***
The problem with murder when
it comes to parents, is to get them past their misplaced guilt. Clayton
ran into it on other cases too, not just murder. Even after Clayton
reassured them there was nothing they could have done; that Margie, like
most twenty-five-year-old women, had a mind of her own, but it didn't help
ease their pain. They felt responsible in some way. The guilt they placed on each other made it all the more difficult for the Websters to stick to the questions. Why hadn't Alice told Jack that Margie went off to the book club? If Jack hadn't stifled their daughter so she would have been more open with them--and on and on. It took Clayton an hour to get any honest answers from either of them and that was only after he called in his investigator, Pepper Black.
***
If you've liked my posts of The Milk Carton Murders, you
should like this tale too. It was written to predate MCM and includes
Sheriff Nazzaro and Pepper Black as well as other characters, from MCM.
Check out the other Weekend Writing Warriors---where a sampling of a variety of great writers is only a click away!
And just to share some excitement, release day is tomorrow for my new book A History of Native American Land Rights in Upstate New York (E-book releases in April) via The History Press the largest publisher of local history in the country. Cool huh?
Glad to see you are still rocking the murder/mystery genre! I just back back to blogging after an extended hiatus. Life & Faith in Caneyhead
ReplyDeleteThis touches close to home-the parent thing I'm referring to and oh the shifting of blame and what if's. Amazing snippet.
ReplyDeleteAw, the poor parents! You want to blame someone and the killer isn't there, so you default to each other.
ReplyDeleteSmoothly written and such good insights into the parents and how they're reacting. Enjoyed the excerpt. Your murder mysteries are always riveting.
ReplyDeleteAnd therrrrrrrrre's Pepper! I am so glad to see Pepper come into the story. Now things will get done, right?
ReplyDeleteIs MCM published? I really want to read it. :-)
The last year and a half was taken up with my Indian land rights boo. I plan to relax with some murder and milk this summer. :)
DeleteI can just see how some spousal bickering would really get in the way of answers...
ReplyDeleteI love the realistic description of the difficulty of getting information from the parents. It makes me feel that the author can be relied on to tell a well thought out tale.
ReplyDelete