It’s natural to want to escape – just go somewhere far away – when one’s been through trauma. Whether it’s to a remote cabin, or a small town in another country, or somewhere else, people sometimes respond to life’s blows by choosing to start over in a different place in as inconspicuous a way as possible. Sometimes it’s successful, and life can go on peacefully. Other times, it’s not. After all, moving somewhere else doesn’t erase the past. Either way, characters who’ve left a troubled past to start over can be very interesting. They’ve often got layers that intrigue readers.
That’s the case, for instance, with John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee. He’s a Korean War veteran, which carries trauma in and of itself. He also has a traumatic early past, although the details aren’t really revealed in the novels. He’s also dealt with family tragedy. Now, he lives on a boat called The Busted Flush, which is moored at Fort Lauderdale. He’s more or less retired from what people think of as ‘regular’ work and serves as what he calls a ‘salvage consultant.’ People who’ve been swindled out of money or property seek him out, and he finds the goods, in exchange for half of the value. He does get himself in danger, but his time is his own, and he’s carved out a life for himself. You might say the boat is a sort of refuge for him.
In Agatha Christie’s The Man in the Brown Suit, Anne Beddingfield finds herself at loose ends after the death of her father. She doesn’t want to stay in London, and she’s a bit eager to see the world. One day, she witnesses a man fall to his death in front of an oncoming train. In the confusion that follows, she ends up with a piece of paper the man had in his pocket. Anne learns that the paper makes reference to the upcoming sailing of the HMS Kilmorden Castle for Cape Town. On impulse, she books passage. She soon finds herself caught up in a dangerous web of intrigue, stolen jewels, and murder. One of the people she meets has a dark, shadowy past with its share of sadness, and has started a new life in Africa. As Anne discovers more about that character, she has to decide just how much trust she should give. That uncertainty adds to the tension.
Simon Beckett’s The Chemistry of Death is the first in his series about forensic pathologist Dr. David Hunter. In the novel, Hunter has given up his forensics work and taken a position as a doctor in the small town of Manhem. As the story goes on, we learn that he came to Manhem to escape a tragedy that happened three years earlier. He’s been glad to get away from London and from his past. Then, there’s a murder. A local called Sally Poole is found brutally murdered. Hunter finds himself drawn into the case, the logic being that he has the forensics expertise to help the local police. The investigation is ongoing when another local woman disappears. Now it’s a race against time to try to find the woman and catch the killer before there are more deaths. What Hunter thought would be a refuge has turned out to be anything but.
Virginia Duigan’s The Precipice is the story of Thea Farmer. She’s a former school principal who’s retired and had a custom home built in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. Bad luck and poor decision making have forced her to sell that dream home and settle for a nearby home that she calls ‘the hovel.’ She wants as little as possible to do with other people, although she does belong to a regular writing group. The peace she thought she’d find is shattered when the dream home she still thinks of as hers is bought by Frank Campbell and Ellice Carrington. She thinks of them as invaders and does everything she can to avoid them. Then, Frank’s twelve-year-old niece, Kim, moves in. Against all odds, she and Thea form a sort of awkward friendship. That’s why Thea becomes so concerned when she thinks Frank is not providing an appropriate home for Kim. She tries to tell the police, but there’s not much they can do. So, Thea decides to take matters into her own hands. Throughout the novel, we get hints as to Thea’s past, and her reasons for wanting to escape to a home out in a rural area. Those layers add to her character.
In Ed Church’s Non-Suspicious, we meet Police Constable (PC) Brook Deelman, a North London police detective who’s nearing the end of his final night shift. He’s looking forward to being done, but then, he and his partner, Detective Sergeant (DS) Kevin Padmore, are called to a murder scene. The victim is an elderly man who seemingly fell and hit his head after drinking too much. Deelman, though, isn’t sure this was an accident. So, he starts to do some digging. The victim is identified as Victor Watson, a man who lived quietly, had no known enemies, and wasn’t involved in any shady business deals. On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be a reason anyone would want to kill him. As Deelman and Padmore continue to look into the matter, they learn that Watson had a past as a WW II soldier and then POW. And it turns out that Watson had every reason to want to escape that past.
There are other examples of characters who end up living in remote places, new-to-them cities or countries, or somewhere else that’s far away from the troubles they’ve left. That sort of past can make a character interesting and give that character a different sort of backstory. Which characters come to your mind?
*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from the Marshall Tucker Band’s Can’t You See.
Crime Writer Margot Kinberg 