by Lauren Carr
We are thrilled to welcome back crime novelist Lauren Carr as our guest.
Lauren's new "Mac Faraday" mystery is Blast from the Past (Acorn Book Services, January 2013 trade paperback and ebook formats), the fourth book in this series set in rural Maryland. (More about this book, as well as her debut in a new series, Dead on Ice, below.)
Today Lauren ponders an interesting question for both authors and readers: How much character development is too much information?
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"What are they talking about?" an author asked me recently, when a reviewer had noted that the characters in her book were not well developed. As I will often do, I replied to her e-mail with long-winded advice on how to tell if your character is well developed. Character development entails diving into the characters' background and psyche to bring them to life on the page.
Photo provided courtesy of
Lauren Carr
Ironically, not long after sending this e-mail off, I received a couple of reviews for Dead on Ice, my new Lovers In Crime Mysteries, in which the reviewers noted that they failed to connect to Joshua Thornton and his love interest/sidekick Cameron Gates as much as they had with Mac in the Mac Faraday Mysteries. They did not know them as well as they knew Mac.
What surprised me was one reviewer bemoaning that it was not explained why Cameron had chosen to become a homicide detective. On the contrary, there is a scene in which an older woman asks Cameron, "Why would a woman want to be a homicide detective?" to which, she answered, "I wanted to meet men."
The purpose of this post is not to point out the error of this one review, nor is it to vent about reviewers or bad reviews. I have a great deal of respect and a tremendously good relationship with reviewers. My reviews have been almost entirely positive. I have no complaint with reviewers.
So it is safe to keep reading.
This post is more to explore and question the need, the drive, for reviewers, as well as maybe some readers, to know everything there is to know about a character: Their childhood. Their education. Their motivations. What color is their underwear? Why do they drink their coffee black? Are they anti-dairy?
If any of that information is withheld, then these readers and reviewers appear to feel as if they have been cheated — thus, either the author is holding out on them; or worse, has failed to fully develop their characters.
Granted, the writer needs to know the character's background in order to keep them true within the storyline. However, I have always been of the mind that it is not necessary to spell all of that out to the reader, especially if it's irrelevant to the plot. Not only does the writer risk going off track in their book, but they also risk filling up the book with what other readers and reviewers would call "darlings" that should be killed before the book goes to publication.
How does knowing why Cameron Gates decided to become a homicide detective years ago pertain to finding the killer of infamous porn star Cherry Pickens?
Why did Perry Mason become a lawyer instead of a dentist? Is he really sleeping with Della Street? Don't we, as the reader, have the right to know that? Does the fact that Earl Stanley Gardner never gave us the details about Perry and Della's relationship make his mysteries less compelling? Or does the unanswered question makes their relationship more intriguing.
While the author may know this information and use it in planning their plotline, it is best of he chooses not to bother the reader and reviewer with those petty details because they don't need to know it.
Who cares about what age your detective lost their virginity and to whom? In a mystery, unless the murder victim is that person who took your detective's virginity, it doesn't matter.
In exploring this issue, as you can tell, I can't help but look back on the mysteries that I cut my teeth on: Perry Mason, Hercule Poirot, Sam Spade, and notice that the authors of these books did not reveal their protagonists' complete bio and personal business to the readers. Yet, everyone knows who these characters are. There has never been a question about them being fully developed.
However, we can't forget that these detectives are from another age, which I believe is the root of the current issue.
We now live in the information age. As a culture, we are more enlightened. Readers want to dive into the psyche of their characters in order to understand their behavior.
No longer are readers satisfied with a killer, even a serial killer, simply being a bad guy. Why is he a bad guy? Did his mommy hug him too much and too close? Was he picked on in school?
It isn't enough that the bad guy killed his victim in a carjacking because he wanted the victim's car. Why did he want that car? Was it because someone stole his red bike when he was six years old and the red car brought back that painful memory? In which case, it was not his fault, but the fault of the bully from fifteen years ago.
Also, these detectives came before pop stars and everyone else made their personal business (virgin or not?) (Heterosexual or homosexual?) (boxers or briefs?) public knowledge for the world to know via social and other media.
Nothing is private anymore. So the public, and some readers, expect to get all the dope on their literary characters, even if it isn't relevant to knowing whodunit.
