to be the killer. He learns about that person and what he learns makes him quite conflicted about what to do in terms of pursuing this case.

Gail Bowen’s Joanne Kilbourn is also conflicted when she discovers the truth about a series of killings in A Colder Kind of Death. Kilbourn is in the process of healing after the murder of her husband Ian. But all of the progress she’s made is threatened when the man convicted of the crime Kevin Tarpley is shot in the yard of the prison where he’s serving his sentence. Then Tarpley’s wife Maureen, who was present on the night of Ian Kilbourn’s murder, is also killed. Joanne falls under a certain amount of suspicion since she had every motive for murder. So partly in order to clear her name, she looks into both killings. What she discovers – and part of what makes this case very difficult – is that she knows the killer and has a history with that person. That complexity doesn’t stop her from acknowledging what happened but when that person confesses we can see that this is not a simple case of finding out who committed a crime and getting that person convicted of it.

And then there’s Sylvie Granotier’s The Paris Lawyer. In that novel, newly-minted attorney Catherine Monsigny gets what she hopes will be her chance at a major case. Myriam Villetreix has been arrested for and charged with the murder of her wealthy husband Gaston. She claims innocence but there is evidence against her. She wants Monsigny to defend her and when Monsigny’s boss gives approval, the process begins. The murder of Gaston Villetreix took place not far from where a tragedy in Monsigny’s own life occurred. When she was a toddler, Monsigny’s mother Violet was murdered. Monsigny was present but was too young to remember very much at all. She wants to lay those ghosts to rest so to speak, but she doesn’t have a lot of reliable information about her mother’s murder. So while she’s in that area preparing for the trial of Myriam Villetreix, she also looks more deeply into the truth about her mother’s death. When she discovers that truth, we see how complicated the relationship between Monsigny and her mother’s killer is. That fact adds an interesting twist to this story.

Sometimes it’s cathartic to think of sleuths as the ‘good guys’ who catch ‘the bad guys,’ put them in jail and restore order. But in both real life and crime fiction, the relationship between sleuths and killers isn’t that clear-cut. And sometimes it can get downright complicated…
 
 
 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Howie Day’s Collide.

You’ll See Things in a Different Way*

One of the ways in which authors give characters depth is by sharing their perspectives – their stories. When we see the way different characters view the same event, a few things happen. First, we get a broader view of what happened. Second, we get a better sense of those characters. It takes a deft hand to do that without confusing the reader but when it’s done well, it can add richness to a story.

Agatha Christie uses that strategy in Five Little Pigs (AKA Murder in Retrospect). In that novel, Carla Lemarchant hires Hercule Poirot to investigate the sixteen-year-old poisoning murder of her father Amyas Crale. Crale’s wife Caroline was convicted of the crime and died in prison, but Carla is sure her mother was innocent. Poirot takes the case and begins the job by interviewing the five people who were ‘on the scene’ at the time of the murder. Each of the people he speaks to has a different view of Caroline Crale and of what happened on the day of the murder. In addition to the personal interviews Poirot asks each person to write an account of the crime and the days that led up to it. In those accounts and those interviews, Poirot finds clues that lead him to the truth. It’s a fascinating way to look at precisely the same person and crime from five completely different perspectives.

We see that also in Karin Alvtegen’s Betrayal. Eva Wirenström-Berg and her husband Henrik have been having some marital trouble. Still, Eva has always wanted a happy family life, especially now that she and Henrik are parents to young Axel. Then Eva discovers that her husband has been unfaithful. In the meantime we also meet Jonas Hansson, whose fiancée Anna has been in a coma for over two years after an incident in which she nearly drowned. By chance Eva and Jonas meet one night in a local bar. The events leading up to that meeting and the events that result from it spin the lives of just about everyone completely out of control. As Alvtegen tells the story of what happens, we see many of the same incidents from different perspectives. For instance, we learn about Jonas’ meeting with Eva from each of their points of view. That strategy allows us to get to know the characters involved and see what their motivations are.

