What Do the Girls Have to Say About the Guy?

A Guest Post by Author M.E. Proctor

Ten years ago, when the character of Declan Shaw, a Houston PI, popped into my head, I didn’t give a second thought to the fact that I’d just committed myself to write, from a male perspective, what could become a series. It didn’t bother me. I wanted to try my hand at a detective story featuring in the main role a bruised romantic shamus, a classic updated for the 21^st century.

I completed a first manuscript (full disclosure: that attempt will never be published; it was a trial run) and gave it to my husband. He’s a brilliant writer and my first beta reader. He said he enjoyed the story and proceeded to criticize it down to the bone. It’s good to have a fierce reviewer at home; once you’ve cleared that hurdle there’s nothing the world can throw at you that’ll make you flinch. He picked up two dialogue excerpts and commented: “A guy would never say that.”

Out of a 300-page story, I thought that was a pretty good score. It also made me aware of the stumbling blocks that our subconscious takes pleasure in throwing in our path. Note to self: Guys don’t giggle, unless they’re Tommy Udo and about to push a lady down the staircase. Not the mood I was going for … I fixed the dialogue and toughened it up.

We’re quite a few years later now. I have a ton of short stories under my belt, a retro-noir novella written in collaboration (Bop City Swing) where I take the part of the hardboiled cop and my writing partner, Russell Thayer, is in the female assassin’s head, and two Declan Shaw novels. Girls or guys, pumps or brogues, I’ll slip into the shoes the story calls for.

Except …

In Catch Me on a Blue Day, Book 2 of the Declan Shaw series, my PI gets very close and very personal with Isabel, a cute art gallery manager.

I’ve written quite a few seduction/sex scenes and I’m not new to the challenge, but the story required this one to jump higher in the temperature range than I’d gone before. I could have written it from Declan’s point of view—there’s another scene with Isabel in the book that gives him quite a kick—but for this particular one, I thought I could do more from the girl’s perspective. It’s a decision that changed the structure of the book.

The Declan stories are mostly told from his standpoint. Secondary points of view come into play, out of narrative necessity (for example, I put him in the ICU in Book 1, Love You Till Tuesday, and the plot couldn’t remain frozen for a week).

In this case, changing the angle to Isabel gave me an opportunity to put a different light on the main character, and reveal things about him that would never have surfaced otherwise. He’s a very controlled guy and she pushes his buttons so hard he loses his footing.

Next to Isabel’s star turn, I also gave voice to two other female characters who play a major role in the story. They form the other points of a triangle with Declan in the middle, in the crossbeams, and they balance the narrative.

The first one is Jean. She’s old enough to be his mother and would love to slip into a protective role. She does it, in a harrowing scene, and Declan accepts her help, but he remains reticent and unwilling to let her in too close. She sees herself as a nest builder, and he is a drifting soul. Their alliance can only be temporary.

The second one is Kate, close in age to Declan and Isabel. Fiercely independent, wary of emotional entanglements, and dealing with a troubled past. Her sister was murdered thirty years ago, a death that destroyed the family. Kate never knew the girl; she was only two at the time. She doesn’t open up to people easily, and her trust is hard to win. She’d like to see Declan as some noble defender, but he’s a bit wobbly.

Seen through the eyes of these three women, Declan’s character gains new dimensions.

I enjoyed trading his cowboy boots for Isabel’s sandals, Jean’s sensible shoes, and Kate’s wellies … for a little while.

Catch Me on a Blue Day
A Declan Shaw Mystery, Book 2

“For Ella and all the innocents slain by soulless men.”

It’s the dedication of the book on the Salvadoran civil war retired reporter Carlton Marsh was writing before he committed suicide.

A shocking death. Marsh had asked Declan Shaw to come to Old Mapleton, Connecticut to help him with research. He looked forward to Declan’s visit: “See you at cocktail time, a fine whiskey’s waiting.” They talked on the phone a few hours before the man put a bullet in his brains.

Now Declan stands in the office of the local police chief. The cop would prefer to see him fly back to Houston. He’s never dealt with a private detective, but everybody knows they are trouble. If only there weren’t so many unanswered questions around Marsh’s death … the haunting first three chapters of his book, and that dedication to Ella, a girl whose murder thirty years ago brought the town to its knees.

In Catch Me on a Blue Day, Declan is far from his regular Texas stomping grounds. He’s off balance in more ways than one, and the crimes he uncovers are of a magnitude he could not foresee.

Between the sins of an old New England town and the violence of 1980s El Salvador. And the links between the two.

Buy links

paperback

ebook

~*~ 

M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday and Catch Me on a Blue Day. She’s also the author of a short story collection, Family and Other Ailments, and the co-author of a retro-noir novella, Bop City Swing. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines like Vautrin, Tough, Rock and a Hard Place, Bristol Noir, Mystery Tribune, Reckon Review, and Black Cat Weekly among others. She’s a Shamus and Derringer short story nominee.