Crime of Passion with Sharon A. Crawford

A Passion for Lost Souls

You might say I have a passion for lost souls. “Gone Missing,” and Missing in Action” are titles in my mystery short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point. When you get inside other stories – “Saving Grace,” “16 Dorsey St.,” Digging up the Dirt,” Porcelain Doll,” and “Unfinished Business,” you meet characters who have disappeared in one way or another.

For every absent person, there is a character...or two or three... compelled to find the missing uncle, father, old school friend, or the little girl playing in her backyard who suddenly isn’t there. “Compelled” is the key word. Merriam Webster defines compel as “to drive or urge forcefully or irresistibly.” Often the “urge” comes from something criminal that happens to the missing person or the finder.

How much story do you use from real life? Amber alerts, newscasts and social media have pushed missing children and adults into high gear and we get caught up in the drama. Most authors haven’t been kidnapped and not all have children who run away or get snatched. But we were all children once and many of us are parents and grandparents. Relive these life situations in your mind and reconnect with the emotions. How did you feel when your older brother left a frog in your bed? What about that weird first cousin who never said much and seemed always in her own world? What about your reaction to your toddler’s terrible twos?

Anger? Suspicion? Guilt? Incompetence?

Take those feelings, stir in a few amber alerts, and whip in a lot of imagination. Then combine.

In my short story “Gone Missing” I used my parental feelings of guilt and incompetence to write a “what if.” (Disclaimer: I have a son, although now in his mid-thirties.) Dana Bowman, one of the PI’s in “Gone Missing” has no choice but to find missing youngsters because her seven-year-old son David was kidnapped the year before. Dana did find him alive, at least his body, but his spirit was so traumatized that he became psychologically mute. Attending therapy with David doesn’t pacify Dana’s guilt at being a “bad mother” (she didn’t prevent her son’s kidnapping), so with her PI partner and fraternal twin, Bast Overture, she has to find as many missing children and teens as possible. Here, the missing teen, 19-year-old Rosemary Morgrave brings matters too close to home for Dana. Rosemary has a twin brother, too – Robin, who hires Dana and Bast to find Rosemary. As the story progresses, Dana and David are driving home from their therapy session when she receives a message to meet some of the characters at Snow Lake and she vacillates between her role of mother-protector and PI-protector.

I shouldn’t take David to the docks onto a boat on Snow Lake. I hit Bast’s cell number and get his voice mail. I leave a detailed message about Michael, Robin, Dad and the houseboat meeting. “David’s with me,” I finish.
I put the cell down and glance at David. He’ll freak and.... Wait. That might be it. The hair of the dog, although no way is he going in the water this time. I purse my lips, grip the steering wheel, hit the accelerator and tell David to hang on. 
(Copyright 2012 Sharon A. Crawford, Beyond the Tripping Point. Blue Denim Press)

The next story, “Saving Grace,” got its roots from a news story of a little girl kidnapped by a predator and saved by another little girl. I combined that with David’s and Dana’s situation and threw in Great Aunt Doris, the family busy-body who echoes Dana’s doubts of her mothering qualities. When the three go on holiday to Goderich, Ontario, David is the instigator who literally drags his mother into finding the missing Grace Milhop, with Doris tagging along as the dissenting chorus.

In “Unfinished Business,” the main character, Lilly misses living her life fully. Something terrible happened when she was 12, so she ran away from home and kept running, never staying long in one place. She’s promiscuous and has a child, Trish. Only when Trish, at 12, demands to see her mother’s childhood home does Lilly return. When her “demon” goes after Trish, then she must face up to her past and take action. Here I used my feelings of growing up an only child and being bullied, with my combined horror of some of the atrocities that happen to innocent children.


Sharon A. Crawford is the author of the mystery short story collection Beyond the Tripping Point (Blue Denim Press, 2012). She has over 25 years experience as a freelance writer, editor and writing instructor. She runs the East End Writers’ Group, belongs to Crime Writers of Canada, Editors’ Association of Canada, PWAC and is Writer in Residence for the Canadian Authors Association Toronto Branch.

www.samcraw.com
Blog: www.sharonacrawfordauthor.com

Kay Stewart and the Legality of Crimes of Passion

Do Texans Get Away with Murder?
I’m writing this blog from Texas, my home state, where juries are supposedly lenient to defendants accused of crimes of passion. You know the stereotype: a man catches his wife or sweetheart and her lover in flagrante delicto and kills them both; he’s convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter or even acquitted.

