This might sound an unusual subject for a writer of crime and mystery to blog about, but it isn't really. Although my own series is entitled Jane Hetherington's Adventures in Detection, the series could so easily have been called Jane Hetherington's Adventures in Detection –A Study in Loss.
Let's begin with my non-comprehensive list of just some of the things (figuratively or literally) that can be lost:
Anything tangible; anything which isn't nailed down; anything nailed down; time; fortunes; hair; pets; employment; elections; tempers; face; weight; contests; property; pennies and pounds; one's grip; status; youth; limbs; one's head; businesses; a generation; Eden; birthright; the will to live; the plot; marbles; one's mind/wits/sanity; opportunities; hope; control; a ship; its crew; a battle; a war; liberty; sleep; peace of mind; sanctuary; nationality; a creative work; an art form; the love of one's life; a relationship; patience; patients; the meaning of words; libido; a life with someone; dreams; self-confidence; a world record.
People can be at a loss for words, or for what to do. They can lose faith, or regard for others, or for themselves. They can lose their way in life, or just their way. They can suffer loss of memory, or identity, or the ability to do something. They can sell at a loss, make a loss, suffer loss of reputation, or a sense of purpose. They can be lost in thought, a lost sheep, a dead loss or lost without trace.
Archaically ‘loose’ or ‘fallen’ women were called lost; as were the souls of unrepentant sinners (my protagonist – Jane Hetherington – meets more than a few of these I can tell you)
Loss (and gain) is the theme which runs through all crime and mystery writing. As a private detective, Jane Hetherington spends a lot of time on the trail of 'lost' people or possessions. Though they may not realise it, many who engage her are entering into a sort of lottery – hoping to gain more from learning 'the truth' than they lose. This isn't a bet they all win.
Let's look at just a few of Jane's cases. In one, a young woman has 'lost' a piece of jewellery and is convinced that if she doesn't get it back she's going to lose a great deal more (her future). In another, a man still mourns his young fiancée decades after her death; yet it's not this loss which causes him to call upon the services of Jane Hetherington, but the possibly catastrophic loss of something else. One of Jane's clients is described as "wanting everything" but in the end the same client is described as having "lost everything".
Then of course there's the worst loss of all, the loss of life itself.
My eponymous heroine is herself a widow. The inscription on the gravestone of her late husband reads simply,
Not lost but gone before1
Jane draws comfort from these words; yet at sixty-three she has buried her husband and must now spend the rest of her life without him by her side. His companionship and support lost to her, along with the plans they made for their long retirement together. Not only this, but her only child, to whom she is very close, now lives overseas, along with Jane's grandchildren – her dreams of watching them grow up, something else lost. Jane has suffered other losses, including the death of those close to her and her dreams of a large brood of children.
Jane isn't the only regular character to have suffered loss. Jack and Charity Lambert, the young brother and sister who live next door to Jane, have lost both their parents and with their bereavement, Jack lost a carefree childhood and Charity a carefree early adulthood. Another character has lost his father in childhood, not through death, but through abandonment. With that loss, he also lost his self-confidence and trust in others. Another character is married to a woman in the grips of dementia – the woman he married lost to him forever.
Such a little word to describe something potentially so enormous; something leaving those nursing it feeling confused, annoyed, traumatised, heartbroken, incandescent, hell-bent on revenge, bereft or wanting to instruct a private detective!
Loss, be it the fear of it, the avoidance of it, the recovery from it, the fallout from it, the way its sufferer deals with it, or the desire to inflict it upon others, shapes all of life and no crime or mystery series would be complete (or possible) without it.
1 Caroline Norton, English poet (1808-77)
The series is available from all Amazon sites (e-book & paperback).
To read inside or link through:
https://www.amazon.com/author/ninajonbooks
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B007N33HUC
Let's begin with my non-comprehensive list of just some of the things (figuratively or literally) that can be lost:
Anything tangible; anything which isn't nailed down; anything nailed down; time; fortunes; hair; pets; employment; elections; tempers; face; weight; contests; property; pennies and pounds; one's grip; status; youth; limbs; one's head; businesses; a generation; Eden; birthright; the will to live; the plot; marbles; one's mind/wits/sanity; opportunities; hope; control; a ship; its crew; a battle; a war; liberty; sleep; peace of mind; sanctuary; nationality; a creative work; an art form; the love of one's life; a relationship; patience; patients; the meaning of words; libido; a life with someone; dreams; self-confidence; a world record.
People can be at a loss for words, or for what to do. They can lose faith, or regard for others, or for themselves. They can lose their way in life, or just their way. They can suffer loss of memory, or identity, or the ability to do something. They can sell at a loss, make a loss, suffer loss of reputation, or a sense of purpose. They can be lost in thought, a lost sheep, a dead loss or lost without trace.
Archaically ‘loose’ or ‘fallen’ women were called lost; as were the souls of unrepentant sinners (my protagonist – Jane Hetherington – meets more than a few of these I can tell you)
Loss (and gain) is the theme which runs through all crime and mystery writing. As a private detective, Jane Hetherington spends a lot of time on the trail of 'lost' people or possessions. Though they may not realise it, many who engage her are entering into a sort of lottery – hoping to gain more from learning 'the truth' than they lose. This isn't a bet they all win.
Let's look at just a few of Jane's cases. In one, a young woman has 'lost' a piece of jewellery and is convinced that if she doesn't get it back she's going to lose a great deal more (her future). In another, a man still mourns his young fiancée decades after her death; yet it's not this loss which causes him to call upon the services of Jane Hetherington, but the possibly catastrophic loss of something else. One of Jane's clients is described as "wanting everything" but in the end the same client is described as having "lost everything".
Then of course there's the worst loss of all, the loss of life itself.
My eponymous heroine is herself a widow. The inscription on the gravestone of her late husband reads simply,
Not lost but gone before1
Jane draws comfort from these words; yet at sixty-three she has buried her husband and must now spend the rest of her life without him by her side. His companionship and support lost to her, along with the plans they made for their long retirement together. Not only this, but her only child, to whom she is very close, now lives overseas, along with Jane's grandchildren – her dreams of watching them grow up, something else lost. Jane has suffered other losses, including the death of those close to her and her dreams of a large brood of children.
Jane isn't the only regular character to have suffered loss. Jack and Charity Lambert, the young brother and sister who live next door to Jane, have lost both their parents and with their bereavement, Jack lost a carefree childhood and Charity a carefree early adulthood. Another character has lost his father in childhood, not through death, but through abandonment. With that loss, he also lost his self-confidence and trust in others. Another character is married to a woman in the grips of dementia – the woman he married lost to him forever.
Such a little word to describe something potentially so enormous; something leaving those nursing it feeling confused, annoyed, traumatised, heartbroken, incandescent, hell-bent on revenge, bereft or wanting to instruct a private detective!
Loss, be it the fear of it, the avoidance of it, the recovery from it, the fallout from it, the way its sufferer deals with it, or the desire to inflict it upon others, shapes all of life and no crime or mystery series would be complete (or possible) without it.
1 Caroline Norton, English poet (1808-77)
The series is available from all Amazon sites (e-book & paperback).
To read inside or link through:
https://www.amazon.com/author/ninajonbooks
http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B007N33HUC