I’m Leavin’ on a Jet Plane*

I’m getting ready for a trip next month to a conference. I’m especially excited about this trip because I’m going to get to meet some friends I’ve only ever ‘met’ virtually. But of course, this trip is going to involve air travel. The whole thing has gotten me thinking about air travel and the role it plays in most of our lives. Lots of people commute to work by air and even those of us who don’t are quite accustomed to getting on planes to get wherever we’re going. So it’s little wonder at all that we see a lot of air travel in crime fiction. Sometimes the flight is the central point of the novel; that makes sense because a flight brings together all sorts of disparate people and that can make for a terrific setting and plot. Sometimes the flight is a minor point. Even then it allows the author to move the sleuth around, explore characters’ personalities, add to the plot, and so on. And it’s realistic, since so many of us travel that way.

Air travel is a way of life in some areas. For instance in Alaska, it’s the main method of transportation into and out of many places. That’s what we see in Stan Jones’ Nathan Active series. In White Sky, Black Ice, Active, who’s an Alaska State Trooper, is investigating the supposed suicide of George Clinton, whose body is found outside a local bar in Chukchi. Some little clues suggest that Clinton didn’t kill himself though, and Active has been looking into the matter. Then Active gets a request from Clara Stone, a relation on his mother’s side of the family. She is worried because her husband Aaron hasn’t returned from a hunting trip to Katy Creek. At first, Active wonders whether there’s even any reason to worry since Stone wasn’t really specific about when he’d be back. But Clara insists, so Active arranges with a local pilot Cowboy Decker to fly him over the Katy Creek area. That’s when Active discovers Stone’s body – another supposed suicide. But neither Clinton nor Stone ‘fit’ the profile of the typical suicide (if there is such a thing), so Active is more convinced than ever that both men were murdered. Active turns out to be quite right. These two men were murdered, and their deaths are linked.

Getting from place to place in Alaska often involves planes that aren’t exactly luxurious, and Jones makes that clear in his series. So does Dana Stabenow in both her Kate Shugak series and her Liam Campbell series. In Fire and Ice, for instance, which is the first of the Liam Campbell series, Constable Liam Campbell has just been assigned to Newenham, a small town in the Alaska bush. He no sooner de-planes when he gets involved in his first local murder case. Professional pilot Bob DeCreft has been killed by a propeller. DeCreft was a seasoned pilot who didn’t take un-necessary risks, so he wouldn’t have been likely to make the kind of mistakes that led to his death. On the other hand, he didn’t seem to have any enemies, so it’s hard to identify a motive for murder. Soon it comes out that the plane was sabotaged. This case is complicated by the fact that the plane that killed DeCreft is owned by Campbell’s former lover Wyanet “Wy” Chouinard, a skilled bush pilot in her own right. But little by little, Campbell starts getting a little closer to the truth about the murder – or so he thinks. When his chief suspect is also killed, Campbell has to re-think his original theory. In the end though, he gets to the truth about the murders.

One of the more famous air-related murder mysteries is Agatha Christie’s Death in the Clouds (AKA Death in the Air). Marie Morisot, who does business as Madame Giselle, is a well-known French moneylender. She is en route one day from Paris to London when she suddenly dies of what looks like heart failure. Soon enough though, it’s established that she was poisoned. The only possible suspects are her fellow passengers so Hercule Poirot, who was on the ill-fated flight, works with Chief Inspector James Japp to look among the other passengers and find out who the murderer is. The first part of this novel takes place on the plane, so as well as telling the story of the murder, the novel also depicts air travel at that time.

In William Ryan’s The Darkening Field (AKA The Bloody Meadow), Moscow CID Captain Alexei Korolev is assigned to a very delicate case. Promising young actress Maria Alexandrovna Lenskaya has been found dead – an apparent suicide. There are, however, small hints that suggest that she may have been murdered. So Korolev’s charge is to travel to Odessa, where Lenskaya was filming on location, and investigate very quietly. If the death was in fact suicide, then no more need to be done – there are certainly enough suicides during this time (pre-World War II Stalinist Russia). If the victim was murdered though, Korolev will have to find out who the killer is. Korolev prepares for his investigation and in the process, takes his first trip by air. This is a small plane too, and although the pilot says there’s nothing to worry about, that doesn’t exactly settle Korolev’s nerves. Things don’t get much better when each passenger is weighed. The total weight can’t exceed a given amount, so Korolev is concerned:

 

‘When all the passengers had been weighed and their names checked off, the younger pilot and the clerk examined the ledger and the latter flicked balls back and forth on an abacus. Their faces were grave and Korolev felt every one of his two hundred pounds, bag included.’ 

