by Suzanne Trauth
One of the first questions that I, and probably many authors, am asked at book events—bookstores, libraries, and book clubs—is “Where did the idea for the book come from? What was the inspiration for the story?” One has only to check the acknowledgment pages of novels to gain insight into the various origins of authors’ inventions.
For example, Canadian mystery writer Louise Penny of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series has more than once noted that she based the location of her long-running series, Three Pines, on the town in Quebec where she currently lives. And the character of Armand Gamache himself on her beloved late husband.
Suzanne Trauth
Photo by Steve Hockstein/HarvardStudio.com
Ann Cleeves, award-winning UK crime writer of the Vera Stanhope, Jimmy Perez, and Matthew Venn series, makes it clear that place is the trigger for her imagination. In one novel or another, Northumberland, North Devon, the Shetland islands, and, most recently, Orkney, set the inspiration wheel turning for Cleeves. In listening to her interviews, it’s as if each book could not be written without the location in mind, to give momentum to the story.
Kate Quinn’s The Briar Club, according to her author’s note, was born at the intersection of an essay on cooking, a photo of an attic room, and information on deep cover Soviet agents in America. What resulted is a novel that encompasses social and political events of the 1950s, as well as a deep dive into the lives of a group of women occupying a boarding house during that decade.
Then there are real life events that produce an imaginative spark. Though my last novel—What Remains of Love—was inspired by a meeting with a woman in the south of France whose World War II experiences formed the spine of my novel, my most recent book, The First to Die, a domestic suspense novel, also began with the story of a woman, but in a wildly different set of circumstances. In 2019, one afternoon, while on a vacation to Malaga with family members, we swam in the hotel pool and my brother-in-law recounted the tale of an elderly woman he knew who had triggered a near-disaster at a friend’s wedding. She accidentally tipped over a candle on the table that set the tablecloth on fire and, thanks to quick-thinking by my brother-in-law and another man, most of the guests had no idea that a conflagration was averted. I listened to the story and thought “the elderly woman would make a great character … all I had to do was find a story for her.” But the creation of a book can be a circuitous process.
For the next year I drafted a suspense novel with the elderly woman as the center piece of the mystery. She’d witnessed a crime but shock and grief prevented her from becoming a reliable observer. Editorial feedback resulted in my shifting the story and placing the prominent action in the hands of two other characters. The story wasn’t working. I rewrote and rethought. The elderly woman was still in the picture, but now her relationship to the protagonist had altered. The story still wasn’t working, and it wasn’t the fault of the elderly woman! More editorial feedback urged me to rethink the main plot points and character arcs. I did, and the elderly woman receded into the background. Four years into the crime story and the murderer changed, the protagonist changed, even parts of the setting changed. But the older woman hung around.
Finally, I found the heart of the story—a young woman, estranged from her family, returns home to bury her mother who disappeared fifteen years earlier. She has a sister who loves her, a father who struggles to understand her, friends and neighbors who provide both comfort and conflict. She is obsessed with discovering who killed her mother those many years ago.
And the elderly woman? I didn’t give up on her. She’s still here but now, with a different name and nationality, she provides a bit of humor and some significant clues that move the plot forward. She hung around long enough to find a role that suited her. And I am forever grateful for the Malaga vacation that provided a kernel of inspiration that triggered the novel.
First To Die:
Connie Tucker, a free-spirited beach bartender, has been estranged from her family in New Jersey ever since her actress mother, Simone, disappeared one night during a violent storm at the theatre where she was rehearsing. Uncontrollable and in a rage at the loss of her parent, fifteen-year-old Connie is exiled to California, due to her delinquent behavior, to live with an aunt she doesn’t know. Now, fifteen years later, Simone’s murdered remains are discovered at a construction site and Connie returns to the east coast for the funeral—she owes it to her mother. The cold case unit will take over now and solve the crime. But then she discovers a message her mother left behind. It feels like a dispatch from the grave. Connie must face her tortured past, the guilt of concealing a devastating secret, and the part she played in her mother’s disappearance. Unearthing buried family history and childhood demons, she confronts the agonizing reality that she doesn’t know where she belongs, where to call home. Who to trust. When a second suspicious death occurs, Connie races to unravel the events of the night Simone disappeared. Her mother was the first to die…but not the last.
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Very interesting article from an author who is new to me. I’d love to read her book.