    In the only recent case I’ve come across, a Texan awoke from a drunken slumber to see his wife coming out of his brother’s bedroom in a house they shared and shot them both. The man was not only convicted but executed.

    I haven’t read extensive accounts of the trial, but I suspect the jury wasn’t convinced that the man had been overcome by rage and acted impulsively, without premeditation. Premeditation is the dividing line, you see, between manslaughter and first- or second-degree murder.

The problem was, the man followed his wife into their bedroom and forced her to perform oral sex before killing her and then his brother. That suggests some time for reflection—or something—don’t you think?

Similarly, characters who kill may be motivated by deep-seated passions, but their crimes may not be “crimes of passion” in the legal sense. As law enforcement officers point out, true “crimes of passion” are generally easily solved because the suspect is obvious and leaves incriminating evidence at the scene. Therefore when we write about such crimes, we create twists to prolong the investigation: the body disappears without a trace; evidence is destroyed; the obvious suspect has a watertight alibi.  

In contrast to crimes of passion, premeditated murders are often carefully planned and may take years to solve, or remain unsolved forever. This is especially true in serial murders, where the victims may belong to the same demographic group—such as children or sex workers or itinerant young men—but have no strong pre-existing links to the killer. 

In Sitting Lady Sutra my protagonist, RCMP Constable Danutia Dranchuk, becomes involved in cases of both types. One case is solved; the other remains open, for a possible sequel! The other books in the series, A Deadly Little List and the newly released Unholy Rites, both focus on premeditated murders. 

Many of us can conceive of circumstances in which strong emotions—rage or heartbreak or shame—might lead us to lash out with fatal consequences. It is harder to imagine ourselves plotting someone’s death. That’s why creating believable characters who choose to kill is such a challenge. Whether they’re Texan or not.

Kay Stewart is the author of police procedurals featuring RCMP Constable Danutia Dranchuk. Unholy Rites, written with husband Chris Bullock and released in March, is the third in the series. Kay has also published short stories, personal essays, and writing textbooks. She taught at the University of Alberta before moving to Vancouver Island to devote her time to writing. She is active in the crime-writing community, having served as National Vice President and President of Crime Writers of Canada and co-chair of Bloody Words 2011.


   

Twitter Challenge May 15

2013 CBC Canada Writes Twitter Challenge for National Crime Writing Month

May 15, 2013

By Vicki Delany


This May the CBC is trying something different for the NCWM joint initiative with the CWC. The CBC CANADA WRITES web page (http://www.cbc.ca/books/canadawrites/) has been featuring the CWC over the last two weeks in a section called Characters in Crime.

If you’ve missed it, pop in and see the content. Something different every day.

In addition, the CBC has assembled a crack team of CWC authors from Coast to Coast to engage the Canadian reading public in a Twitter Challenge. Details of the Challenge are top secret! I can reveal that it will be on May 15th, and run from 9am to 9pm Eastern time, so everyone can get involved in the action. The CBC will be donating great prizes to the best tweets as well as books throughout the day.

Head over to Twitter, and follow #CanadaWrites The contest is open to everyone. Here’s a sneak peek: Think character in crime novels.

Feel free to spread the word and let your family, friends, readers and colleagues know about the CBC/CWC Twitter Challenge today.

Garry Ryan - Crimes of Passion

MUI: Murder Under the Influence

Passion. A homicide detective recently referred to it as fleeting anger. Detective Dave’s comment – in connection with the fact that many murders take place after the bars close on a Saturday night – got me thinking.

Thinking led to the conclusion that a combination of alcohol, a bad day and an argument could mean that most of us are capable of becoming killers.

It kind of broadens the audience as far as crime writing goes. If most of us are capable of the crime then we begin to wonder why more of us aren’t in jail. Certainly all of us have been provoked at one time or another. Most of us have families/relationships that can turn volatile. Yet we somehow we manage to control our passion.

Passion may be one of the keys to understanding why crime writing is such a popular art form. Most of us are capable of the crime but still want to believe that we are different from the killers. We hope that when passion takes over, there is something we have that makes us take a breath. A switch that will turn us off before we go too far. Still there remains that nagging doubt that under the right circumstances we are just as capable of the crime as almost anyone else.

That doubt is where story comes in. You know the kind that keeps you turning the pages. That’s when the real magic happens. A story we can identify with or that appeals to our imagination or just a story that reveals how others react under the kind of pressure that a life or death environment creates. Whatever it is, passion and story appear to be at the centre of what makes crime writing work.