 

Despite his misgivings, Korolev and the other passengers have no real trouble getting to Odessa, and Korolev begins to look into the case. As it turns out, Lenskaya’s death was indeed murder, and the trail to the killer leads to some very high places.

Of course, plane travel can prove to be very useful in ways beyond the obvious. In Lindy Cameron’s Redback, for instance, we meet journalist Scott Dreher. He’s been doing some research on the use of war simulation games to recruit for the military, and his trail leads to Japan, where he wants to meet game developer Hiroyuki Kaga. On board a flight to Tokyo, Dreher happens to notice that the passenger sitting next to him has a copy of Global WarTek, one of the games Dreher’s been researching. He takes a look at the game and sees something that gives him an important clue that the military may not be the only ones using games for recruitment purposes. It turns out that Dreher’s instincts are right. This game is being used by a shadowy group of terrorists to recruit, initiate and give instructions to members. While Dreher is pursuing this story, the same terrorists are in the ‘line of sight’ of Team Redback, a crack Australian retrieval team that specialises in rescuing people from dangerous situations. Led by Commander Bryn Gideon, they’re called out to rescue delegates to a conference on a Pacific Island and pull off the operation very successfully. Then they learn about other incidents in other places in the world including a train that is blown up in France, an attack on a U.S. military base and two murders, including that of Hiroyuki Kaga. Little by little, Gideon and her team find the connections among these incidents and when they get the information Dreher has, they target the terrorists who are behind the events. And one of the key pieces of information that leads everyone to the terrorists comes from that on-board encounter Dreher has.

Air travel has become so common that most of the time, we just don’t think about it (unless of course one happens to be squeamish about it). But it’s an integral part of modern life, so it makes sense that it would also be woven into crime fiction. Now let’s see…which seats shall I choose? Aisle, I think… 

 

 
 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from John Denver’s Leaving on a Jet Plane, made most famous by Peter, Paul and Mary. I miss both John Denver and Mary Travers…

Back in the USSR*

Yesterday, May Day, was International Workers Day. Although it’s celebrated in over 80 countries, it’s perhaps most closely associated with the former Soviet Union. From 1922 to 1993, the Soviet Union was a major world political and military power and was certainly the dominant force in Eastern Europe. Given how important the Soviet Union was for so long, it’s no surprise that we see a lot of crime fiction that takes a look at life within the Soviet Union during its existence. I’ve only space in this one post for a few examples, but hopefully they’ll be enough to show you what I mean.

Ivy Litvinov’s His Master’s Voice tells the story of the murder of Arkady Petrovich Pavlov. Pavlov is a Moscow-based representative for an Odessa timber company who is found stabbed, his body found slumped over one of Feodor Chalyapin’s opera recordings. The case is assigned to District Procurator Nikulin and his assistant, who begin with the most likely suspect, Georgian ballerina Tamara Dolidzey, the last person known to have been with the victim. Pavlov was a ballet enthusiast and particularly fond of Dolidzey so she might have had any number of motives. But as Nikulin looks into the case, it’s soon clear that there are other possibilities. Pavlov was also a businessman who, it turns out, might have been involved in the ‘black market.’ And there is a possibility he was taking part in an anti-Soviet conspiracy. So Nikulin has to negotiate some proverbially shark-infested waters as he searches for the killer.

