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
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