Into the Fire

Okay, what about female heroines in mystery and suspense novels? Well, you have the intuitive busybodies or ditzes who stumble into crimes and proceed to investigate, but they comprise a genre I rarely visit. Real mystery/suspense novels generally use a female in a position of law enforcement or focus on a female victim who is somehow able to overcome fearful and dangerous circumstances.

In Sibella Giorello’s The Stones Cry Out and the follow-up novel The Rivers Run Dry, we are introduced to FBI Special Agent Raleigh Harmon who is portrayed as a savvy but vulnerable woman, both strong-willed and deceptively sensitive at the same time. She keeps an almost secret emotional life as she watches her mother deteriorate mentally and lives in the sorrow of the unsolved murder of her beloved step-father. There is much to respect in Raleigh, but she keeps us at arm’s length along with most of the people in her life, relentlessly devoting her energies to the particular crimes she’s investigating. Gaining little enjoyment from her life outside of work, we watch her with admiration and a little pity because of the sorrows she keeps hidden. She’s a Christian who struggles with the day-to-day walk with the Lord, but we learn enough about her inner character to know she’s “real” and doesn’t take her faith for granted. Good character.

In Athol Dickson’s Winter Haven we meet the insecure, slightly unstable Vera Gamble who is forced into the plight of finding out how her missing brother washed ashore on the remote island town of Winter Haven, Maine, could possibly look the same as he did when he went missing 13 years ago. The rather fascinating journey takes Vera into an emotional meltdown which explores her past while the mysterious present hurls challenges at her fragile psyche during every endeavor to find the truth, both physical and spiritual. In the process she discovers who she really is and finally allows herself a freedom she’s never known.

In Vera’s case as we learn more about her, we begin to feel sympathy for her, fear for her, admire her persistent and difficult efforts to find a reality in her somewhat bizarre surroundings and state of mind.

These are just two examples of opposite types of female characters which inspire us to care about them in their circumstances. Raleigh is guarded, gutsy, and strong but vulnerable. Vera is needy, challenged to her core, but willing to persist in spite of increasing odds against her finding the truth. The success of these stories about two radically different women depend upon our caring about their triumphs, and in both cases: mission accomplished.

Lord, thank you for writers who make their characters real. It tells us so much about them as people. Thank you for each one who desires to glorify you and your gifts with their writing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.