Most people feel a sense of gratitude when someone is especially helpful. As a personal example, when I was doing my Ph.D. program, I stored the data I collected on a disk (yes, this was well before cloud storage). One day, I put the disk into my hard drive to work with the data and…it was blank. The data seemed to be gone. I asked for help from someone in the department who was good with computers, and later that day, the disk was returned to me, all fixed. You can imagine how grateful I was. Without that data, I’d have had to start my whole research project again.
That sense of loyalty and gratitude can play an important part in a crime novel. It can lead characters to do all sorts of things that they might not otherwise do. Sometimes it can even lead to tragedy. Even if it doesn’t, the sense of personal debts of gratitude can add to a novel.
For instance, in Agatha Christie’s The Moving Finger, Jerry Burton and his sister Joanna take a house in the small town of Lymstock so that Jerry can recover from injuries he suffered in a plane crash. All seems well enough at first, but then, a series of vicious anonymous letters begins to circulate. The letters contain false accusations, but they’re still upsetting. In fact, Jerry and Joanna get one that accuses them of being lovers instead of brother and sister. Then, Mona Symington, who’s married to the local solicitor, dies of what seems to be suicide after receiving a letter. Now the police ramp up their efforts to find out who’s responsible for the letters. In the meantime, Jerry and Mona’s daughter, Megan, have met. Megan is awkward and unsophisticated, and she’s not happy at home. Jerry and Joanna take her under their wings, so to speak, and with their help she has a complete makeover and gains a new sense of confidence. Needless to say, she’s very grateful and has a sense of loyalty to them.
In Martin Clark’s The Legal Limit, we are introduced to Mason and Gates Hunt, the sons of an abusive, alcoholic father. As children, Gates, who’s a bit older, protected Mason as best he could from their father, so Mason has always had a sense of gratitude and loyalty to his brother. That’s tested, though, when the boys grow up. Mason has taken advantage of every opportunity he’s had, and managed to do well in school and get a scholarship to law school. Gates has squandered his considerable athletic talent and now lives on his girlfriend’s Welfare payments and money he gets from his mother. One day, Gates has an argument with his romantic rival Wayne Thompson. The argument is put on hold but sparks up again later that night. It ends with Gates shooting Thompson. Mason’s sense of loyalty drives him to help his brother cover up the crime, and the young men go on with their lives. Then, Gates is arrested for cocaine trafficking and given a long sentence. He asks his brother’s help, but this time, Mason refuses. Gates threatens that if Mason doesn’t help, he’ll implicate his brother in the still-unsolved Thompson murder. Now, Mason has to find a way to stay out of jail and bring out the real truth of the murder.
In Rachel Abbott’s Only the Innocent, Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) Tom Douglas and his assistant, Sergeant Becky Robinson solve the murder of wealthy philanthropist Hugo Fletcher. As you can imagine, they begin with the victim’s wife, Laura. She was out of the country at the time of the murder, so it’s hard to see how she could have committed the murder. And there are other good possibilities. As the novel goes on, we get to know Laura a bit. She comes from a very modest background, so meeting Hugh seemed like a dream come true. Laura isn’t greedy, but it was hard not to be grateful to Hugh for introducing her to ‘A-list’ people, the best clothes, fine restaurants, and so on. That loyalty and gratitude formed a part of the dynamic between the two.
One of the major elements in Henry Chang’s Chinatown Beat is the Chinese tong. Members of tongs are loyal to their group mates and, especially, to their leaders. They are grateful for being in the group, and often, they benefit from money and other perks of membership. So, they have a strong sense of loyalty to the tong. This means they tend to do as they’re told. It also means they tend to do whatever it takes to protect the tong. That includes avoiding or lying to the police when a crime’s committed. And that’s what Detective Jack Yu is up against in the novel when he investigates a series of child rapes and a murder. Tong members know where their loyalties lie, and it’s not with the police.
And then there’s Lucien Connally, whom we meet in Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire stories. He’s the former sheriff of fictional Absaroka County, Wyoming. Now retired, he still knows everyone and follows what goes on in town. The current sheriff, Walt Longmire, is loyal and grateful to Connally, seeing him as a mentor as much as anything else. And that plays a role in Death Without Company. In the novel, Longmire investigates the poisoning death of Mari Baroja, a resident of the Durant Home for Assisted Living. In order to find out who the killer is, Longmire has to look back into her past, and into the county’s past. And it turns out that Lucien Connally plays a part in the solution to the case.
If you’ve ever had someone save you (or so it seemed) just when you needed it, you know that feeling of loyalty and gratitude. It’s an important part of what holds us together, and it can play an important part in crime fiction.
*NOTE: The title of this post is the title of a song by Earth, Wind, and Fire.
Crime Writer Margot Kinberg 
Fabulous post.
I had a computer die on me, everything was on it. A friend’s son who had all the computer knowledge and worked in the computer world stepped in and worked out the problem, and fixed it!
