Crime Writer Margot Kinberg

Some people have their marriages arranged; for others, marriage is a transactional matter. But a lot of people marry for love. The heart wants what it wants, so that’s understandable. But not all love matches are enthusiastically embraced. In fact, if you’ve read your Shakespeare, you’ll know that some love relationships are all but doomed because of others’ objections The term ‘star crossed lovers’ was even coined by Shakespeare. Those doomed (or at least threatened) relationships can add interesting plot layers to a crime novel. They can even serve as a motive for murder. At the very least, they can add tension.

For instance, in Caroline Wells’ In The Onyx Lobby, Sir Herbert Binney is murdered one night in the lobby of the very posh hotel, the Campanile. Detective Corson begins the investigation, and it’s not long before he unearths some motives. One of them has to do with a romance between a young man called Richard Bates, and a young woman called Dorcas Everett. It seems that Dorcas’ mother, Mrs. Everett, is in a feud with Letitia Pall, who is Bates’ aunt (and a distant relation of Binney’s). The two women hate each other and absolutely forbid a relationship between the two lovers. It turns out, though, that Binney supported it. Could one of those women have murdered him? And if one of those ladies is the killer, what would that mean for the romance? It’s one of several possibilities that Corson has to consider.

In Agatha Christie’s Lord Edgware Dies, famous actress Jane Wilkinson asks Hercule Poirot to convince her husband, Lord Edware, to grant her a divorce. She wants to marry the Duke of Merton, and that’s not possible while she’s already married. It’s a strange request, but Poirot agrees. To his surprise, Lord Edgware says that he’s already withdrawn his objection to the divorce. With that problem solved, Poirot thinks that the matter is settled. Then, that night, Lord Edgware is murdered, and his wife becomes the prime suspect. She has an alibi, though; twelve people are ready to swear that she was at a dinner party in another part of London at the time of the murder. So Poirot has to look elsewhere for the killer. At one point, he is visited by the Dowager Duchess of Merton, the duke’s mother. She absolutely forbids any relationship, let alone a marriage, between her son and Jane Wilkinson and she wants Poirot to prove Jane guilty of murder, so the two cannot be together. This adds an interesting bit to the story, and Poirot has to use his tact and diplomacy to address his visitor’s concerns. I know, fans of Dead Man’s Mirror. There’s a forbidden relationship there, too.

In Laura Joh Rowland’s Shinjū, we are introduced to Sano Ichirō, a yoriki, a senior investigator/police officer in 1687 Edo (today’s Tokyo). One day, he gets word that two bodies have been pulled from the Sumida River; one is Niu Yukiko, a ‘well born’ young woman. The other is an artist named Noriyoshi. Yokiko’s family would never have allowed the marriage, and there’s a note with the bodies that suggests this was a shinjū, a double suicide. At this time, it isn’t uncommon for lovers who can’t be together to take this drastic decision, so the Powers That Be want Sano to ‘rubber stamp’ the deaths as the tragic end to a doomed love affair. And it makes sense, too. Besides, the Niu family is rich and powerful. They want the matter cleared up quickly, and Sano’s bosses don’t want to displease such an influential family. But Sano isn’t sure it’s a double suicide. Such a relationship could have given any number of people a motive for murder. So, he continues to ask questions, and he finds out that this is a more complicated case than two star-crossed lovers ending it all.

Brian L. Porter’s A Mersey Killing begins in 1961 Liverpool. It’s the time of the Merseybeat sound, and groups like Gerry and the Pacemakers dominate the airwaves. Brian Kane and his group, the Planets, want a share in the popularity of Mersey music and are hoping to make it big. So far, they’ve got a local following but haven’t yet reached stardom. Brian wants the group to split up, but his bandmates persuade him to try one more time. The agreement is that if the band doesn’t make it, then Brian will leave and try his luck in the United States. Unfortunately, that one more try isn’t successful, and Brian gets ready to take his leave. Over thirty years later, a reclamation job at the Liverpool waterfront reveals a body. Detective Inspector Andrew ‘Andy’ Ross and Sergeant Clarissa ‘Izzy’ Drake of the Merseyside Police are called in to investigate. Two of Brian’s former bandmates approach the police, thinking that the body might belong to their sister, Marie, who went missing in the early 1960s. Now, Ross and Drake will have to identify the body and see whether the remains belong to Marie. As they dig for the truth, they find that a forbidden romance played an important role in what happened in the early 1960s.

S.L. Beaumont’s The Carlswick Affair is the story of Stephanie Cooper, who’s due to begin her study of art history at Oxford in the autumn. She decides to spend some time with her grandmother, Ellie, in the small town of Carlswick before the term begins. Not long after she arrives, Stephanie discovers that there’s a long-standing feud between her family, the Coopers, and the also-local Knox family. It has to do with WW II and possible dealings in art that was stolen by the Nazis. Stephanie decides to look into that history, since it matches her professional interest as well as her personal interest. But the Knox family is at the very least, not helpful, since Stephanie is a Cooper. In fact, she’s warned away and faces real danger as she persists. In the end, though, she finds out the truth about the art, and some truths about her own family. And the Cooper/Knox feud plays an important role both in the larger plot and in Stephanie’s love life.

Some romances go smoothly, but others face major roadblocks. Sometimes those roadblocks have tragic results. Just ask Shakespeare…

*NOTE: The title of this post is the title of a song by Freddie Gorman and Bob Hamilton.