Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Do you enjoy adventures, especially adventuring to new places? A lot of people do. And an adventure shared with someone can be especially memorable. It takes a certain boldness to agree to ‘come along on the ride,’ and some adventures do not work out well, especially in crime fiction. But they can also be exciting. Some even lead to life changes. And they do make for interesting fictional plots…

In one plot thread of Arthur Conan Doyle’s A Study in Scarlet, we follow the story of John Farrier and a little girl called Lucy who both survived an attack during a trip across the American West. Farrier took pity on the girl and the two ended up traveling together. The harsh climate and lack of supplies took a serious toll on the two, but they survived. They were rescued by a group of Mormons (today’s Latter Day Saints) and taken to safety. For years, things went well, and Farrier and Lucy took care of each other. Then, things started to go very wrong. Years later, Sherlock Holmes investigates the murders of two American visitors to London. It turns out that those deaths are related to the adventure that Farrier and Lucy shared.

In Pascal Garnier’s How’s the Pain?, we meet twenty-one-year old Bernard Ferrand. He’s a bit aimless, and he knows he doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in the small town where he lives. One day, he happens to meet a man called Simon Marechall. The two get to talking and Marechall learns that  Ferrand has one thing he needs: a driver license. It turns out that Marechall is an aging professional assassin who wants to go to the south of France for one more job before he ends his career. Without saying why, he offers to hire Ferrand as his driver, and Ferrand agrees. The two set off on their trip, but to say the least, it doesn’t go as planned. That chance adventure changes everything, but it doesn’t turn out well.

Barbara Metz/Elizabeth Peters’ Crocodile on the Sandbank is the first in her series featuring Amelia Peabody. It’s 1884, and Miss Peabody wants to make a trip to Egypt. It’s not considered seemly for her to do so alone, so she arranges for a companion and they begin their journey. However, her companion becomes ill and must return to England. At loose ends, Miss Peabody happens to meet Evelyn Barton-Forbes, a young woman with her own sad history. Miss Peabody offers to take her new acquaintance to Egypt as companion, and for Miss Barton-Forbes, it’s a perfect solution to her own situation. The two begin the trip together, and it turns out to be much more of an adventure than they’d thought. There’s intrigue, theft, and local superstitions…

As S.J. Holliday’s Violet begins, Violet has just broken up with her boyfriend. They’d been planning a trip on the Trans-Siberian Express, but since he’s gone now, she’s stuck in Beijing with no ticket and no idea what she’s going to do. Then, by chance, she meets a young woman called Claire’s who’s also planning to take the Trans-Siberian Express. Claire had been going to travel with a friend, but her friend had an accident and is now stuck at home. Claire and Violet get to talking and decide they like each other. So, Claire offers her extra ticket to Violet, and the two women begin their adventure together. It turns out that this will be a very dangerous adventure, and some things and people are not at all as they seem.

In Honey Brown’s Through the Cracks, New South Wales teenager Adam Vander has finally summoned the physical and emotional strength to escape his abusive father, Joe. He’s at grave risk, though, because he’s been shuttered away most of his life, so he has few survival skills and not many social skills. Fortunately, he meets a young man called Billy Benson, who’s at the house when Adam leaves. Billy takes Adam under his wing and the two begin to travel together. They spend the next week together, and Billy shows Adam how to find food, where he can sleep without being disturbed, and other street lore. But this isn’t a ‘merry lark.’ There is danger, and the young men find themselves in serious trouble. It doesn’t help matters either that the past haunts them in different ways.

Going on an adventure with someone can be fun, exciting, memorable, and a lot more. But there’s also risk, of course, and you never know what might happen. Still, it’s sometimes worth it…

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Henry Mancini and Johnny Mercer’s Moon River.