And more recently, a wonderful crime writer (not a million miles away from here) who also happens to have a PhD … agreed to beta read for me with a grammar hammer firmly in her grip. Very grateful. 🙂
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Thanks, Cat. I am so, so sorry to hear about your computer meltdown. It must have been awful. I’m so glad, though, that your friend’s son was able to fix it. It’s terrifying how much those younger people know about the inner workings of computers…. And you know, any crime writer who gets the chance to read your work is the grateful one. You tell a good story! 😀
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I think computer malfunction stories are part of most writer’s repertoire that’s how we learn (the hard way) to have multiple backups! 🙂 🙂
Thank you for your kindness!! 🙂
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You have a good point, Cat. Any writer knows (hopefully not too many the hard way!) to have at least one backup! 😀
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I store everything in the cloud, and backup to flashdrives (yes plural) … perhaps I’m a bit overly cautious now. 🙂 🙂
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Oh, I don’t think that’s being overly cautious, Cat. I think it’s being appropriately careful. The one thing you don’t want to do is lose your stories!
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I guess that’s one of the important parts of being human – community and pulling together when the going gets tough! And any number of characters in crime novels have reason to be grateful to the many detectives who clear them of murder charges!
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You’re right about that, KBR!! There are innumerable characters in crime fiction who, quite literally, owe their lives to sleuths who clear them of charges. That’s a post in itself1 And you’re right; it is part of being human that we live in community and pull/push/carry each other through rough times. I wouldn’t want to try to make it alone!
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“Tong members know where their loyalties lie, and it’s not with the police.” 😃
Loved how you put it, Margot.
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Thank you, Neeru. I really think that’s the way it is, too.
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The relief must have been immense. Nice post on gratitude Margot
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Thank you, June . And yes, I was so incredibly relieved. I am still grateful to that person.
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This is a good reminder for me about Longmire. I loved the TV series, and I read the book with short stories but never a full-length book. I need to do that!
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I do recommend Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series, Becky. The books are well-written, and Walt Longmire’s character is fleshed out and develops over the series. I hope you’ll get the chance at some point.
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I will!
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😃
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Goodness me, I need to get back to Walt Longmire. I’ve read half a dozen in the series and then just ground to a halt. I must take a look at the TV series too as my daughter and her husband love it.
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I think it is a fine series, Cath – quite well done. And I like the Longmire book series very much. It’s got a very, very good sense of place and culture, and Walt Longmire is a well-drawn, appealing character. He has nuances, if I can put it that way.
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Ooh, so scary to lose all your work like that! So glad there was someone around who could help with that one!
My favourite grateful character from Christie is poor Bunny in A Murder is Announced, given shelter by her now wealthy old school friend, Miss Blacklock. She’s a wonderfully drawn character and her story always makes me cry, despite my hard heart!
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Yes, FictionFan! Bunny is a fabulous character, and she is a great example of what I had in mind with this post. No, you’re getting misty-eyed thinking about it. Anyway, yes, it was scary to lose so much work. I felt completely hopeless at first, and still feel very lucky and grateful that I was able to get the help I needed. I don’t recommend that sort of stress as a part of one’s daily regimen…
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I agree with Fictionfan about Bunny. She is a fab character. As for computers and loss of data. OMG! Let’s not go there. I had a meltdown earlier this year. Lost everything and had to get a computer tech in a store to retrieve it all for me. And I had multiple copies all over the show but as soon as I plugged USBs etc into the computer to access, they disappeared too. I aged 50 years in that week until I got the call to say it had been found. Great post.
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Oh, no, Jane! You must have been so upset about all of those files! I’m just really glad that they were able to retrieve your work for you. Techs who can do things like that are worth their weight in gold! I agree that Bunny is a great character, and I’m glad you and FictionFan have mentioned her.
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Back up and back up. LOL My mantra. Yes, Bunny, and I love Capt Hastings as I often felt he was taken under Hercule’s wing – friendship, and also a little sorry for him perhaps? Or is it just me who often felt sorry for Hastings? Have you been watching the TV series based on Sven Hjerson from Norway? So funny and clever. A detective with lots of peculiar habits. It is on the UK channel More4.
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That is a wise mantra, Jane! That’s why I am so glad to have a cloud account. Peace of mind .. I haven’t seen that series, but it sounds clever! I hope it comes this way at some point. As for Hastings, I’ve always liked his character. I like the way he gives such great perspective on Poirot!
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I do too. He is a crime writer now you know (Hugh, the actor) and attends several festivals and some locally. Not managed to go yet. I a cloud too but it is still a problem when the W11 updates mess everything up and if you are doing something in the cloud when it decides to mess up, then everything gets messed up too.
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I didn’t know Hugh Fraser has started writing crime fiction, Jane – that’s interesting! I’ll bet he’s good at it. And about W11, yes, there are definitely down sides to it.
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Yes, he has been writing for some years and very well thought of too. x
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Good to know!
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Your post prompted me to think of Uncle from the Ava Lee series and the Uncle series of Ian Hamilton. Uncle, in both his personal and triad lives, is a generous man. His actions prompt loyalty and feelings of gratitude. In particular, his bodyguard Sonny and Ava, revere him.
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I’m glad, Bill, that you brought up Uncle. He has earned the gratitude and loyalty of a lot of people, including Ava and Sonny. He’s actually a very interesting character on a lot of levels, and one of them is the way he interacts with people. I’m sure his clients are grateful to him, too…
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