In 2004, Ryan’s first Detective Lane novel, Queen’s Park was published. The second, The Lucky Elephant Restaurant, won a 2007 Lambda Literary Award. A Hummingbird Dance, Smoked, and Malabarista followed. In 2009, Ryan was awarded Calgary’s Freedom of Expression Award. Foxed will be published in the fall of 2013.

www.garryryan.ca

Hilary Macleod - Crimes of Passion

Crimes of Irritation?

Jane Jamieson, the Mountie in The Shores Mysteries, likes black and white.  If someone dies, she’d rather it be murder than an accident.  And if it’s murder, she’d rather a crime of passion than a dispassionate killing.

A killing as a result of passion, lust, anger, rage is clear cut – and worthwhile.  Jamieson knows that many stupid murders happen – a momentary disagreement between young men, one of whom happens to be holding a knife.  Before he knows what he’s done, he’s killed his friend.

A stupid murder.  Not intended.  Not driven by passion.

Women tend to be passionate killers.  That means they stab, not just once to the vitals, but twenty-seven times or more, plunging in the knife for every sock her husband ever left on the floor for her to pick up.

Yes.  Irritation can lead to murder.  A minor emotion perhaps, but it can result in a crime of passion.  On the other end of the stick, or knife, or gun, madness drives people to kill passionately – and nastily.  Axe to the head.  Pushed off a cliff.  Stabbed with a lobster.  Stabbed with a lobster?  One of the stranger things that have happened in Shores mysteries.

Well-thought-out, hands-off murders tend to be committed by psychopaths, people without emotion, who may be more fascinated by their own murderous methodology than driven by any particular emotion for or against their victim.  For them, there’s a purpose to the murder – a personal gain or axe to grind and sink into someone’s head, perhaps the sheer joy of killing, the self-congratulatory satisfaction of pulling it off.

I have various kinds of killers in my murder mysteries.  In Mind Over Mussels, there’s a madwoman, and a woman who kills in a rage.  In my latest book, Something Fishy, there’s a psychopathic killer…and a bizarre, inhuman brute as well, a killer that may not be on the reader’s radar, but is stalking the cape in full view of everyone, if only they knew.

In the other two Shores novels, Revenge of the Lobster Lover and All is Clam, it’s uncertain whether the deaths occur by accident or calculated killing…the grey area that Jamieson hates.

Give this Mountie a good, passionate murder, and she’s happy.  Which means she should be overjoyed at her posting in the village.  Why, then, is she not?  Not enough of those traditional, classic crimes of passion?  Too many deaths with too many questions attached – and not enough answers? 

Yes.  It makes her so mad she could…kill?

Hilary MacLeod is the author of The Shores Mystery series, set on Red Island aka Prince Edward Island. Her background includes 20 years in broadcasting as a host and writer/broadcaster for CBC Maritimes and News Director for CHUM Ltd. in Montreal.  She was also a Professor of Media Studies at Loyalist College in Ontario for over 20 years.As a result, there isn’t much that she takes seriously.

www.hilarymacleod.ca

Eileen Schuh - Passion for Suspense

Come, share the passion!

When I discovered the topic for National Crime Writing Month was Crimes of Passion I figured I was out of the running. Of necessity, my young adult crime novels in the BackTracker Series, The Traz and Fatal Error, contain little about passion in the usual sense of that word—other than young Katrina’s teenage crush on the undercover officer bent on saving her. But, who am I kidding? Once we reach 50 we realize puppy love isn’t passion.

I considered whether or not my adult SciFi suspense novella, Schrodinger's Cat, contained some crimes of passion, perhaps even double the passion considering the story spans two parallel universes. After all, how can one not be passionate about a dying child? Surely the ensuing custody battles and parental abductions could count toward the crime part of the equation, right? Alas, that was stretching the assigned topic quite thinly, especially when I had to admit that the miniscule tryst with the secretary constituted neither crime nor passion.

My heart and mind kept returning to The Traz and Fatal Error. I told myself there was passion of sorts in The Traz—and many crimes. The bikers were quite passionate about selling cocaine, killing off their competition, and ensuring Katrina was appropriately inducted into their ranks (i.e. unable to escape). The undercover officers were passionate about dismantling the gang and protecting Katrina, while their boss, good old Sergeant Kindle, was passionate about keeping his officers safe and his covert operation clean.
However, at some point I realized the passion within the novel paled compared to the passion of the author; these crime novels, without a doubt, were MY passion. They’d been my life, my love, my obsession since their genesis when, during a year of dark and lonely nights, I found comfort in recording the thrilling, dangerous, dire, convoluted lives of the BackTracker characters.

