Have you ever felt so overwhelmed that you weren’t even sure where to start or what to do next? If you do, you’re not alone. I think a lot of us feel that way sometimes. So, when we read about a character who’s a bit overwhelmed, we can connect with the character. Add to that the tension that can make a character feel like that, and it’s little wonder that we see this happening in crime fiction.
For example, in Agatha Christie’s Hickory Dickory Dock, we are introduced to Mrs. Hubbard, who manages a hostel for students. The residents are all from different places and backgrounds, so she has her hands full at times just working with them, especially when they clash. It doesn’t help that the owner of the hostel, Mrs. Nicoletis, is demanding, unstable, unreliable, and sometimes rude and insulting. Managing her is at times harder than managing the students. She’s faced with even more pressure when odd things start happening and students’ things start disappearing. One night, one of the residents, Celia Austin, confesses to several of the petty thefts, and Mrs. Hubbard thinks the matter is settled. The next morning, though, Celia is found dead. It’s not long before it’s determined she was murdered. Mrs. Hubbard’s sister is Felicity Lemon, Hercule Poirot’s terrifyingly efficient secretary. She persuades Poirot to look into the matter, and he finds out who’s behind all that’s been going on in the hostel.
At the start of Gail Bowen’s Joanne Kilbourn Shreve series, Joanne is an academic and political scientist. She is also the widowed mother of three children (later in the series, she adopts a fourth). Along with all that she does as a mother, political activist, and academic, Joanne gets involved in police investigations. Often (as in the first novel, Deadly Appearances), it’s because she or someone in her family knows the victim. Sometimes she does feel a little overwhelmed, especially as the series goes on and she begins to date again. It’s a lot to balance, and Joanne doesn’t always do it successfully. But her friends and family know they can trust her. And she feels too strongly about justice and what’s right to back away when she feels strongly.
At the beginning of Abir Mukharjee’s Captain Sam Wyndham series, Wyndham has just arrived in 1919 Kolkata/Calcutta to take up a job with the Indian Police Service. He has a lot to juggle and a lot to manage. There’s also the fact that he’s in a new-to-him culture where he doesn’t know the norms. He hasn’t yet earned the respect of the people who work with him, and he has to get used to the very different lifestyle in Kolkata. It’s especially hard for him because he has what we would now call PTSD from his time serving in WW I. He’s got an opium habit because of it, and his struggles with the drug do not make managing his life any easier. Still, he is a very good cop and has a strong sense of what’s right.
Sinéad Crowley’s Can Anybody Help Me introduces readers to Yvonne Mulhern. She and her husband Gerry have just moved from London to Dublin, so Gerry could take advantage of an attractive job offer. With them, they’ve brought their newborn daughter Róisín. It’s all very difficult for Yvonne. For one thing, she doesn’t really know anyone in Dublin except Gerry’s mother and his brother. Gerry’s mother is judgemental and critical, and Gerry’s brother, while he tries to help, is ineffectual. Since Gerry is gone a lot for work, Yvonne takes on much of the care for Róisín. That in itself is overwhelming enough, but with little support, it’s almost more than she can handle. With so much on her plate, so to speak, Yvonne is desperate for some support. She finds it in an online group called Natmammy. The other members are new mothers like Yvonne, so she fits in right away. Before long, she sees the other members as her friends. Then one of them goes ‘off the grid,’ and Yvonne becomes concerned enough to contact the police. They can’t do much, though. Then, a woman’s body is found in a vacant apartment. It could be Yvonne’s missing friend, so this time, the police investigate. If it is Yvonne’s friend, this means the Netmammy group might not be the support system Yvonne thought it would be.
And then there’s Paul Cleave’s Killer Harvest. Sixteen-year-old Joshua Logan has been blind since birth. He’s gotten used to it because that’s all he’s ever known. Everything changes, though, when his father Mitchell is killed in the line of (police) duty. Dr. Toni Collette has developed a procedure for transplanting eyes, and she believes that she can help Joshua to see, using his father’s donated eyes. Joshua faces grief at the loss of his father, and the operation and rehab will put another strain on him. But he does want to see, so he and his mother prepare for the procedure. It goes well, and he starts to be able to see. But that’s hardly the end of the demands made on him. For one thing, his whole social and academic lives have been based on blindness. Now that he’s no longer blind, he has to negotiate new friendships, a new school, and so on without losing his old friends. There’s also the physical rehab that can be draining. Things get more stressful when he starts to have some very dark visual experiences. And he learns some dark things about his father. It all adds a great deal to the burdens he bears.
And that’s the thing about doing too much at once. It can be overwhelming, and it can lead to stress, exhaustion, and worse. It’s not at all pleasant to live through, but it can add layers to a fictional character, and it can add tension to a story. Which ones have stayed with you?
*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Billy Joel’s Running on Ice.
Crime Writer Margot Kinberg 
Joanne Kilbourn is a great example for the topic. In this rather dark series, I often felt like no one could really deal with everything life threw Joanne’s way! I remember, years ago, seeing some made-for-tv movies based on those first books. They didn’t seem quite as dark. In the Ruth Galloway series by Elly Griffiths, readers often see the main character struggling to balance her academic career and rather messy personal life. Makes our lives seem easy!
