The Evil Twin and Other Literary Crimes

Just as "It was a dark and stormy night" is reckoned too cliched a beginning for any piece of serious fiction, there are a growing number of tropes that, while once original and startling, have become sources of predictable eye-rolling among readers.

I was reminded of this when I saw a post on Facebook by mystery novelist Sandra Parshall, who lamented "I've just finished yet another crime novel in which the supposed big twist near the end was the revelation of a secret sibling, somebody whose existence was previously unsuspected. (But this time I saw it coming from the second the character was introduced because the author practically put a flashing neon sign over his head.) This is the fifth or sixth newly published crime novel I've read in the last year with this "twist." It's getting tiresome. Why is this hackneyed plot device showing up so often?"

The funny thing was that I had just finished my perusal of a chapter in a novel by one of my students -- and I'm pretty sure there's a secret sibling plot twist brewing. If the writer can turn it around so the (presumed) secret sibling isn't, well, now that would be a good twist.

A related and even more embarrassing plot twist is the evil twin. I blush to say I used this soap operatic device in my very first (mercifully unpublished) novel. 

And there's the long-lost lover/spouse/relative who suddenly appears -- often in disguise -- and upsets the order of things. That goes back as far as Homer's Odyssey -- if not farther. In my Elizabeth books, I left open the possibility of her father showing up, or even Sam. . . though I never thought too hard about the latter.

I'm sure there are other plot devices that some find way too predictable -- are there any that annoy you?

Angry Readers

Back in 2005 when my first book had just come out, I met Charlaine Harris. She was one of a small group of Sisters in Crime who were having dinner together after a book sellers convention and I, new to the mystery world, asked her what she wrote. "Well, I have a new series about vampires," she told me, as I gave her a ride back to her hotel.

I hadn't a clue that this soft-spoken, pleasant lady from Duck Pond, Arkansas was just on the verge of becoming a major bestseller with her Sookie Stackhouse novels -- novels which became the very popular TV series 'True Blood.'

But as time went on, Charlaine's fame and popularity grew and grew -- and still, by all accounts, she remained just as sweet and just as hardworking -- turning out book after book with clockwork regularity.

This month, DEAD EVER AFTER, the 13th and the last in the series hit the shelves and the you-know what hit the fan.  Many  long time readers were outraged -- not so much that the series was ending but at which of three romantic interests Sookie, the telepathic waitress, ended up with.

 There's an article HERE detailing some of the really awful things readers have said and supposedly Ms. Harris has decided not to go on tour with this book because of the violent reaction there has been to the novel.

Folks, I find myself wanting to say, get a life! This is FICTION! These are not real people.

Of course it speaks well for an author's skill that she can create characters her readers feel so passionately about -- but it turns out to be something of a double-edged sword, in this case.

It's happened before -- Conan Doyle tired of writing about Sherlock Holmes and tried to kill him off in what was meant to be a final book but reader clamor forced him to resurrect his detective. 

As a reader, I'm still a little annoyed about some of the characters Patrick O'Brian killed off though, as a writer, I think I understand his reasons. 

Have any of you had characters you cared for so much that you were angry when things didn't go as you wished? 

 

Elizabeth Von Arnim

After hearing it recommended time and again and after seeing one of the characters on Downton Abbey receive a copy, I decided it was time for me to explore Elizabeth and Her German Garden. Published in 1898 and written by Elizabeth von Arnim, an Australian woman married to a German nobleman, this book had huge popularity in its day and the author went on to write many more, including Enchanted April.

I wasn't sure at first -- in the beginnning this semi-autographical book struck me as little more than the grumblings of a wealthy woman who doesn't seem to like anyone very much.  But I went on, captured by the descriptions of her garden -- her plans for it and her very real eye for beauty.

And as I continued, I began to appreciate the protagonist's rebel spirit, feminist outlook, and, most of all, her dry wit. Left alone with uncongenial house guests, Elizabeth laments:

"My husband goes off after breakfast to look at his crops, he says, and I am left at their mercy. I wish I had crops to go and look at -- I should be grateful even for one, and would look at it from morning to night, and quite stare it out of countenance, sooner than stay home and have the truth told me by enigmatic aunts. . ."

I'm hooked. I downloaded six of von Arnim's novels on my Kindle (for a pittance as they're out of copyright) and am half way through The Solitary Summer.  Terrific January reading!