The desire to be accepted is a powerful motivator. In fact, according to psychologist Erik Erikson, it’s one of the essential needs we have as humans. Because acceptance is so important, people sometimes go to a great deal of effort to be ‘part of the group.’ Sometimes it works quite well. Other times, though, that desire for acceptance can have serious, even tragic consequences. A quick look at crime fiction should suffice to show you what I mean.

In Agatha Christie’s Three Act Tragedy, we are introduced to Oliver Manders. He’s a young man just making his way in the world of finance. He’s not a ‘blueblood,’ but he moves in some of those circles, and wants very much to be accepted by those people. It’s difficult for him, because he’s secretly insecure about his background. So, he puts on a blasé, sarcastic front. Underneath it, though, he wants to be ‘in the group.’ He gets drawn into a case of multiple murders when he is implicated in the deaths of Reverand Stephen Babbington and Doctor Bartholomew Strange. Both victims were killed at parties, and Oliver was in both places when the murders occurred. Hercule Poirot investigates the killings, and we learn how, why, and by whom, they were committed.

Megan Abbott’s Dare Me takes place against the often-fraught high school social scene. As the story begins, cheerleader Beth Cassidy is a high school senior and the undisputed ‘queen bee’ of the school. Addy Hanlon, also a cheerleader, is her ‘second in command,’ and both girls reign over the other students. Then, the school hires a new cheerleading coach, Collette French. She has a way of drawing the girls to her and soon creates an elite group. Addy is accepted into the group, but Beth is not. Beth becomes wistful and jealous, wanting desperately to be among the elite. And, as time goes on, that leads to real tragedy.

Catherine Chidgey’s Pet is a bit similar. In 1984 Wellington, twelve-year-old Justine Crieve attends a rigid Catholic school. She’s coping with her mother’s fairly recent death, as well as her own occasional bouts with epilepsy. Like most young people her age, she wants to fit in and be accepted, so she doesn’t say much about the sorrows she faces. She finds comfort in her best friend, Amy Fong, and manages at least not to be rejected by her classmates. Then, the class gets a new teacher, Mrs. Price. She is beautiful, even glamorous, and all of the students want to be in her good graces. She soon chooses a few students to help clean the classroom, deliver messages, and run other errands for her, and it’s not long before the students begin vying for membership in that group. They all want to be accepted as elites. Justine is one of ‘the chosen,’ and revels in that attention. Amy, on the other hand, doesn’t trust Mrs. Price. This causes a falling-out between the girls. Then, some unsettling things begin to happen. Among other things, there’s some pilfering, and Amy gets blamed for it, although she says she’s innocent. What’s really going on? And is Mrs. Price what she seems? Who’s behind all of this? It all leads to tragedy, and we see that the desire to be accepted can lead to some dark places.

It does in Chris McGeorge’s Now You See Me, too. The story is mostly about five young people, who are the ‘stars’ of their small town of Marsden. They dominate their school’s social life, and all of them are loved in town, too. They’re casual friends with a boy called Matthew McConnell, who desperately wants to be in their group. They do invite him to some things and include him in some ways. But he wants to be in that inner circle. After high school, the other young people go off to university, but Matthew loves Marsden and wants to stay there. After university, the young people reunite and decide to take a canal boat ride through the Standredge Canal, which goes from Marsden to Diggle. Matthew has become a canal boat driver and, ever eager for the group’s acceptance, offers to take them. On that day, everyone gets into the boat, prepared for a good time. But only Matthew comes out on the other side. No-one knows what happened to the other young people, but everyone assumes Matthew is responsible for whatever happened. He is arrested and imprisoned. He makes a desperate call to newly successful author Robin Ferringham, asking for his help. In return, he tells Robin, he’ll share what he knows about the three-year-old disappearance of Robin’s wife, Samantha. Robin is driven to find out what happened to his wife, and he wants to know how Matthew got his number (and information about Samantha) and why Matthew would reach out to a stranger. So, he agrees and begins to investigate. He’s soon drawn into a very dangerous web.

Of course, being accepted doesn’t always exact a toll. For instance, in Anthony Bidulka’s Going to Beautiful, we meet Toronto-based celebrity chef Jake Hardy. He’s got want seems like the perfect life. He’s got money and success, he’s in a happy marriage with top designer Eddie Kravets, and they have a healthy adult son called Connor. Then, tragically, Eddie dies from a fall off the balcony of their posh condominium. The police are called in and soon establish that this is murder. Naturally, Jake is a suspect. Even after the police undisputedly clear his name, there’s still gossip about Jake. Partly to get away from the attention, and partly to learn more about his husband, Jake travels to Eddie’s hometown of Beautiful, Saskatchewan with his friend Baz. There, he gets to know the people in town, including Eddie’s family. He finds himself accepted and slowly begins to feel connections he hadn’t known he was missing. He also finds out the truth about Eddie’s death.

The desire for acceptance is natural. And often, it leads to a good circle of friends and acquaintances. But not always. Sometimes, as crime fiction shows us, that desire leads in very dark directions.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Howard Ashman and Robert Menken’s Part of Your World.