murder.booklocker.com

Spoiler Notice: Discussion/Study Questions reveal parts of the plot and the ending.

Question: “Portraits of the victims are rounded out in various ways - using the director’s descriptions to the detective (Sheila, Ben), videotape transcripts (Gordon), and the interview with Zabo’s wife. Which is most effective and why?

One of the more difficult things for me is how to sketch a character in the fewest possible words or actions. This becomes extremely important in short stories, especially if you’re trying to avoid stereotypes and cliches. Weaving backstory material is just as hard.

In PARK RIDGE a presentation of the victim immediately preceded a murder. This meant that all I had was this one shot (no pun intended) at describing the victim. Depending on the reader’s response to this portrayal, they would either be outraged or indifferent (or somewhere in between) when this person was murdered. I was limited by the space I felt that I could allow for the description. After all, the book wasn’t about the victims but the killers.

I looked for other ways that I could introduce information (backstory) that would make these “incidental” characters more three-dimensional. One option came from reality. Teresa (the real center director) told me that they often have groups come into the senior center, generally once a year. These groups are looking for people they can interview — oral history type stuff. Sometimes the focus is even narrower — they just want to talk with veterans. Teachers may bring in elementary school children for an intergenerational activity. Either way, groups do come in to the center and have contact.

I reasoned that videotaping the interviews without any intervention by the interviewer would be a good way to force my characters to speak in their own words. Five minutes on camera with no prompts is a long time. Only bits and pieces would be relevant to the narrative, but as the author I could isolate sections from the transcript.

Another way that I rounded out the characters was by what other people said about them. The discussion question we’re looking at specifically mentions Leonard Zabo’s wife. Even though she’s speaking with the detective, who’s investigating her husband’s death, the conversation conveys a lot of information with the same candor as the tapes.

It’s my personal opinion that comments about the victims, or even the killers, by Teresa Cusentino, the center director, are not as effective. Her views are less objective because of her defensive stance toward “her people.” On the other hand, as a character, she grows in understanding, admits to this defensiveness, and emerges as much more sympathetic and aware.