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Guest Blog: One Sleuth’s Bottom Line by Rosemary McCracken
Please welcome author Rosemary McCracken to the blog today as she explains why she writes financial mysteries.
One
Sleuth’s Bottom Line by Rosemary McCracken
When I decided to write my first mystery
novel, I had been writing articles about personal finance for a number of
years. As a financial journalist, I had interviewed scores of financial
planners and investment managers. I’d attended their conferences. I understood
the issues they faced. There was, and still is, a huge concern about the bad
apples in their industry: the bent advisors and investment managers. The
financial services industry revolves around money, so it provides opportunities
for those clever and greedy enough to challenge the system.
Those issues certainly got a reaction from
me. I was horrified when I heard about Bernie Madoff, the New York money
manager who swindled his clients out of $65 billion in a massive Ponzi scheme. And
we had scumbags in Toronto, the city where I live. One of them, a Bay Street
advisor, operated a classic confidence scam. He’d get close to his older,
wealthier clients, dazzle them with his interest and concern. Then he’d sell
them bogus stocks and drain their bank accounts. I knew how I’d feel if I had
been one of his victims.
This was the fuel I needed as an author. A
topic that would resonate with me for the months—and years—it takes to complete
a novel. I decided to make the central character of my mystery novel a
financial planner. Before long, my protagonist, Pat Tierney, took shape in my
mind. She believes convicted financial scamsters get off too easily. She wants
to see tougher penalties, prison terms and hefty fines. And what really makes
her blood boil is the crooks who go after decent, ordinary people who’ve worked
hard to pay off their mortgages and put away money for their retirement. When
these folks get ripped off, Pat gets hopping mad.
So I started to write a financial
thriller, although at the time I’d never heard of financial thrillers. But I
soon discovered a number of authors who were writing in this sub-genre. Their
books are popular because everyone understands the lure of easy money: we’re
all attracted by it and some people will do anything to get it. Most of us have
fantasized about what our lives would be like if we won a big lottery or
received a surprise inheritance. Easy money. Money we didn’t have to work hard
for.
Most of us are content to keep our money fantasies
as fantasies. The few of us who aren’t go on to commit financial crimes. Rob
banks. Skim money from clients’ investment accounts. Steal personal information
in order to write cheques and take out mortgages and credit cards in another
person’s name.
Some people will even murder for money.
As an amateur sleuth with a financial
background, Pat Tierney recognizes the red flags for fraud, money laundering
and other financial crimes. Not surprisingly, they turn up in her mystery
novels, and they’re all crimes that you and I can fall prey to. Uncharted
Waters, her most recent adventure, features a nasty scam to defraud
homeowners.
I’ve heard readers say, “Oh, financial
stuff is boring. I don’t understand it, and I don’t want to.” Well, some
financial thriller writers get into the nitty-gritty of market trades and
insider details, but the best writers make their characters’ worlds accessible
to all readers. They make their stories human with colorful, relatable
characters with distinct voices. I stay away from too much financial jargon and
the dry details of investing. Financial planning is Pat Tierney’s work, but I
keep it on the back burner. Pat knows that money isn’t about figures on a
spreadsheet or the intricacies of an investment portfolio. Money is about
people—the young couple saving to buy their first home, the older couple
worried that they may outlive their savings. And, of course, Pat knows that
some people can never have enough money.
As a journalist, I wrote articles about
many of the financial crimes that Pat encounters. Now, I often look up the
people I interviewed for these articles, and ask them more questions. But my research
largely tends to be in other areas. I’ve attended refugee hearings to find out
what happens when displaced people apply for asylum in Canada. I’ve talked to
scene-of-the-crime officers to learn what police do at different types of crime
scenes. I’ve talked to forensic cleaners—people who clean up crime scenes.
Welcome to the world of Pat Tierney.
Rosemary McCracken ©2020
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Guest Author Judy Hogan and A Teen's Christmas in Wales: The Fourteenth Penny Weaver Mystery
Please welcome author Judy Hogan back to the blog. Her latest book, A Teen's Christmas in Wales: The Fourteenth Penny Weaver Mystery is out now in paperback with the eBook release set for November 15, 2020.
I first visited the Gower Peninsula near Swansea, Wales, in the summer of 1981. My landlady was friendly and her B&B, not very expensive. I visited Gower after that almost every time I went to Europe. My last visit was in 1996. Three of my mysteries are sited there, the first The Sands of Gower, Tormentil Hall, the eighth, and now the fourteenth.
What kept me going back? Its history, where people have lived since the Ice Age–they got though it on Gower. Some caves show that human beings were there 200,000 years ago. The most studied one is probably Paviland, which plays a key role in this mystery. A human skeleton was found there, and first called “The Red Lady,” but she turned out to be a young man. This cave is now on the coast, but once was inland.
I also visited the remains of old castles from the period of William the Conquer in 1066.
Somehow the whole peninsula made history come alive over centuries for me. For some sites there were legends, which I found in the local library. I could do well on foot, and also use the local bus to get farther down the peninsula. I had a guidebook to footpaths, only it was old, and one I landed in a field of thistles. There were also reminders of when the Vikings visited, in the names. Worm’s Head, Port Eynon, and even Swansea (Swann’s Eye) etc.
One of my readers pointed out that the characters ranged in ages from teens to elderly in their 90s, who were still active, hiking and visiting caves. My two teenagers, Seb, Penny’s grandson, and his girlfriend, Naomi, managed to get into mischief, though Penny was trying hard to keep track of them.
Then we have the British Christmas rituals, from Boxing Day to crackers with dinner on Christmas Day. Another ritual turned up of making taffy and then dripping some into cold water to form initials for the person the teen was going to marry. Since Seb had already at fourteen picked his bride, he was quite upset when Naomi didn’t recognize her initial as an S.
I used the title on purpose, thinking of a favorite poem of mine: A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas, who lived in or near Swansea. His poem reminds me of Gower. It took forever to find the copyright holder, two, in fact, one in the U.S. and one in England, but my patience won out. They each let me have four quotes from Thomas’s version. I recommend his book to you, if you have never read it. What fun. As for mine, maybe a family holiday gift?
Judy Hogan ©2020
Judy founded Carolina Wren Press (1976-91) and was co-editor of Hyperion Poetry Journal (1970-81). She has published seven volumes of poetry and three non-fiction works with independent presses. She has taught all forms of creative writing since 1974. In 1983 she helped found the North Carolina Writers’ Network and served as its first president (1984-7). In 2015 she decided to set up Hoganvillaea Books, her own publishing imprint, in order to publish more of her mysteries. The Sands of Gower: The First Penny Weaver Mystery was her first release under this new imprint. Her Penny Weaver series takes up interracial community issues. She has written 19 Penny Weaver mysteries, and will continue to publish them.
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