One of the series for which Stuart Kaminsky was famous is his Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov series. This series takes place in Moscow and features Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, who’s been on the police force for thirty years and has learned how to navigate its treacherous political landscape. In the first of this series Death of a Dissident (AKA Rostnikov’s Corpse), Soviet dissident Aleksandr Granovsky is about to go on trial. He’s preparing his trial speech, which he hopes will gain Western attention and perhaps even his freedom. In the midst of his preparations he’s murdered with a rusty sickle. The case is heavily politically charged, as Granovsky is a known dissident. So when Rostnikov gets the case, he has the thankless task of trying to investigate whether the KGB might have been involved in the murder without running afoul of that agency himself.

Martin Cruz Smith created a series featuring Arkady Renko, who in the first novel (Gorky Park) is a chief homicide investigator for the Soviet militsiya – the civilian police. As the series goes on he takes on other professional roles, but throughout all seven novels he digs for the truth about cases regardless of how powerful or well-connected the guilty people are. In fact his experience has made Renko quite suspicious of anyone in power and he is very much aware of the corruption that exists at the ‘top of the tree.’ In Polar Star for instance, Renko has paid a heavy price for his willingness to suspect and go after even the highest-placed and most powerful. He’s been exiled to the fishing ship Polar Star, where he’s a worker like everyone else on the ship. One day, the body of fellow crew member Zina Patiashvili is pulled in along with the rest of the day’s catch. Renko has investigative experience so he’s asked to look into the matter. He’s unwilling at first, but is eventually persuaded to investigate. At first there doesn’t seem to be much motive for the murder; Zina Patiashvili was a simple galley worker who did her job. But soon enough Renko finds out that she was also involved in a smuggling operation and did her share of blackmailing as well. Now it’s clear that her death can be traced to some dangerous and influential people. But as Renko fans know, this doesn’t stop him…

William Ryan’s Alexei Korolev series takes place in Moscow in the years leading up to World War II. As we learn in The Holy Thief, Korolev is a member of the Moscow CID. So he and his team are assigned to investigate the murder of Maria Ivanovna Kuznetsova, whose brutally murdered body is found in a former church that is now used for political rallies and meetings. As Korolev and his team begin to investigate, they discover that this murder may be related to the activities of the notorious Moscow Thieves, members of Moscow’s criminal underworld. Those people are at least as dangerous as the NKVD, which everyone knows better than to cross. Korolev is working on this murder when another occurs. When the NKVD takes an interest in these cases Korolev knows that he’s going to need to tread very carefully if he’s going to catch the killer (thus saving his own job if not his own life) without running afoul of the Thieves or the NKVD.

And then there’s Tom Rob Smith’s Child 44. In that novel, we meet Leo Stepanovich Demidov, an officer in the MGB, the precursor to the Soviet Union’s KGB. Demidov and his wife Raisa live a comfortable life in the post-World War II Stalinist Soviet Union. That changes though when a low-ranking colleague Fyodor Andreev loses his son Arkady in what everyone says was a terrible accident. In the Soviet Union of this time, the official credo is that Soviet society is a paradise in which there is no crime and any hints that a murder could have been committed are considered threats to state security. So at first Demidov’s goal is to quell the rumour of murder and bring Andreev ‘back into line.’ But Demidov is soon convinced that Arkady was murdered. Then there’s another murder. Before long, Demidov is faced with an untenable situation: there is a murderer on the loose in a society in which there is officially ‘no crime.’ To pursue the murderer is to commit treason. Not to pursue the murderer is to put his own life at risk. In the end Demidov does discover who the killer is and what the motive is, but not before he loses his position, his friends and very nearly his life.

There are of course a lot of other novels that take place in the former Soviet Union. And there are dozens of excellent spy thrillers that focus on the Cold War between the Soviet Union and its allies and the US, the UK and their allies. All of those novels reflect the profound influence the Soviet Union had in real life. Have you read any USSR-based novels? Which ones have you enjoyed?

 

 
 

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

The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades*

Crime fiction is an awfully diverse genre and in a lot of ways that’s a good thing. In fact in most ways it is. There’s something in the genre for just about anyone to enjoy, no matter how dark, light, thriller-ish, character-driven, plot-driven or any other way they like their novels. And for the crime writer, writing in a diverse genre means there’s a lot of flexibility in terms of the kind of novel to write. But here’s the thing. A diverse genre with a lot of authors means that the crime fiction fan’s TBR list/library can get out of control. But that doesn’t stop crime fiction fans from getting excited when a new release by a favourite author is coming out.

