Mark Pryor on Strong Women in Fiction

DEBORAH CROMBIE: First, a REDS alert! Five of us (so disappointed that Julia and Hallie can't make it) will be attending Bouchercon next week in San Diego, and we'd love to have a get-together with the REDs community. We'll be in the hotel lobby at 9 on Friday morning, so do come by for a chat!

Now, for today's guest, Mark Pryor has some thoughts on creating strong female characters in historical fiction. (And we are very flattered to be mentioned!)

Mark Pryor: The wonderful women who run this blog and write the books that we devour style themselves as "smart and sassy," which is absolutely true. Thing is, I've met most of them and they are so much more. The words "strong," "intelligent," "independent," and "charismatic" are just some of the descriptors I would add.

The same is true for so many of the writers that they feature on their blog, and that's one of the many reasons I'm a fan and have bugged them (more than once) to be a part of their literary world. That's always been my world, I think -- growing up, I was surrounded by strong women and I like having them in my life, they make the world richer, more diverse, and just more interesting.

Which is why, when creating my new Henri Lefort series, I ran into an unexpected problem. You see, the eleven novels I published prior to the first Henri book (called DIE AROUND SUNDOWN, below) were all set in the modern world, whereas Henri is operating in Paris, in 1940.

 

This means that with my first eleven books, if I wanted a detective, prosecutor, diplomat, or politician to be a woman, I could happily invent that. And did so, many times. In my Hugo Marston series, two of the leading (and strongest) characters are women.

But history, as it turns out, was not good to women when it came to power, prestige, and jobs. I mean, duh, right?! But this was not something I'd thought deeply about before as a writer, partly because of the modern setting of my books, but no doubt also partly because of my gender.

So when I was creating this new series, I was flummoxed, baffled, and bamboozled as to how I could include believable strong female characters in a book set in Paris in 1940.

And that's where reading came in. You know reading, that thing we all long to do more of, that thing that leads us to buy three more books when we already have 23 waiting for our attention. Some people also call it research, but I prefer to stick with reading, especially because history is itself so fascinating.

 Anyway, I was reading about Paris in the 1930s and 1940s when I came across the name of a woman I'd never heard before: Princess Marie Bonaparte. Obviously, I'd heard of her great- great- uncle, of course, Napoleon himself. But Marie? Not at all. And yet it turned out that she was an incredibly intelligent, ambitious, and utterly fascinating character in her own right. She became a student of Sigmund Freud, then his friend, and then helped him escape the Nazis. She had all manner of theories about women's sexuality, and generally took no guff from anyone, men especially. What's not to love?

I read the biography about her and I ended up shaping a crucial part of DIE AROUND SUNDOWN around Marie Bonaparte (or "Mimi" as the characters call her). Her psychological interests, life experience, and the strength of her personality helped me unlock and reveal the major plot revelation at the end of the book. And throughout the novel, having the tension between Henri, a strong character of his own, and a woman as independent and smart as he ever was, I think adds both tension and depth to the story.

In the second book, THE DARK EDGE OF NIGHT, which came out two weeks ago, I kept Mimi as a major character but also went looking for another woman from the history books to add to the mix. 

 

While reading about the Second World War I found Virginia Hall, an American one-legged spy who was cleverer and braver than just about anyone in her world. So after reading A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE, a book I recommend to everyone now, I made sure to work her into the plot. She provides a touch of romance, a smidgeon of humor, and generally speaking more color and depth than if I'd not included her.

So now a question: when you're reading books, historical fiction or otherwise, do you notice or care about the demographics of the characters? Do you agree that a story is more interesting if it contains the inherently varied perspective of non-(white) male characters? Until writing these two novels I don't know if I'd even been aware of this issue, so I'm fascinated to learn what people think.

I mean, come on: Deborah Crombie as an arch villain? Who wouldn't love to see that...?!

DEBS: Mark, I once had an editor tell me that I was too "nice" to write crime fiction (not meant as a compliment!) so I would love to be a villian! Also, I loved Mimi and can't wait to meet Virginia! 

Here's more about THE DARK EDGE OF NIGHT.

Paris Detective Henri Lefort is about to investigate the murder of a Parisian when the occupying Germans order him to find a missing person – an SS doctor recently arrived from the Fatherland. Irritated (because one missing Nazi isn’t nearly enough in Henri’s mind), he does both jobs, and adds a third task when he starts looking into the disappearance of local children.

His prowess as a detective, and his smart mouth, don’t endear him to the Germans and while tracking down leads he uncovers some truths the Nazis would rather stay hidden. But once Henri sets out to do a job he does it, though he’s clever enough to know that the trap he sets for the killer has to be foolproof. So, with the help of a whip-wielding dominatrix, a French princess, and several members of the Resistance he unravels all three mysteries, which are connected in a finale that NYT best-seller Jeffrey Deaver (author of THE BONE COLLECTOR) called “genius.”

Mark Pryor is the author of the Henri Lefort series set in Paris in the 1940s. The first, DIE AROUND SUNDOWN, was published in August 2022 and the second, THE DARK EDGE OF NIGHT, on August 15, 2023. Mark is also the author of the Hugo Marston series, set in Paris, London, and Barcelona. And he has two books set in Austin, HOLLOW MAN and DOMINIC.

Away from books Mark is a retired prosecutor, and now a partner at a criminal defense firm in Austin, Texas. He began his career as a journalist in England, where his beat was also crime-related - the police blotter. He is a guest analyst on CourtTV and he has appeared on CBS News' 48 Hours, NBCs' Dateline, and Discovery Channel's Discovery ID: Cold Blood.