Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Not all fictional sleuths are conventional types who fit into society. I’m not talking here of the stereotypical demon-haunted detective who can’t stop drinking. Rather, I mean sleuths who are, in their way, misfits, or at least, they’re on the outside looking in, as far as the rest of society goes. They’re certainly out there, and it’s especially interesting when they pair up with other unconventional sleuths. It makes sense, too, since there’s a sort of bond there.

One of the more famous such pairs is the duo of Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist, created by Stieg Larsson. Lisbeth Salander is a computer genius.  She is also tattooed, has Asperger syndrome, and deals with the tragic consequences of a horrific upbringing and treatment from the system that was supposed to protect her. For his part, Blomkvist is a disgraced journalist who was successfully sued by a rich industrialist he was investigating. He has his own burdens to bear. He and Lisbeth Salander are very different types, but they are both misfits in their ways. Neither really fits in in conventional society. But when they team up, they accomplish a great deal. Perhaps it’s at least partly because neither has very much to lose in terms of their social standing.

In Michael Lister’s The Night Of, we are introduced to Lucas Burke and Alix ‘Blade Baker. Together, they own Baker and Burke, a private investigation agency in Panama City Beach, Florida. In the novel, they are hired by Candace Landis to find her missing daughter Nora Henri and Nora’s daughter Emma. The two went missing several months ago, and although the police have been working the case, there’s been no sign of either. As Baker and Burke investigate, we learn about them. Both are products of the care system, and it’s affected them deeply. Blade in particular is coping with the scars of her background. Both sleuths are unconventional in their thinking, and neither is really comfortable trying to fit in with the larger society. It doesn’t mean they can’t form friendships or live their lives. But neither is ‘one of us.’

The same is true for Ted Conkaffey and Amanda Pharrell, whom we meet in Candice Fox’s Crimson Lake. Conkaffey is a former Sydney-based police officer who ended up being arrested for the abduction and rape of a young girl. He is innocent, but there was evidence against him, and he ended up in prison for eight months while the police tried to make a case against him. They couldn’t, and he was released, but that doesn’t mean all is well. Plenty of people believe he’s guilty. He moves to the small town of Crimson Lake to start a new life. There, he meets Amanda Pharrell, who has her own past. In fact, she’s a convicted killer who’s been released from prison and now runs a private investigation company. Conkaffey joins her for the investigation into the disappearance of famous author Jake Scully. Both sleuths are misfits in their way, and neither is exactly warmly welcomed in the town. They do things in their own ways, have unconventional approaches, and don’t really fit in. But they get the job done.

Kevin Wilson’s Now is Not the Time To Panic takes place in 1996, in Coalfield, Tennessee. Sixteen-year-old Frances ‘Frankie’ Budge is a bit at loose ends. She doesn’t have a large circle of friends, and she’s not really interested in swimming or other local ‘fun’ things to do. She’s a writer who’s working on her first novel. One day, she meets Zeke Brown, who’s visiting Coalfield for the summer. Zeke doesn’t really fit in, either. For one thing, he’s not a local. For another, he’s not particularly extroverted, and he doesn’t have a large circle of friends. He and Frankie drift together and come up with an idea. They create a poster that combines Frankie’s writing and Zeke’s artwork. Then, they print it off and post it in several places in town. Before long, people are unsettled about the posters. No-one knows who’s putting them up, and some in the town consider them dangerous, even evil. Gossip starts and people begin accusing each other of all sorts of things. Then, Frankie and Zeke discover that someone else has copied their poster and is also putting it up. Things begin to spin out of control as the two young people try to find out who’s putting the other posters up. That, plus the uneasy feeling in town, put everyone on edge. There’s even a death involved. Throughout the summer, we see how neither Frankie nor Zeke really fit in. They’re outsiders watching what’s happening in the town as they try to find out who took their idea.

In Kerry Wilkinson’s The One Who Fell, we meet Millicent ‘Millie’ Westlake, who lives in the small English town of Whitecliff. She has a dog grooming and care business, but she’s not really welcome in the town because of a past incident. She is welcome in the elder care facility where she volunteers, though. When one of the residents of the home starts talking about seeing a girl fall from a roof, Millie gets curious. She can’t find any evidence of a fall, and no bodies have been reported. Still, the resident was certain of what she’d seen. Millie is just starting to ask some questions when she gets a visit from Guy Rushdon, a former newspaper journalist who now has his own website. Millie has every reason to resent Guy, as we soon discover. But she does listen to what he has to say. He’s on a quest of his own and wants her help. She ends up telling him about the story she heard, and before they know it, these two unconventional misfits find themselves working together for answers.  

Sleuths who are ‘on the outside’ can give a lot of interesting perspective on a place and its people. What’s more, they can be fascinating characters in and of themselves, especially as they work in unconventional ways. Which have stayed with you?

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from the Doors’ People Are Strange.