Looking back on all of the books I’ve written since my first publication, in 2003, I can spot a continuous thread. I only got excited about each concept when I saw a chance to make some serious point. That might come as a surprise, since I’ve always written genre fiction–first paranormal thrillers and mysteries, and now cozies. They’re not heavy reading and I always aim to entertain my audience. But as far as my motivation goes, something clicks into place and makes me want to commit when I also can explore a social issue.
My earliest inspiration came from Ira Levin, author of Rosemary’s Baby, The Stepford Wives and The Boys from Brazil. His first two books, especially, were subtly satirical. A 1966 Time Magazine cover had asked the question, “Is God Dead?” and Levin speculated whether Satan might take human form and seize power, instead. By the early ’70s he saw the pushback that married women often faced in trying to have lives of their own, and wondered just how far men would go to maintain the comfortable status quo. You could call his thrillers light reading–the sex and violence are thoroughly PG–and yet those two titles still serve as shorthand for an evil offspring or for a woman who conforms to an unreal standard of perfection, with no mind of her own.
In my early thrillers I touched on the use of remote viewers by the U.S. government, the possible abuses of genetic engineering, our tendency to worship celebrities, and corporate greed versus the small-town environment. My paranormal mysteries, though lighter, compare the options available to a contemporary young woman with those of one who lived in Victorian times (Dark Music), and wade into the dark waters of religious fundamentalism, erotomania and homophobia (Hex, Death & Rock ‘n’ Roll).
Even when I signed on to write a cozy mystery series about a cat groomer, I knew I wouldn’t be totally satisfied unless I could sink my teeth–and my claws–into some meaty subject matter. My young amateur sleuth, Cassie McGlone, deals with at least one serious cat issue per book. The Persian Always Meows Twice subtly highlights the problems that can arise when an owner dies without providing for the care of his surviving pet. (Though in this case, it isn’t his fault–he was murdered, and his estate is hung up while the crime is under investigation.) The Bengal Identity looks at the popularity of “wild” hybrid cats for pets, and the harm that can be done by underground, unscrupulous breeders. Feral Attraction involves with a colony of cats encroaching on a condo community, but their chief defender–who is murdered–has crusaded for other causes, too. In my next mystery, Gone, Kitty, Gone, someone steals a celebrity’s well-known pet and uses him as hostage to demand her attention; this lets me explore the dark psychology of a stalker. In researching each book, I always learn more about these situations than I’d known before, and I hope to share that information to my readers.
Whether you’re a reader or a writer yourself, how do you feel about mysteries or thrillers that deal with social controversies? Would you rather have the plot revolve around some less complicated issue such as personal resentment, jealousy or greed? Do you like a story that teaches you more about a social problem, in an entertaining way, or do you prefer totally escapist material? I’d love to get your input!
I love your books. I’ve read all three and can’t wait for the fourth book in the series. I love the characters. The things that makes them so real are the social controversy, how they feel about real-life problems, and how they relate and help to solve the issue. Does that make sense?
I also love the location and the careers in your books.
Thank you so much, Pat! I guess I figure that people in real life commit murder when something big is at stake, and that often leads back to a business scandal, a social issue, an abusive relationship, something that reaches beyond just the killer and his or her victim. I get a little bored with mysteries that revolve just around petty relationships and jealousies. I like the stakes to be big enough that many of us can relate to them.
I try to fight being “in the bubble” of people who agree with me when I read news. But for fun, for fiction, I tend to like social action stories when I agree with the point-of-view of the character seeking justice. Most of all the villain has to get me angry and the hero (hero/heroine) has to be, well, heroic. So, even if a writer agreed with my point of view, if their book was boring, predictable or preachy, I’d move on. I trust you to be above all that. 🙂
Yes, I know you can’t preach in a genre novel, and I actually try to take into account every character’s POV. Even if the villain has done something despicable, he often has a moment where he explains his thinking, and maybe Cassie can see how he got desperate enough to kill, even though she never condones it. Writing a bad guy is like acting the role of a bad guy–you enter into his viewpoint to some degree to anticipate what he, or she, is likely to do next. So you develop a little “sympathy for the devil.”