That’s also true in Y.A. Eskine’s The Brotherhood. That novel uses a wide variety of perspectives to tell about the murder of Tasmania Police Sergeant John White. White and probationer Lucy Howard are called to the scene of a break-in one morning. Tragically, White is stabbed while they’re there. The murder itself is told from the perspective of Howard and the perspective of seventeen-year-old Darren Rowley, the prime suspect in the murder. The investigation that follows is also told from different perspectives including those of some of White’s co-workers, his boss, a local journalist and Darren Rowley’s attorney. Erskine takes this approach in The Betrayal too, which focuses on the date rape of one of the Tasmania Police officers. It’s a very effective strategy for letting readers get to know the various characters involved.

And then there’s Roger Smith’s Dust Devils. That’s in part the story of the murder of former journalist Robert Dell’s wife Rosie and their two children. They’re killed in an ambush when their car is forced off the road and into a gorge. That particular incident is told from Dell’s perspective and from the perspective of the murderer Inja Mazibuko. Mazibuko is a locally very powerful Zulu leader who’s ‘in the pocket’ of the minister of justice. Dell is framed for the murder and it’s not until his father Bobby Goodbread engineers his escape from prison that Dell gets the chance to go after Mazibuko. Goodbread has his own reasons for targeting Mazibuko so the two travel to Zululand together. The story of the journey is told from both men’s perspectives and the events that happen in Zululand are told from Mazibuko’s perspective as well as those of Robert Dell and of Mazibuko’s intended bride Sonto. There are other parts of the novel too where exactly the same event is told from at least two different perspectives. That strategy lends depth and suspense to this novel.

It does to Angela Savage’s Behind the Night Bazaar too. PI Jayne Keeney, who lives and works in Bangkok, travels north to Chiang Mai to visit her friend Didier ‘Didi’ de Montpasse. While she’s there, Didi’s partner Nou is brutally murdered. Then Didi himself is murdered. The official police explanation is that he killed his partner and then resisted arrest when the police went to interview him. But Keeney knows that isn’t true. So she decides to do her own investigation. Her search leads her to some ugly truths about child trafficking and the Thai sex trade. Several incidents in this novel are told from more than one perspective. For instance, Keeney’s arrival at Chiang Mai is told from her own perspective and that of Nou. Later, when Didi is killed, Keeney decides to go into his home and search through it for clues. That part of the story is told from her perspective and from that of the police officer who’s been ordered to keep watch. That strategy – describing exactly the same incident from a few perspectives – is a very effective way to develop the characters and to tell the story.

Sylvie Granotier’s The Paris Lawyer is the story of beginning attorney Catherine Monsigny. As the story begins, Monsigny has just successfully defended Cedric Devers in an assault case. That event is told from her point of view as well as Devers’. With that success behind her, Monsigny gets an even bigger chance to make good when she is asked to defend Myriam Villetreix against the charge of murdering her husband Gaston. More than once she goes to the prison in which the defendant is being held to interview her. Those meetings are described from both women’s perspectives. As the investigation continues, Monsigny finds that she has to decide who exactly is telling the truth about the murder: her client or the victim’s cousins, who insist that she is guilty. In the meantime Monsigny is facing her own personal demon. When she was a toddler, her mother Violet was murdered. Monsigny was present at the murder, but remembers little about it. When it turns out that the Villetreix trial is to be held not far from the place where Violet was murdered, her daughter decides to find out the truth about that killing too. The actual incident – Violet’s murder – is told from several perspectives. There’s Monsigny’s own sketchy memory, there’s the perspective of the murderer and there’s another perspective too. It’s a fascinating way to look back on the incident.

But not everybody feels that way. What about you? Do you enjoy looking at the same incident through more than one pair of eyes? Or do you find that too distracting? If you’re a writer, what do you think of it as a strategy?

 

 
 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Fleetwood Mac’s Don’t Stop.