Of course, everyone has a different set of favourites. But here are just a few of the new books coming out this year that I am very much looking forward to reading.

Coming out in April will be Martin Edwards’ The Frozen Shroud, the sixth in his Lake District series featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and Oxford historian Daniel Kind. Edwards has a real gift for depicting the beautiful Lake District, and this series weaves together strong characters, past mysteries and present mysteries. Little wonder I’m so eager for this new novel. In it, Scarlett and her Cold Case Review team investigate the connections between the World War I-era murder of Gertrude Smith, the five-year-old murder of Shenagh Moss, and another murder closer to home for Scarlett.

Another book I’m very much looking forward to reading is William Ryan’s The Twelfth Department. This is the third in his historical crime fiction series featuring Moscow CID Captain Alexei Korolev. These novels take place mostly in Moscow during the Stalinist years leading up to World War II. Korolev lives and works during a very dangerous time in the then-Soviet Union. He’s assigned to investigate murder cases and he is committed to his job. At the same time, he is fully aware of the political tinder box in which he lives and he knows that he has to move carefully and trust no-one completely. In The Twelfth Department which is scheduled to be released in July, and which has already been getting excellent advance reviews, Korolev is excited at the prospect of a visit from his son Yuri. But he’s soon caught up in something quite different when he is assigned to investigate the murder of a noted scientist who’s been shot. It turns out that the victim was working on a sensitive, and very dark, project, and when another scientist is murdered, Korolev knows that this case is going to be extremely dangerous for him and also for his family.

Also being released in July will be Angela Savage’s The Dead Beach. This is the third in her series featuring Australian ex-pat Jayne Keeney, who lives and works in Bangkok. Savage creates a very real picture of life in Thailand and what it’s like to be a farang – a foreigner – who lives there. In this novel, Keeney is hired to find out who murdered a young tour guide who worked in the southern part of Thailand. From what Savage says about the novel, this case

 

‘…brings her [Keeney} face-to-face with unscrupulous businessmen, embittered thugs, environmental zealots and deadly cobras.’

 

Sounds like just another day’s work for Keeney, who’s already had to go up against child traffickers, corrupt cops and unscrupulous charity workers.

July will be a good month for me reading-wise because I’m also looking forward to Elizabeth Spann Craig’s Rubbed Out, the fourth in her Memphis Barbecue series which she writes as Riley Adams. This series features Lulu Taylor, who owns and runs Aunt Pat’s Barbecue, a popular Memphis restaurant. One of the things I like about this series is its authentic portrait of Southern life and culture. There’s humour and strong characterisation in this series, too. In this particular novel, Taylor gets mixed up in the murder of barbecue pitmaster Ruben Shaw. Taylor’s good friend Cherry Hayes gets into a violent quarrel with Shaw at a barbecue competition, so when Shaw is found murdered only a few hours later, Hayes is a very likely suspect. Taylor wants to clear her friend’s name, so she investigates the murder and finds that Hayes is not at all the only person who had a good reason to kill Ruben Shaw.

I’m also looking forward to a couple of October releases. For one, Jørn Lier Horst’s Vinterstengt is coming out in English as Closed For Winter. This is the seventh in Horst’s series featuring Chief Inspector William Wisting, who lives and works in Stavern, Norway. Horst creates (in my opinion at any rate) a strong sense of place and local culture and some well-drawn characters in this police procedural series. Closed For Winter continues Wisting’s story. In this novel, Ove Bakkerud is preparing for a last few quiet weeks in his summer home before closing it for the winter. Then his home is burgled. As if that’s not enough, Bakkerud discovers the body of a neighbour in the house next door. Wisting and his team investigate, only to be faced with the discovery of other bodies on the same archipelago. And what does all of that have to do with an unusual number of dead birds in the area?