It was definitely passion that had me scouring the world for resources to add to the list I included with The Traz—contact links, numbers, and addresses for readers needing help or information on the issues touched on in the novel such as gangs, depression, and drugs. It was passion that drove me to also create a Teaching Guide for the School Edition to encourage young and old readers alike to think critically about the effects their decisions have on their lives and the lives of others.

It was passion that accompanied me to the Side Door Youth Centre, the St. Paul Alternate Education Centre and even the North Slave Young Offenders Facility to speak to the children about my novel and my life as an author.

I invite you to share that passion with me. It’s a great time to do so as The Traz School Edition in ebook format and The Traz in paperback are available from Amazon for a special price from May 3-10th.
Come, share the passion and invite a young person in your life to share it with you.

Eileen is the author of the adult novella Schrödinger’s Cat. A "psychological crime thriller that spans two universes" and the Backpacker series for young adults.

Web site: http://www.eileenschuh.com
Blog: http://eileenschuh.blogspot.com

Catherine Astolfo - Understanding Rage

Crimes of Passion: How Far Would You Go?
Whenever I watch a movie or read a book about revenge, retaliation and/or protection, I wonder just how far I would go if my loved ones were threatened or harmed.

Would the passion of my sorrow, fear or anger be so strong that I would actually kill someone? Sometimes when I hear about the tortured murder of a young child, I wonder what I’d do if that were my grandchild. Would I attempt to gain access to the perpetrator and end his/her life in some hideous way? I think I might, but perhaps I’d only do that in my dreams.

I can almost understand the blindness that might occur when overtaken by passion. Maybe my subconscious, the one that has an animalistic desire to defend, would overtake the learned responses of civility. Perhaps I’d murder someone in the heat of the moment if I had a weapon at hand. Or maybe the emotional madness would last long enough for me to plan something less messy.

I don’t think every murder is a crime of passion, though there might be an argument that most of them are. When I think of a crime of passion, I picture that momentary rage which turns ordinary people into monsters for a distinct period of time. In my personal definition, other murders are committed by twisted souls, whatever their perversion may be, who are monsters all year round.

Thus in my Emily Taylor Mystery series, I consider only one murder to be a “crime of passion”. It occurs in the last book, Seventh Fire. I can’t tell you what it is, of course, or I’d spoil the ending. But suffice it to say that Emily and Langford Taylor were dealt a very raw deal. Accused of murder, sentenced to twenty years in jail, Langford was denied his wife and his career. Emily was purposely run off the road; in the accident, she lost her child and the ability to have more. At the same time, her husband was incarcerated. All caused by the same person(s).

As Lynn Osterkamp, author of Too Many Secrets, says, Seventh Fire is “about Emily's challenge to stride forward with strength and determination to change their lives for the better, which she likens to the Ojibwa legend of facing a seventh fire test where the world shifts and there is no one to serve as a guide. It's about loss and forgiveness and how Emily and Langford's persistence and love win out over adversity.”

If, as in the seventh fire test, there is “no one to serve as a guide”, would I forget the values I had been taught all my life? Would I go against my nature and cause someone’s death? Or is my true underlying nature one of a passionate protectionism? After all, when I checked the thesaurus for words that mean the same as “passion”, one of the offerings was “rage”.

I’m pretty sure love is the most common reason for committing a crime of passion. Love can have its ugly side effects: jealousy, anger, grief. Particularly in a situation where someone else causes the loss of that loved one. Who would blame Emily or Langford if they “lost it” and sought revenge on the person(s) who caused their grief, humiliation and loss?

I’m not saying they did that in Seventh Fire, of course. I like to think higher morals would prevail. Most people would be content to let societal justice punish the criminals. If the law failed somehow, though, how far would I go? Hmmm.

Writing is Catherine Astolfo’s passion. Her short stories and poems have been published in a number of literary Canadian presses. In 2005, she won a Brampton Arts Award. Her short stories won the Bloody Words Short Story Award and, in 2012, the prestigious Arthur Ellis Award.  Look for Sweet Karoline, a standalone, psychological suspense, in July 2013.
www.catherineastolfo.com