We’re Going to Be Friends*

One of the best things about 2012 was the chance it gave me to ‘meet’ several new-to-me authors and try their work. I always feel one grows as a reader when one tries the work of ‘new’ authors. That’s why I’m so pleased to be a part of the Best New-to-Me Crime Fiction Authors meme hosted by Kerrie at Mysteries in Paradise. Thanks as ever, Kerrie, for doing this.

My choice of the best new-to-me crime fiction author for the last quarter of 2012 is Sylvie Granotier. Granotier was born in Algeria but grew up in Paris and Morocco. Although she’s lived in many places, Granotier says she’s lived in Paris most of her life and never tires of it. After finishing her education, she became a stage and film actress and also did modeling.

Granotier turned to writing after meeting American author Grace Paley and has never looked back. A full-time author, she’s written fourteen novels as well as many short stories. She’s also written film scripts.

The book that ‘sold’ me on Granotier is The Paris Lawyer, which is the story of Catherine Monsigny. She’s a young attorney who gets the chance to litigate her first important case when Myriam Villetreix is arrested and imprisoned for the murder of her wealthy husband Gaston. She wants Monsigny to defend her and Monsigny begins to prepare the case.

In the meantime, Monsigny is dealing with a very personal challenge. She is haunted by memories of the murder of her mother Violet. Catherine was present at the murder but she was only a toddler, so she can’t remember very much at all. But she wants to know the truth about what happened and lay that ghost to rest, as the saying goes. Her father loves her very much, but doesn’t want to discuss the murder. So she doesn’t get much help from him.

It turns out that the trial of Myriam Villetreix is to be held near Creuse, which is the same area where Violet Monsigny was killed. So at the same time as she is investigating Gaston Villetreix’s murder, Catherine begins to do her own investigation into what happened to her mother.

 

You can find out more about Sylvie Granotier at Le French Book.

 

You can find out more about The Paris Lawyer right here.

 

 

 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a the title of a White Stripes song.

Lean on Me When You’re Not Strong*

Millions of people volunteer their time and energy to help those in need. And the best kinds of volunteers are the ones who don’t make a big fuss about it. They see a need and without judging or asking anything in return, they try to meet that need. I won’t go on and on about the different causes for which they work. There is far too long a list of urgent needs out there for me to do that. Suffice it to say though that volunteers have a huge impact. Certainly they do in real life; I’ll bet you volunteer yourself and if you do, you know what a difference the work you do makes. That’s why you do it. There are many, many volunteer and volunteer groups in crime fiction too.

In Agatha Christie’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles for example, Captain Hastings is recovering from a wartime injury. He accepts an invitation to visit an old friend John Cavendish while he heals up, and is looking forward to a pleasant stay. Instead, Hastings is drawn into a case of murder when Cavendish’s stepmother Emily Inglethorp is poisoned. By chance Hastings discovers that another old friend Hercule Poirot is staying in the nearby village and asks him to investigate. Poirot agrees, not least because Emily Inglethorp was his benefactor.  As the novel goes along we learn that several members of the family do their share of volunteering, mostly in aid of the war effort. Cavendish, for instance drills with the local volunteer militia. His wife Mary volunteers as what would later be known as a Land Girl. And Emily Inglethorp plays quite a key role in all sorts of local charity groups. Although this fact of their lives isn’t the motive for the murder, it’s an interesting perspective on their lives.

Deborah Crombie’s In a Dark House introduces us to Helping Hands, a group dedicated to helping abused women and their children find safe places to go and make plans for their lives once they get there. One night, a warehouse fire in Southwark is reported by a resident at Helping Hands, and Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his lover DI Gemma James go to the shelter to interview the person who called in the fire.  There they meet Kath Warren, the director. What makes this fire of special interest is that the body of an unidentified woman was found in the remains. It seems that the shelter may be more than casually related when it turns out that Laura Novak, a member of its board of directors, has disappeared and could be the fire victim. There are three other equally strong possibilities though and Kincaid and James investigate all of them as they work to figure out who set the fire and who the dead woman is. I don’t think it’s spoiling this novel to say that the Helping Hands group didn’t engineer the fire or Novak’s disappearance. But we do get some interesting insight into the workings of a volunteer group, its leadership and the way such groups are viewed.

