Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Authors, especially those who aren’t ‘household words,’ often get emails and other contact from publicists who promise an awful lot. Most of these offers are scams, and authors learn quickly not to take the bait. But the fact is, whether you’re an author, a small business, a city, or even a politician, you need to create a public identity and interest people in buying your books, or voting for you, or taking a holiday in your city, or whatever it may be. So, publicists play important roles. That’s why so many people hire publicists or publicity companies. We certainly see that in real life, and it’s there in crime fiction, too.

For instance, in Dorothy L. Sayers’ Murder Must Advertise (Oh, come on, you knew I’d mention this one!), Lord Peter Wimsey goes undercover. He’s been hired by Pym’s Publicity, Ltd., to help them solve a mystery. The company is a well-respected traditional advertising firm, and to the company’s leaders, reputation is everything. So, when copywriter Victor Dean dies one afternoon from a fall down the stairs, the company wants the incident dealt with as quietly as possible. They hire Wimsey to join the company in the guise of Dean’s replacement so he can find out whether Dean was murdered and if so, by whom. As it turns out, Dean was a blackmailer who’d found out that someone in the company was using company resources for illegal purposes. So, Wimsey has to find out who the killer is. He also has to uncover the truth about the illegal activity. It’s not an easy case, but Wimsey puts the pieces together. He also proves himself skilled at created adverting campaigns.

In Angela Makholwa’s Red Ink, we are introduced to Lucy Khambule and Patricia Moabelo, who own The Publicists, a Johannesburg publicity company. It’s a small business, so they’re trying to get new accounts and increase their client base. Patricia hasn’t been doing her share lately, and Lucy is trying to decide what her next steps will be. Then, she gets an unexpected telephone call from a convicted multiple murderer called Napoleon Dingiswayo. When he was first incarcerated, Lucy had written to him, asking for an interview. Now, he wants her to consider writing a book about him. It’s very different from a regular publicist’s job, but it will allow her to pursue her interest in writing, and in an odd way, it’s a different sort of publicity. So, although Lucy knows the whole thing could be dangerous, she accepts. Then, shortly after they begin working together, some horrible things begin to happen. Dingiswayo is in a maximum-security prisoner, so he couldn’t be responsible. But if he isn’t, then who is? And just how much danger is there for Lucy?

One plot thread of Kate Atkinson One Good Turn concerns popular mystery novelist Martin Canning. He’s very much an introvert, but of course, readers want to meet authors, and it’s important to keep his name on people’s minds. So, Canning’s publicist/agent Melanie Lenehan, persuades him to serve on an author’s panel at the upcoming Edinburgh Book Festival. While he’s in the city, Canning decides to get tickets for a comedy radio show. He’s waiting for his turn when he sees a car accident. One of the drivers ends up attacking the other with a bat, and Canning instinctively throws his computer case at the attacker to get him to stop. That act ends up drawing Canning into a strange web that includes a murder, and, you could argue, it’s partly due to him listening to his publicist…

The main character in Shelly Reuben’sThe Boys of Sabbath Street is Maggie Wakeling. She is the publicist/assistant to Artemus Ackerman, mayor of the small city of Calendar. As such, her job is to burnish the city’s reputation and present the mayor and city events in a good light. That becomes difficult when a fire breaks out on the same street as a building the mayor wants to re-purpose. Then, there’s another fire. And another. It’s now clear that there’s an arsonist at work, and people could very well lose their trust in their mayor if that person isn’t stopped. Maggie starts asking questions, and works with Fire Marshal George Copeland to find out the truth before there are any deaths.

There’s also Jeannette de Beauvoir’s Asylum. Martine Le Duc is the director of public relations for the city of Montréal. It’s her job to cast the city in a good light, and attract investment, tourism, and so on. That task becomes difficult when the body of a woman is displayed on one of the city’s park benches. Within the next few months, three other women’s bodies are also discovered, all of them displayed on park benches. With the city’s reputation at stake, Martine is asked to work with Lieutenant Julian Fletcher of the police to find and stop the murderer and make it clear to the public that the city is safe. It turns out to be a very dangerous undertaking, and the answer lies in a dark part of the city’s past.

Publicists are supposed to paint positive pictures of their clients. That gets much harder to do when crime is involved. But it can make for an effective crime story.

NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Jimmy Buffett’s Public Relations.