Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

A lot of us do things – usually small things – on impulse. We buy something, or we take a different route to work, or we look up someone we haven’t seen in years. Some people, though, make major changes on impulse, sometimes with no warning at all. And that can have consequences. Sometimes it’s a wonderful experience, and sometimes not. A recent interesting post from Neeru at A Hot Cup of Pleasure has got me thinking about how characters sometimes do seemingly throw everything away, sometimes for a person, sometimes for another reason. Those choices have an impact, and they can add to a story.

For instance, in Agatha Christie’s The Man in the Brown Suit, Anne Beddingfield is on her own, left with very little money when her father dies. While she appreciates the kindness of those who help her, she decides that a London life isn’t really for her. She doesn’t want to become a typist or take some other job ‘suitable for a lady.’ One day, she’s trying to work out what she does want to do when she witnesses a terrible accident. A man falls (or is pushed) under an oncoming train. In the chaos that follows, Anne gets hold of a note that fell from the dead man’s pocket. The note makes reference to the upcoming sailing of the HMS Kilmorden Castle for Cape Town. On impulse, and with nothing much to keep her in London, Anne books passage on the ship. On board the ship, she gets drawn into a web of international intrigue, stolen jewels, and more, and her life changes permanently. You’re quite right, fans of The Mystery of the Blue Train.

Hannah Dennison’s Murder at Honeychurch Hall is the first in her series featuring Katherine ‘Kat’ Stanford. As the novel begins, she is a well-respected TV presenter. But she’s getting tired of being under the proverbial microscope. The plan had been for her to open an antique shop with her mother, Ivy, but one day, everything changes. Ivy calls Kat, saying that she’s decided to move to the small Devon town of Little Dipperton. She now lives in a small place near Honeychurch Hall, the property of Sir Rupert Honeychurch. Kat’s shocked at her mother’s decision and decides to go and see for herself what’s going on. When she gets there, she finds that her mother has an injured hand from a car accident, so Kat decides to stay a bit until her mother’s hand is healed. When there’s a murder in the village, Kat gets drawn into the investigation. She also learns what’s behind her mother’s sudden decision to change her life.

As S.J.I. Holliday’s Violet begins, a young woman called Violet is waiting in Beijing’s main strain station. She’d been planning a trip on the Trans-Siberian Railroad with her boyfriend. But her boyfriend left her, and she’s now trying to decide what to do. She wants to continue the trip, but she can’t get a ticket. At the station, she meets a young woman called Carrie. It seems Carrie had been planning to take the Trans-Siberian Railroad trip with a friend, but that friend’s been injured and couldn’t go. With an extra ticket on hand, Carrie asks Violet to take the trip with her, and Violet impulsively agrees. After all, she likes Carrie, and she does want to take the trip. At first all goes well. But suspense soon begins to build, and some strange things begin to happen. By the end of the trip, there’s a real tragedy.

Julie Clark’s The Last Flight introduces readers to Claire Cook. She is the wife of a successful, but abusive, husband, and is planning to escape. She makes travel plans for a charity speech, but without telling her husband, changes those plans and buys a ticket for Puerto Rico. At the airport, Claire learns that her husband has found out where she is and where she’s going. Now, she feels trapped. Then, she meets a young woman, Eva James, who has a ticket for San Francisco. Eva doesn’t want to go to San Francisco, and Claire can no longer go to Puerto Rico, so the women decide to switch IDs and tickets. Now, Claire’s headed to San Francisco for a whole new life as Eva. Eva’s not so lucky, though; the flight to Puerto Rico crashes. Now, for several reasons, Claire has to stay in San Francisco and keep living Eva’s life. Abd she soon learns that Eva had a lot of secrets, and Claire has more than just her husband to fear.

And then there’s Nick Davies’ El Flamingo. In the novel, a down-and-out actor, Lou Galloway, is fed up with the Hollywood scene and convinced he’s not going to be successful. He leaves his Hollywood apartment and heads for Mexico, where he takes a room in a cheap hotel. He’s walking back from a bar one night when he’s stopped by a man – obviously a chauffeur – who whisks him off to a party in an elegant home. It’s soon clear that the chauffeur has mistaken Galloway for someone else. So has the party’s host, wealthy crime boss Diego Flores. Flores assumes that Galloway is a notorious paid assassin called El Flamingo. He’s brought Galloway to the party to ask him to take on a new commission. Calí politician Juan Moreno is acting to crack down on some of Flores’ ‘business ventures,’ and Flores wants the man out of the way. He makes Galloway a lucrative offer to kill Moreno, and Galloway can’t see any way out of the situation without getting himself killed. So, he agrees. With his new identity as El Flamingo, he and Flores’ wife, Maria-Carla, travel to Colombia and are soon caught up in wars, drugs, and some real danger. In this case, suddenly dropping is life as an actor and taking up a new life in Colombia has some unexpected consequences.

Sometimes, people do throw away the lives they had and go off to something new. It’s not always successful; sometimes it’s tragic. But it can make for an interesting plot line. Thanks, Neeru, for the inspiration. Now, treat yourself to a visit to Neeru’s fine blog. Thoughtful reviews and interesting reading memes await you.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Genesis’ Throwing It All Away.