by Julie, excited about blueberry season
Today we continue to celebrate Murder At A London Finishing School !
Continuing the theme of castaways, a London finishing school feels like a great place to explore one of the definitions, that of an outcast. The outcast plays many roles in a mystery novel. The feeling of being an outcast is something we all understand. Wickeds, do you use outcasts for characters, or as a theme?
Barb: Congratulations, Jessie! I cannot wait to read Murder at a London Finishing School . When I created my protagonist, Julia Snowden, for the Maine Clambake Mysteries, I deliberately had her returning to her home town after a decade and a half away, an outsider. Certain things about her parents made her always feel like an outsider even when she lived there. I’m not a native Mainer and I knew I couldn’t pull that off. But I also think that outsider perspective, or in Julia’s case, insider/outsider perspective, is very useful in solving crimes.
Edith/Maddie : So many congrats, Jessie! Hmm, Barb. Now you’ve made me think about outcast vs. outsider. I think almost every good amateur sleuth is an outsider, so they can ask questions and not assume they know the villagers’ motivations. Quaker Midwife Rose Carroll is an outsider for lots of reasons – being a Quaker possibly primary among them. But an outcast, someone shunned, seems different (think high school cliches). An outcast might feel they need revenge, on the spot or years later.
Sherry: Yay, Jessie another fabulous book to read–congratulations! Excellent point, Edith. I’ve never thought of any of my characters as being outcasts. Really, when you think about it, it’s such a cruel thing to toss someone aside for how they look or what they believe.
Liz: Congrats, Jessie! I definitely think all my main characters have that outsider perspective, but like you, Edith, I never really thought of them as outcasts. Except maybe Violet a little bit, because certain factions of her new world don’t want her there which also makes for good conflict.
Julie: Outsider v. outcast is a great conversation. Outcasts are interesting characters. They could be motivated protagonists, as victims with many suspects, villains with interesting backstories, or side characters the reader can’t quite get a read on. I agree that being an outcast is painful, but it is also great fodder.
Jessie: Thanks so much everyone! What a thought-provoking question, Julie! I have written about outcasts as secondary characters, as suspects, and even as victims. I think they bring a lot of tension to the page because we all understand how vulnerable being rejected by the group makes a person. For me, it can create an immediate feeling of empathy for the character depending on why they are in that position particularly because, as Sherry mentioned, it is often quite cruel. I think it is fascinating to explore what would make someone an outcast at different times in history and how some of those things no longer apply today.
Readers, outsider v. outcast? The role of each? What do you think?
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