![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() We have a tradition of not speaking ill of the dead, but bringing victims to life on the page changes that dynamic. But after learning that her sister was married to a man who’d killed his first wife, Deirdre isn’t just hell-bent on getting justice, but on understanding why her sister chose to keep the secrets she did. Before that, no one even suspects Caroline’s accidental death could be a murder. In the past, I’ve done that through flashbacks, but in my latest book, Her Last Breath, I use a different strategy: the main character, Deirdre, receives a letter from her dead sister, Caroline in chapter one. Their death is simply the engine that powers the story, ultimately showcasing a sleuth’s dazzling skills.įor me, there’s always been a powerful attraction to making the dead character at the center of the story come alive for readers. ![]() The reader rarely meets them and often has no insight into what made them tick. In a traditional mystery, it’s up to a brilliant detective to follow a trail of clues around a death and then deduce who the murderer is-think of Hercule Poirot bragging about his “little grey cells.” As satisfying as that construct can be, it sometimes leaves me feeling like the murder victim is the character who matters least in a novel. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I love the idea of the dead communicating with the living in a fiction. ![]()
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