Karen Odden writes on Headlines and Regrets

RHYS BOWEN: It's my pleasure today to be introducing not only a good writer, but a friend. Karen is one of the people I look forward to hanging out with when I'm at my winter home in Arizona. I love that she is passionate about history and about bringing it to life. But I' m interested to know that this story , UNDER A  VEILED MOON, has a more personal side to it. Welcome Karen: 

KAREN ODDEN: Only recently did I recognize that every book I’ve written has its origins in two distinct places. The first is some odd piece of history about Victorian London; the second is a deeply personal concern, something I’m wrestling with in my own head and heart. And this novel – Under a Veiled Moon – my fifth (!), and the second in the Inspector Corravan series, is no different.

The mystery plot was inspired by what was called “the worst maritime disaster ever to befall Victorian London” – and it was truly horrifying. On the night of September 3, 1878, a small wooden pleasure steamship, the Princess Alice, traveling on the Thames River, was rammed by a 900-ton iron-hulled coal ship. The Princess Alice sank within minutes, and of the approximately 650 passengers on the boat, over 500 drowned – many of them women (their crinoline skirts were an absolute deadweight, as you can imagine) and children, all floundering in the darkness. The additional difficulty was that the Princess was one of a fleet of steamships – akin to our hop-on-hop-off tour buses – with no passenger manifest, so no one even knew who was on the boat! With bodies scattered along both shores, families were frantic, and the disaster roused tremendous anxiety about travel on the Thames. Was it truly an accident? If not, who caused it? In my book, early clues point to Irish extremists, and when the newspapers start trumpeting that story, it’s a horrible mess for my protagonist Inspector Michael Corravan to unravel.

At age thirty-one, Michael, a former thief from seedy Whitechapel (where Jack the Ripper committed his crimes), is an inspector at Scotland Yard, although he has been temporarily assigned to Acting Superintendent at Wapping River Police. As the book begins, on a Sunday, he goes to visit his adoptive family, the Doyles, for tea, and he sees the smashed window at Ma Doyle’s shop. Then he walks upstairs to their living quarters and finds the nineteen-year-old twins, Elsie and Colin, fighting, though when he asks what’s the matter, they both mutter, “Nothing.” And later, when he tries to talk to Colin about what’s wrong, he’s brushed aside in a way Colin never would have done back when Michael was living with them. What happened to the easy trust and affection they once shared? Michael senses Colin is upset about something, but what?

This book evolved in part from my thinking about how I have accidentally hurt people I love when I was too young, too clueless, too overwhelmed, or too preoccupied to see how my behavior might affect them. It also came from thinking about regret – a feeling that makes me wince uncomfortably and ask questions such as, How can I make amends, years later? What can I learn from my regret? Surely there must be something, right?

I explore some of this through Michael, who only belatedly understands how he once hurt Colin. When Michael was eighteen, he was bare-knuckles boxing for a man named O’Hagan and winning. One night, O’Hagan told him to throw a match because he wasn’t making any money on him anymore – no one would bet against his quick hands. When Michael ignored him and beat his opponent, O’Hagan furiously threw him out. That might have been the end of it, but when the police raid the boxing hall the next night, O’Hagan assumed Michael ratted him out, and he vows to kill him. Ma Doyle ran to the docks where Michael worked, handed him a bag of clothes and some food and a bit of money, and told him, “Get out of Whitechapel.” Michael fled across the Thames to save his life, ending up in Lambeth, where he joined the Metropolitan Police as a constable. But he left behind young Colin, age eight, who idolized him. For months, no one told Colin why Michael left – and he believed Michael left without a second thought. This shaped Colin in some profound ways … and years later, Michael still has no idea. When he does realize it, he’s filled with regret, but is it too late to make amends?

This series began with Down a Dark River, with Michael investigating a series of beautiful young murdered women who are placed in boats and sent floating down the Thames – acts of vengeance by a man whose daughter experiences a brutal injustice in a court of law. If that novel was about failures of empathy, abuses of power, and revenge, this novel is largely about regret. What can it do for us? How do we make amends? And because I’m a mom, I wonder, how do I teach my children that regret isn’t something that we should bury or simply feel ashamed of; that it can be useful, to help steer us toward a   better path, toward being a better person?

 

Question for readers: How do you think about regret, and do you think it helps you? Do you feel regret has helped you learn and grow?

 (And the last pic is of my office, where I work and stare out of the window!)

BIO: Karen received her Ph.D. in English literature from New York University and subsequently taught at UW-Milwaukee. After writing her dissertation on Victorian literature and history, she leaned on her research to writer her mysteries, all of which are set in 1870s London. Her first novel, A Lady in the Smoke, was a USA Today bestseller, and A Dangerous Duet and A Trace of Deceit have won awards for historical fiction and mystery. Under a Veiled Moon, her fifth mystery and the second book in the Inspector Corravan series, is available in hardback, e-book, and audiobook. A member of the Sisters in Crime National Board and a writing group instructor, Karen lives in Arizona with her family, and you can reach her at www.karenodden.com.