Since people aren’t perfect, it makes sense that believable fictional characters aren’t, either. In fact, I’d guess most readers prefer their fictional characters to have flaws and make mistakes at times. Still, it can take away from a story if a character does something especially foolish, particularly if that person ought to know better. On the other hand, without those lapses, there’d be a lot fewer crime novels…

For instance, in Agatha Christie’s Cards on the Table, Hercule Poirot receives a dinner invitation. The enigmatic and eccentric Mr. Shaitana has decided to have a dinner party with eight guests. Four of them are people he believes have gotten away with murder. The other four (including Poirot) are sleuths. Poirot points out that it’s not wise to tempt a murderer to kill again, but Shaitana insists. The dinner party goes off as planned, and everyone except Shaitana plays bridge after the meal. During the game, someone stabs Mr. Shaitana. One of the first comments Poirot makes when the body is discovered is,

‘The stupid little man! Oh, the stupid little man.’ 

Poirot is especially frustrated, because he warned Shaitana about the danger of stirring up someone who’s already murdered.

In Ruth Rendell’s A Judgement in Stone, we are introduced to the wealthy and educated Coverdale family. George and Jacqueline Coverdale decide to hire a full-time housekeeper, so they place an advertisement. One of the respondents is a woman named Eunice Parchman. Jacqueline, who’s handling the business, makes a telephone call to Eunice and they have a short conversation. But that’s all of the vetting Jacqueline does, as she thinks everything’s fine. It’s unwise not to look into a prospective employee’s background, especially if it’s a live-in employee. But Jacqueline wants the matter to be settled. So, she hires Eunice, who duly moves in and starts her job. But Eunice has a secret – something she is determined that her employers won’t learn. When that secret is accidentally revealed, the results are tragic.

Jane Casey’s The Kill features Detective Constable (DC) Maeve Kerrigan. In the novel, she and Detective Inspector (DI) Josh Derwent investigate the murder of a fellow police officer whose body has been found in a park. It’s a difficult and dangerous case, and at one point, Kerrigan finds herself following a suspect. Instead of requesting backup or taking other precautions, she follows the suspect into a poorly lit building in an area she doesn’t know. It’s a foolish thing to do even for a rash civilian, and possibly even more so for Kerrigan, because she has police training, and is well aware of the precautions she’s supposed to take. And her decision lands her in trouble.

Pascal Garnier’s The Front-Seat Passenger is the story of Fabien Delorme. One day the police inform him that his wife Sylvie has been killed in a car crash. While the news saddens Delorme, he’s not torn up about it; he and Sylvie had been growing apart for some time. What upsets him much more is that Sylvie was not alone in the car. She had taken a lover named Martial Arnoult, and they were together at the time of the crash. When he gets the opportunity, Delorme can’t resist the chance to find out something about Arnoult. He discovers that the man left a widow named Martine. Delorme becomes curious about her to the point of tracking down where she lives, where she shops, and so on. He’s not a stupid person, and he knows what the consequences are, but he even breaks into her home. Anyone could tell him that an obsession like that cannot have a good outcome; he knows it, too. But that doesn’t stop him booking a trip to Majorca when he finds out that Martine and a friend are going there for a holiday. In the end, Delorme’s foolish decision-making has tragic consequences as things end up spinning out of control for him.

In Jake Lamar’s Viper’s Dream, Claude ‘Viper’ Morton travels from his home in Alabama to New York City. It’s 1936, and the Harlem Renaissance has brought the best of jazz music to the area. Viper’s hoping to make it as a trumpeter. But shortly after he arrives, he gets a rude awakening: he’s nowhere near good enough to play in the jazz clubs, even as part of a larger band. He’s not interested in returning to Alabama, so he accepts an acquaintance’s offer and takes a job at a barbershop. He’s smart and ambitious, and he learns to be street-smart, too. But he’s got an adventurous nature that sometimes means he makes foolish mistakes, even when he’s been warned beforehand. Still, he does well for himself. He makes plenty of money and he has a reputation. He even finds a chance at love with a woman named Yolanda. And that’s where Viper gets in too deep, as the saying goes. There’s more than one good reason for him to cut ties with her, and anyone could have told him it’s a huge risk to stay with her. He knows it too. But that doesn’t stop him.

And that’s the thing. People may know they’re taking a big risk, or doing something that’ll get them in trouble, but they do it anyway. It can be enough to make a reader want to shout at a character.

*NOTE: The title of this post is a line from Steely Dan’s Dirty Work.