Kerry Greenwood’s Corinna Chapman volunteers with the Melbourne Soup Run, a mobile soup kitchen that serves Melbourne’s street people. She’s a baker so she provides bread; she also takes her turn going on the run with other volunteers who travel from one part of the city to another. At each stop the Soup Run gives out coffee and tea, food, some medicines and other supplies like blankets and clothes. Chapman is quite matter-of-fact about her volunteer work. She doesn’t talk much about it; she just rolls up her sleeves as the saying goes and does what needs to be done. The Soup Run is overseen by the indefatigable Sister Mary, one of Melbourne’s strongest advocates for those in need. Sister Mary has a remarkable skill at getting people to part with their time, their money, their donations, their official permission, whatever is necessary to get the job done. And she’s one of the few people Chapman co-operates with nearly automatically. The Soup Run proves useful to Chapman too, in a few mysteries. For instance, in Devil’s Food, Chapman’s father seems to have disappeared. Through the Soup Run she makes contact with other Melbourne volunteer groups and services and is able to find out what happened to him. The Soup Run is also a source of clues in Earthy Delights, in which she helps to solve the mystery of a series of junkie overdose deaths.

In Peg Brantley’s Red Tide we meet volunteer guide dog handler Jamie Taylor. By day she’s a Colorado bank loan professional. She also trains and handles Gretchen, Socrates ‘Socks’ and McKenzie, who are search-and-rescue dogs. When the need arises Taylor and her dogs go on search and rescue missions. That’s how they get involved in an eerie discovery. Convicted serial killer Leopold Bonzer has told the FBI where he buried his victims and Taylor and her dogs are sent to that remote field. They find the bodies but they also find bodies that Bonzer could not have buried there. Now it looks as though a ‘copycat killer’ is using the same field. Each in a different way, Taylor, her sister Jacqueline ‘Jax’ and FBI Agent Nick Grant investigate to find out who this new killer is and how that relates to a tragedy in Taylor’s own past. Among other things, this is an interesting look at the way search-and-rescue operations are carried out and how dogs are used in the process.

And then there’s Nina Borg, whom we first meet in Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis’ The Boy in the Suitcase. Nina is a nurse at Ellen’s Place, a shelter and service provider for refugees. She’s also volunteered in several different world ‘danger zones’ and takes her work in service to others very seriously. But one day she gets a very unusual case. Her friend Karin asks her to go to the Copenhagen train station and pick up a suitcase. She does so only to discover that it contains a little boy. He’s dazed and drugged, but he is alive. So she tries as best she can to find out who he is. Her first call is to Karin, but Karen seems to have disappeared. Now Nina has to find out for herself who the boy is and get him to safety. In doing so she finds herself up against some ruthless people who want that child. Meanwhile, we meet Sigita Ramoskiene, the Lithuanian mother of three-year-old Mikas, who has been abducted. As she frantically searches for her son, we learn that he is the child Nina found. Each in her own way the two women work to find out why Mikas was abducted and return him safely.

Sylvie Granotier’s The Paris Lawyer features Catherine Monsigny, who’s recently become an attorney. She has a full-time job at the law office of Maître Renaud, but she also volunteers her time to an association that works with undocumented immigrants who get into legal trouble. Her purpose in doing the volunteer work is mostly to get experience. That’s how she learns of the case of Myriam Villetreix, originally from Gabon, who’s been arrested and charged with the murder of her wealthy husband Gaston. The case has been getting a lot of media attention and if Catherine gets her boss’ permission to defend Myriam, it could launch her career. She gets that permission and begins to look into the case only to find that it’s more complicated than it seems on the surface. There is evidence against her client and there is motive. What’s more, this trial takes place not far from where Catherine’s mother was murdered when she was a tiny child. No-one was ever arrested for the crime and the memory of that day has haunted her since then. Being in the area spurs Catherine to try to find out who killed her mother while she is also searching for the truth about the murder of Gaston Villetreix.