October will also see the release of The Case of the Love Commandos, Tarquin Hall’s fourth novel featuring Punjabii private investigator Vishwas ‘Vish’ Puri. Puri lives and works in Delhi, which Hall depicts in all of its beauty, squalor, vivid colour, life, and variety. Puri’s team consists of his secretary Elizabeth Rani, his office boy Door Stop (so called because he does as little as he can get away with doing), his driver Handbrake, and his fellow investigators Tubelight (who always takes his time sputtering to life in the mornings), Flush (whose family was the first in his village to get an indoor toilet) and Facecream (so called because she blends in perfectly in any surroundings). In this particular novel, Puri and his team investigate the abduction of a student named Ram, a member of India’s untouchable caste. He was set to marry a girl from a high caste, who’d been rescued from her family by the Love Commandos. But when Ram doesn’t appear at his own wedding, Puri takes the case. The trail leads to rural India so Puri travels to an area outside his usual element, so to speak. He also has to look over his shoulder because his rival Hari Kumar is also on this case. Word is too that Puri’s mother Mummy-ji, of whom I am very fond, features in this novel as well.

And then there’s December, when Michael Connelly’s The Gods of Guilt is set for release. This novel features attorney Mickey Haller, whom Connelly fans will know made his first ‘starring’ appearance in The Lincoln Lawyer. In The Gods of Guilt, Haller discovers that a former client – someone he thought he had saved and helped start a new life – has been murdered. Connelly is a master of creating flawed but basically sympathetic characters such as Haller, and forcing them to face their own pasts. He did it (in my opinion) brilliantly with his other famous creation Harry Bosch in novels such as Echo Park and The Last Coyote. And in The Gods of Guilt, it seems it’ll be Haller’s turn to deal with his past. I’m a fan of Connelly’s work, so this is one of those novels I’ll probably pre-order…

I’m also looking forward to lots of other releases as well. For instance, Domingo Villar’s Cruces de Piedra (Stone Crosses) will be released in Spain in May. I’m not sure how long it’ll take for this third Leo Caldas novel to be released elsewhere, but as soon as it is, I will definitely be reading it. Oh, and I’m currently reading T.J. Cooke’s Defending Elton which is due to be released very soon, but I’m not commenting on it much at the moment as I’ve not finished it; you’ll hear more about it, I can say that much.

What about you? Which novels are you really, really, really looking forward to reading this year?

If you’re a writer, here’s your opportunity: Got anything crime fictional being published this year?

 

 
 

*NOTE: The title of this post is the title of a song by Timbuk3

How Do You Measure, Measure a Year?*

It’s interesting how the end of the year often gets us into a reflective mood, whether or not we make and keep New Year’s resolutions. It’s often a time for taking stock of oneself – well, it is for me anyway. And no, I promise this isn’t going to be one of those ‘Best of 2012’s Reading’ posts. You’ll be reading enough of those as the next weeks go by. Besides, I don’t like to ‘stay within the lines’ like that. But here are a few things I’ve noticed about my crime fiction reading this year. If they help you make some reading choices, then I’m glad to have been of service.

 

 

Book That Has Caused Me to Re-Think My Assumptions

 

Angela Savage – Behind the Night Bazaar

Y.A. Erskine – The Brotherhood

Roger Smith – Dust Devils

Martin Edwards – All the Lonely People

 

Most of us, myself included, have a set of assumptions about, well, everything. About people from other groups, about how to make the world better, about how to solve the world’s problems. But those assumptions can blind us to the fact that very few of life’s problems and inequities have an easy solution. All of these books present difficult issues (e.g. poverty, human trafficking, questions of racial equity) that do not have an easy solution. And these authors are all to be commended for not offering pat solutions. All of these novels have caused me to question what I always believed, and that’s a good thing. The book that has most caused me to really question myself though is Angela Savage’s Behind the Night Bazaar. In that novel, PI Jayne Keeney investigates the murders of her friend Didier ‘Didi’ de Montpasse and his partner Nou. The trail leads Keeney to some ugly truths about child trafficking and the sex trade. I think we’d all agree that something has to be done to keep children safe and to stop human trafficking. But Savage shows us, without preaching, that there isn’t a simple solution. Not until we question what we assume to be true can we look at the source of these problems and try to solve them. This isn’t an easy, light book, but it stays with me in part because it has invited me to stop and re-think everything I always ‘knew’ about human trafficking.