As a society, we have become so accustomed to getting all the dope and the dirt that we are left to feel dissatisfied, even frustrated, if we can't get it all. It's like when they started putting air conditioning in cars. At first, it was a luxury. You could get it if you wanted it, even if you had to pay more. Now, all cars come with air conditioning, and we expect it even though it is unnecessary to get from point A to point B, which is the sole purpose of a car.
Providing a mystery without the fillers about the protagonist's first kiss back seventeen years ago and if he had a bowel movement before visiting the crime scene is like driving a car without air conditioning. It's not necessary, but some readers, and reviewers, have come to expect it.
Is this a problem?
As a reader and mystery writer, if it does not pertain to solving the murder, I really don't care if the detective ate his playdoh when he was in kindergarten. I don't believe those details contribute to the character's development. Nor do I feel cheated when I read mysteries without all the dirty details, so generally I don't write them.
However, I do like to get up close and personal to my characters. Reviewers and readers find them exciting. Even those reviewers who were disappointed not to find out what color underwear Cameron Gates wears (that's a joke) noted that they will continue to read the Lovers in Crime Mysteries to learn more about Josh and Cameron. The audience for the Lovers in Crime Mystery is growing.
Reviewers and readers have proclaimed their love for Mac, Archie, and even German Shepherd Gnarly in the Mac Faraday Mysteries — even though they don't know the breed of Gnarly's first love.
Will the comments from those reviewers yearning for more dope on Cameron and Joshua drive me to air more details about their intimate and personal lives? Well, to go back to my earlier example, I think air conditioning now comes standard in motor vehicles.
But, I'm not making cars.
I'm writing mysteries and trust that my audience is more interested in whodunit than whether my detective is wearing boxers or briefs. Unless the murderer is killing his victims by planting a tiny remote activated bomb in men's boxers and Mac Faraday is one of his intended victims — readers are just going to have to use their imagination to find that out.
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Lauren Carr fell in love with mysteries when her mother read Perry Mason to her at bedtime. The first installment in the Joshua Thornton mysteries, A Small Case of Murder was a finalist for the Independent Publisher Book Award.
Lauren is also the author of the Mac Faraday Mysteries, which takes place in Deep Creek Lake, Maryland. Blast from the Past, the fourth in the series in which Mac finds himself up to his eyeballs with mobsters and federal agents, was published this month.
Released September 2012, Dead on Ice introduces a new series entitled "Lovers in Crime", which features prosecutor Joshua Thornton with homicide detective Cameron Gates. Real Murder, the second book in this series will be released Spring 2013.
The owner of Acorn Book Services, Lauren is also a publishing manager, consultant, editor, cover and layout designer, and marketing agent for independent authors. This spring, two books written by independent authors will be released through the management of Acorn Book Services.
Lauren lives with her husband, son, and two dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
You can learn more about Lauren and her books by visiting her website at MysteryLady.net, reading her Literary Wealth blog, or following her on Facebook and Twitter. She can be reached directly at writerlaurencarr@comcast.net.
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Blast from the Past
Lauren Carr
A Mac Faraday Mystery (4th in series)
Mac Faraday finds himself up to his eyeballs with mobsters and federal agents …
After an attempted hit ends badly with two of his men dead, mobster Tommy Cruze arrives in Spencer, Maryland, to personally supervise the execution of the witness responsible for putting him behind bars — Archie Monday! Mac Faraday believes he has his work cut out for him in protecting his lady love from one of the most dangerous leaders in organized crime.
But when bodies start dropping in his lakeshore resort town, things may be hotter than even he can handle.
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Dead on Ice
Lauren Carr
A Lovers in Crime Mystery (1st in series)
Pennsylvania State Police homicide detective Cameron Gates is tasked with solving the murder of Cherry Pickens, a legendary star of pornographic films, whose body turns up in an abandoned freezer. The case has a personal connection to her lover, Hancock County Prosecuting Attorney Joshua Thornton, because the freezer was located in his cousin's basement.
It doesn't take long for their investigation to reveal that the risqué star's roots were buried in their rural Ohio Valley community, something that Cherry had kept off her show business bio. She should have kept her hometown off her road map, too — because when this starlet came running home from the mob, it proved to be a fatal homecoming.