There are of course many other crime fiction novels that feature volunteers, and quite frankly, I’m glad they get ‘air time.’ It’s easy enough to click a link and donate money. It’s not so easy to give up your time and your mental and physical energy. But volunteers do it all the time in a million different ways, and without going on about it. They deserve our respect and gratitude. Mostly, they deserve to have us join their company.

 

 

 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Bill Withers’ Lean on Me.

Just Take Your Best Shot and Don’t Blow It*

For most of us, the chance to make good is really exciting. It’s human nature to want to ‘make it’ and do well, and when that opportunity comes along, it’s natural to be thrilled about it. It’s also natural to be anxious. Every opportunity is, after all, an opportunity for making a mistake. And that risk can be especially anxiety-producing when it’s a public risk. That combination of exhilaration and anxiety can make for an interesting layer of tension in a crime novel, and it can add to a character. Readers can understand how a character who’s finally gotten a chance to make good can be both excited and anxious at the same time, and that makes a character more human.

We meet a character like that in Agatha Christie’s  After the Funeral (AKA Funerals are  Fatal). The Abernethie family gathers when their patriarch Richard Abernethie suddenly dies. During that gathering Abernethie’s youngest sister Cora Lansquenet says that her brother was murdered. At first, everyone hushes her up and even Cora admits that she has a habit of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. But everyone privately begins to wonder if she was right. Those suspicions seem justified when Cora herself is brutally murdered the next day. Family attorney Mr. Entwhistle asks Hercule Poirot to investigate, and Poirot agrees. One of the suspects in both murders is Susan Banks, niece to both victims. She has plans to open her own beauty shop and needs her share of her uncle’s fortune to do so. As we get to know Susan, we learn that she’s ambitious and excited about going ahead with her plans. In fact Entwhistle sees a slightly ruthless side to her. But at the same time, we can see that she’s also anxious. She spends a good deal of time going over her plans, taking time over the details of what the shop will be like and so on. She may not admit it even to herself, but there is a hint of anxiety about failure in the way she goes about planning, however bold her plans are. That aspect of her character makes her more human.

We also see a bit of that combination of anxiety and excitement – that chance to make good – in Anthony Bidulka’s Amuse Bouche. Former Saskatoon police officer Russell Quant has hung out his PI shingle and started to take cases. Most of them haven’t been exciting, but they’ve paid the bills. Then he gets the chance at a much bigger case. Wealthy entrepreneur Harold Chavell hires Quant to find his missing partner Tom Osborne. The two had planned to marry and even had their honeymoon trip to France arranged. When Osborne disappears right before the wedding, Chavell believes he’s taken the honeymoon trip by himself. So Chavell asks Quant to go to France and track Osborne down. Quant hasn’t done anything like that before but he agrees and begins his search for the missing man. The trip to France yields only a strong message from Tom to leave the whole thing alone and not try to find him. When Chavell hears this, he calls off the search and Quant returns to Saskatoon. Not long afterwards Tom Osborne’s body is discovered. At the same time as he is excited about this case and determined to see it through, Quant is also a little anxious. This is now a murder case and his client could very well be guilty. That mix of optimism and anxiety adds to Quant’s character and (in my opinion anyway) makes him more likeable.