 

 

Book I Am Very Annoyed at Myself For Not Reading Yet

 

Michael Connelly – The Black Box

Ben Winters – The Last Policeman

Deon Meyer – Seven Days

Vanda Symon – The Faceless 

 

Here’s the thing. There are only twenty-four hours in a day, and seven days in a week. And one has to eat and sleep and pay bills, etc…   So there simply isn’t enough time to read it all. I am a fan of all four of these highly talented authors, so it has nothing to do with my interest in their books. It really doesn’t.  I will read all of these books. However, I am most angry with myself for not yet reading Vanda Symon’s The Faceless. Symon is the highly talented author of the Sam Shephard series, and I was very much looking forward to this standalone release. I still am. I promise, Vanda, I will read it. Very soon. Folks, if you haven’t yet read it, give it a try. Symon will not disappoint you.

 

 

Pattern in My Reading That I Didn’t Even Notice

 

I Have Read More Canadian Crime Fiction This Year.

I Have Read More French Crime Fiction This Year.

I Have Read More Australian Crime Fiction This Year, Mostly Written by Women.

I Have Read More Thrillers This Year.

 

Did you ever catch yourself in a new pattern that you weren’t even aware of? Well, this year I found myself, and I promise it was unplanned, branching out in all sorts of different reading directions. I’m glad for that, as I am a better informed crime fiction fan for it. I’m all for ‘stretching oneself’ as a reader. And I am truly grateful for those who’ve helped me do that this year. The pattern that I’ve most noticed – that seems the strongest – without me even being aware of it is that I’ve read a whole lot more crime fiction by Australian women writers than I had before. This year I’ve read some terrific work by Sandy Curtis, Virginia Duigan, Y.A. Erskine,  Kerry Greenwood, Wendy James and Angela Savage, among others. I’m so glad I ‘met’ these wonderful ladies from down under. To all of you, thanks for sharing your work with us, and it is my great pleasure to mention it on my blog. Want to read some terrific crime fiction by Aussie women writers? Sure ya do! Check out Fair Dinkum Crime, which is the source for all Australian crime fiction. And check out the Australian Women Writers challenge. Go ‘head. You’re in for a real treat!

 

 

New Character I’ve Met This Year That I’d Love to Have a Drink With

 

Anthony Bidulka’s Russell Quant

Angela Savage’s Jayne Keeney

Donna Malane’s Diane Rowe

Alan Orloff’s Channing Hayes

 

All of these sleuths are absolutely terrific characters whom I’m really happy that I met. They’re all smart, interesting and I’m sure they’d be a lot of fun to know in person. My vote, by a slim margin (‘cause they’re all great characters) is Anthony Bidulka’s Russell Quant. Quant’s smart, thoughtful, interesting, and knows lots of cool places to eat and drink. I could truly enjoy sharing a bottle of good wine and swapping stories with him. His would probably trump mine by a long shot. Check out all of these protagonists, folks – they’re all worth getting to know.

 

 

Author Whose Next Release I Am Most Eager For (Fingers are Drumming and I’m Waiting……Still Waiting…)

 

Paddy Richardson

Adrian Hyland

William Ryan

James Craig

 

All of these authors have wowed me with their novels. And now that I’ve gotten hooked it’s really very unfair to keep me waiting. Come on, you folks!! Next novel, please!!!!!!  There are a few other authors who’ve gotten me hooked (e.g. Elizabeth Spann Craig and Donna Malane), but I know when their next books are coming out, so I’ll be patient. But I am especially eager to read the next book by… Adrian Hyland. Hyland’s Emily Tempest series is one of the finest series I’ve read, and I really truly hope there’ll be a new one soon. A-a-a-hem, Mr. Hyland!!!

So there you have it. A few reflections on my own reading as we face the last few weeks of 2012. Now, please don’t ask me which book I’ve liked most of all I’ve read this year. First of all, the year isn’t over yet. Secondly, I couldn’t narrow it down.

 

 
 

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Jonathan Larson’s Seasons of Love.

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.