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Oh, thanks for mentioning the Ruth Galloway series, Becky! It’s fantastic, and Elly Griffiths is such a talented writer. And, yes, Ruth does have a lot to balance. It’s funny you’d mention the TV series of the Joanne Kilbourn stories. To be honest, I never thought they reflected the real stories as they might have. But still, I’m glad if it got people interested in the book series.
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And I see Elly Griffiths has a new mystery series starting next year! I agree with you about the Joanne Kilbourn TV series; they seemed too cozy to me, compared to the books.
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Elly Griffiths is so prolific, Becky, that I’m not surprised she’s starting a new series. I’ll bet it’ll be great, too.
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I hope so. I really enjoy her Harbinder Kaur series, too. But Ruth will always hold a special place in my heart:)
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Mine, too, Becky.
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Killer Harvest seems like a new kind of story. And you have reminded me, I need to read Abir Mukherjee.
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Killer Harvest is a different sort of story, Neeru , and not for everyone. But it’s innovative. As for Mukherjee, I recommend his Sam Wyndham series. It has a real sense of place and time, and some well developed characters. If you get to it, I’ll be interested in what you think.
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Thanks for an interesting post. I have long appreciated that Joanne Kilbourn Shreve can feel overwhelmed and reacts by tackling the issue or problem. All of us deal with the deaths of people close to us. To move on with life I, as does Joanne, believe we need to mourn and then move ahead for the sake of ourselves, our family, our friends and our community. Joanne refuses to be mired in grief. I believe she receives hope from living out her Christian faith.
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You make a well-taken point, Bill, about moving on when someone close to us dies. You mourn, and then you start to move on. Some people are helped by faith, and others by other things, but the thing is to keep living. And I like Joanne’s way of tackling problems. She faces them and does her best.
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Interesting post Margot, and we all know the pressures of trying to juggle too much – amazing we’re not all committing crimes left, right and centre!
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Ha! I think you have a point, KBR! The pressure of trying to juggle too much can be overwhelming and it’s not surprising some people lash out. What is surprising is that more of us don’t!
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Killer Harvest sounds distinctly spooky! The very idea of eye transplants makes me shiver, though my logical side is telling me it’s no different from other kinds of transplants. But somehow the eyes are more… I don’t know… personal? Intimate?
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Oh, I think so, too, FictionFan! There’s just something about eyes. I don’t feel that way about heart, lung, etc. transplants. But eyes… that’s different. And that does have an impact in the story.
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I loved Susie Steiner’s series featuring a policemwoman called Manon Bradshaw – Missing, Presumed, Persons Unknown, Remain Silent . Susie sadly died last year RIP, but her books will live on. The detective overwhelmed by home life is a frequent trope, but I loved the way these books showed Manon’s life and her thoughts – she was a great heroine. Susie is much missed, we could have hoped for many more books from her before illness took her.
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Thanks for mentioning Manon Bradshaw and her creator, Moira. She really is a good example of how things can pull people in all directions and overwhelm them. I always liked the fact that Manon tries her best to do everything. She doesn’t always succeed, but I respect the way she keeps going. Susie left us far too soon, and she is very much missed.
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I must get on and read more of the Gail Bowen series. Sometimes I need a kick up the proverbial to remind me to stay focussed on good crime series! And I have to say, KIller Harvest sounds good!
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The Gail Bowen series is excellent, Cath. I know what you mean, too, about need reminders to follow up with good series. There are just so many of them that it’s hard at times, I think. Killer Harvest is eerie in its way, and among other things, it explores that question: Just because we can do something, should we? If you read it, I hope you enjoy it.
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Killer Harvest reminded me of a neuroscience documentary I watched recently. A blind man who lost his sight forty years prior received a corneal transplant. The ability to see overwhelmed his brain, the circuits unable to find the right connections. As a result, it took quite a while for his brain to unscramble the new images. He even had trouble telling his three blond sons apart without closing his eyes. The brain had become too reliant on his other senses. Fascinating subject, the brain.
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The brain really is a fascinating subject, Sue. And your story (for which, thanks for sharing) is such an interesting example of how the brain rewires itself, if I can put it that way, when there’s a loss of hearing or vision or other senses. That sensory overload when (if) the problem is fixed can really overwhelm the brain until it re-re-wires itself.
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I remember enjoying Hickory Dickory Dock especially because Miss Lemon was involved. She shows up so much less in the novels and short stories than she did in the TV adaptation. I need to try a novel by Abir Mukharjee, and get back to reading the Gail Bowen series. Verdict in Blood is the next Joanne Kilbourn book I plan to read.
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Oh, I hope you’ll enjoy Verdict in Blood, Tracy. I think Gail Bowen’s series is consistently excellent, so I’m optimistic for you. I’m glad you mentioned Miss Lemon, too. I like her character very much, and you’re right that she doesn’t get the ‘airtime’ that other characters do. The TV series added her in more, as you say, but I’d have liked to see more of her in the books. As for Abir Mukharjee, I think that series is excellent, too. It’s not light and easy, though, so it has to be the right time to read it, if that makes sense.
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