In Vicki Delany’s In The Shadow of the Glacier we are introduced to Constable Moonlight ‘Molly’ Smith who lives and works in the small British Columbia town of Trafalgar. She’s a recent graduate of the police academy and is trying to find her place as a cop in the same town where she grew up. She’s determined to make good as a police officer and so far, she’s managed at least not to embarrass herself. Then she gets the opportunity that many young constables dream of: the chance to work on an important murder case. One night during her regular rounds, Smith finds the body of wealthy developer Reginald Montgomery lying in an alley. Determined to do the right thing but anxious that she won’t, she contacts her superiors and soon Sergeant John Winters arrives to take over the investigation. Winters’ usual assistant Detective Lopez is out of town, so Chief Constable Kelly assigns Smith to work with Winters. Smith has seldom been more anxious or more excited in her life when she gets this major opportunity. As the story evolves, we see how Smith very slowly begins to build some confidence in herself. Delany doesn’t make the mistake of letting Smith do everything right; that would be too unrealistic. Instead, Smith learns from her mistakes and we see how that balance of eagerness to make good and insecurity affect her.

That balance is also clear in Paddy Richardson’s Traces of Red. Rebecca Thorne has already carved out a place for herself as a well-regarded New Zealand television journalist. She is co-host of the popular Saturday Night. But she’s begun to be anxious lately; the show’s ratings are slipping and there’s a new network ‘darling’ coming right behind her as the saying goes. Then Thorne hears about a story that could make her career. Connor Bligh has been in prison for several years for the brutal triple murder of his sister Angela Dickson, her husband Rowan and their son Sam. The only survivor of that attack was their daughter Katy, who wasn’t at home at the time. Everyone’s always been convinced that Bligh was responsible but lately there’ve been hints that he may be innocent. If so, Thorne’s got the chance at a real story. So she begins to ask questions and investigate. On the one hand, she is eager to find out the truth about the Dickson family murders – one might even say overeager. On the other, she knows the risks she’s taking and gets more and more insecure about both her job and her personal life as both seem to fall apart.

And then there’s William Ryan’s Alexei Korolev, whom we meet in The Holy Thief, which takes place in the Stalinist years just before World War II. Korolev is a member of the Moscow CID and has dealt with crime, including murder, before. But then a case comes along that could have real repercussions. The body of a young woman is found in a former church that’s now being used for social and political gatherings. Korolev has just begun the investigation when there’s another murder. And another. Korolev discovers that these murders could be connected to the notorious Moscow Thieves. As if that weren’t enough to make him anxious, he also learns that the equally-dreaded NKVD is taking a particular interest in this case.  On the one hand he is eager to solve the murders, especially because if he doesn’t, his career and possibly much more is at risk. On the other, he’s anxious too. One wrong move and he could attract unwelcome attention from the Thieves, the NKVD or both. In this novel, that chance to make good with all its accompanying risks adds a real level of suspense to the story.

Sylvie Granotier’s The Paris Lawyer features young attorney Catherine Monsigny’s big chance to make good in legal circles. She’s given the opportunity to defend Myriam Villetreix, who’s been charged with poisoning her wealthy husband Gaston. Myriam claims that she’s innocent. Gaston’s cousins though claim otherwise. And there’s some circumstantial evidence against the accused so this isn’t what you’d call an ‘open-and-shut’ matter. Monsigny is eager to take this case, eager to be a successful attorney and eager to make her mark as the saying goes. At the same time, she is anxious about it. She prepares obsessively, she worries over details such as what to wear and how to attract reporters’ attention without seeming self-important. She goes over and over the relevant laws too. Her insecurity about the case isn’t helped by the fact that she’s also involved in a personal struggle. Her mother was murdered at a place not far from the site of the murder and trial. Being in that place again re-awakens Monsigny’s memories of that day and, haunted by those memories, she begins to ask questions about her mother’s murder, too. As Granotier follows the two threads of this story, we see how Monsigny is affected by that mix of being eager to ‘make it’ and anxious that she won’t.

It’s only natural to want success and strive for it while at the same time being a little afraid. So when characters go through that, it can make them seem all the more real. I’ve only mentioned a few examples; I’ll bet you can think of lots more.

 

 
 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Styx’s Fooling Yourself.