Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

An interesting post by Marina Sofia at Finding Time to Write has got me thinking about the way time changes (and doesn’t change) a place. If you’ve ever gone back to a place you once knew, you know what I mean. There are, of course, places where time seems to stand still, but in general, places do change, and that’s especially noticeable if you return to a place after a long absence. Shops change, places become gentrified, and so on. Those changes can add to a novel’s setting and even add to character development.

There’s a really clear example of how this happens in Agatha Christie’s At Bertram’s Hotel. Miss Marple takes a two-week holiday at the very posh Bertram’s Hotel in London. She went there as a girl and has fond memories of the place. On the surface, the hotel is still genteel, posh, and almost Edwardian in its luxuries. Miss Marple is treated like royalty. But underneath that surface, something is quite different about the hotel. It begins when fellow guest Canon Pennyfeather gets the wrong date for a conference he’s scheduled to attend and ends up going missing for four days. Other disturbing things happen as well, and Miss Marple finds herself in a web of intrigue, theft, and more. It’s certainly not the Bertram’s Hotel that Miss Marple remembered so lovingly.

In M.C. Beaton’s Love, Lies, and Liquor, Agatha Raisin’s ex-husband James Lacey persuades her to take a holiday with him at the Paradise Hotel, Snoth-on-Sea. It seems that James stayed there often as a child and has pleasant memories of the place. When they get to the town, though, it’s soon painfully clear that it’s not the same place James remembers. It’s run-down and dreary, and the hotel is a dilapidated shell of its former self. Nonetheless, the two settle in. Then, Agatha gets into an argument with another (very unpleasant) hotel guest, Geraldine Jankers. When Geraldine is found strangled later that night, the police investigate. Agatha becomes a person of great interest, since she’d quarreled with the victim, so as you can imagine, she’s determined to clear her name. And it turns out that there are several other people who had a good motive for murder.

Barry Maitland’s The Marx Sisters is set mostly on Jerusalem Lane, a unique, mostly untouched part of London. It’s got history, and the residents like it just as it is. But there’s a development company that wants to build a large entertainment destination that will require tearing down much of Jerusalem Lane. That construction, if it goes through, will change the place dramatically. Meredith Winterbottom lives in Jerusalem Lane with her sisters Peg Blythe and Eleanor Harper. Meredith is not interested in selling up, and does not want the development project to be approved. In fact, she’s one of the last holdouts against it. One day, she is found dead, an apparent suicide. Detective Chief Inspector (DCI) David Brock and Detective Sergeant (DS) Kathy Kolla investigate, and neither is completely satisfied with suicide as an explanation. So, they start asking questions. The more closely they look, the more possibilities they see. For one thing, the other residents are much more open to the new development, and some are eager for the money it will bring. And that’s not to mention the development company that wants the property. For another, the three sisters are direct descendants of Karl Marx. They even have a potentially priceless manuscript of his. There could be any number of people who’d kill for that. There are other possible motives, too, so it won’t be easy to solve this case.

Paddy Richardson’s Swimming in the Dark is in part the story of secondary school teacher Ilse Klein and her mother Gerda. They used to live in Germany, but as East and West Germany separated, things began to get worse and worse. By the 1980s, when Ilse was a girl, fear of the Stasi (secret police) drove many people to paranoia. Anyone, including family members, could denounce a person, and that would mean imprisonment or much worse. Eventually, the Klein family made the difficult decision to leave. They ended up in a small town on New Zealand’s South Island, where they were welcomed and made comfortable. Still, Ilse has never forgotten the Germany she knew. She was too young to really appreciate the terrible things happening in the country, so her memories are quite different to her mother’s. Gerda remembers Germany before its division as well as the awful changes the country went through. So she’s happy to stay in New Zealand. The main plot of the novel follows the two women and their involvement when one of Ilse’s students has difficulties in school and then goes missing. Throughout the novel, we get a sense of the many changes in, especially, Leipzig, during the ‘separation years’ and since reunification.

Kelly Young’s Insider Joe features her protagonist, Carmen Rodriguez. She and her husband Sebastian ‘Bass’ live in a house that used to be occupied by a man called Joe Caruso. He’s since died, but his ghost is still there, and Carmen is one of the very few people who can see and hear him. Carmen and Bass have decided to redo their shed, but when they take down the old one, they’re shocked to find a skeleton there. It’s an old skeleton, too, and it could be linked to their resident ghost, Joe. They call in the police, and an investigation begins.  As the story moves on, Carmen and Bass unravel some secrets from decades ago, and we see how the Canadian town they live in has changed over time. It’s interesting to see how both Joe and the ghost connected to the remains remember the town as it was, and how those memories impact them.

Places tend to change over time, whether it’s for the better or for the worse. And that can have a real effect on people, especially if they return to a place they once knew. Those changes can also make for effective setting, plot, and character layers in a crime novel. Thanks, Marina Sofia, for the inspiration! Now, treat yourself to a visit to Finding Time to Write. You’re in for excellent, thoughtful reviews, great photos, and an interesting perspective on, well, everything.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Bruce Springsteen’s My Hometown.