Is Love the End?
Writing a series has its good and bad. Good because the characters have backstory that doesn’t need to be recreated in each book, and this allows them to grow.
Bad because they may never be able to have a Happily Ever After. The emotional and sexual tension between the protag and his or her love interest has kept the series fresh. Will a HEA release that tension?
I didn’t set out to write mysteries with a romantic subtext, but somehow there was always an attractive man (my protags are usually women) hanging around, wanting to be acknowledged. And the protags are all women who have never counted commitment as a need in their lives.
In my paranormal romance series, The Kandesky Vampire Chronicles, I managed to keep this tension going through the first nine books, but finally Maxie Gwenoch, the protag, had to make a decision. And now, as I set out to write the twelfth book, the tension has shifted but love and sex is still there.
In my mystery series, The Amy Hobbes Newspaper Mysteries and the Stained Glass Mysteries, both protags seem to be moving toward commitment, so will the subtext shift or will the couple become like the wise-cracking Thin Man series, with wit and humor keeping the zeitgeist alive?
In July, the third book in the Stained Glass series, Resurrection of the Roses, will see the light of day and a new female attraction will be introduced. How will this affect the budding relationship between Roz and Liam? Or has the murder of Roz’ husband affected her so deeply that she can’t entertain even having another relationship?
There are times when, as an author, my decision to leave the question of “will she or won’t she” up to the reader, has backfired. My readers have all wanted to know! And they wanted a HEA.
One of the reasons I started writing mysteries, and why the genre still attracts me, is that I love puzzles. Reading and solving a mystery has such a sense of satisfaction that even the romantic subplot needs a resolution, even if it’s a HFN (happily for now).
I think most of us are creatures of gratification, and wrapping up a mystery or relationship question gives us a feeling of making the world right again.
How about you? As a reader do you want the book (or series) to end on a HEA, or are you satisfied when the author leaves some ambiguity?
Resurrection of the Roses, the third book in The Stained Glass Mysteries, will be available in July.
The Stained Glass Mysteries, Book 3
When Roz Duke receives an invitation to speak on stained glass at a medieval crafts conference in Paris, she’s torn about accepting. Then her friend Liam spots the invitation and conjures up a summer touring France, a lure Roz can’t resist. Before the conference officially kicks off, though, the body of a man, impaled on a large shard of ruby red stained glass, stops her. Once again, she’s the finder of dead bodies. Who is the dead man? And why her? One of the first police officers on the site is a beautiful French Surete inspector, Celie Lejeune, who instantly homes in on Liam.
Set against the vineyards and wineries of Burgundy, Roz, Liam and her rescue greyhound Tut, learn about making stained glass, wine and medieval crafts, but another body turns up and a couple of French cathedrals burn down. Arson?
Roz and Liam’s idyllic French summer takes on a distinct menacing tone, dogged by an inscrutable French policewoman. Does she have designs on Liam? Or is it Roz in her sights?
