KAREN’S KILLER BOOK BENCH: Welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench, where readers can discover talented new authors and take a peek inside their wonderful books. This is not an age-filtered site, so all book peeks are PG-13 or better. Come back and visit often. Happy reading!

 

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THE PAST CAME HUNTING
Romantic Suspense
BY DONNELL ANN BELL

BLURB

Fifteen years ago a young Colorado Springs police officer arrested a teen runaway accused of aiding a convenience store robbery and attempted murder. She was innocent but still served prison time briefly.

Her testimony sent the real criminal to jail for much longer. Now she’s a young widow raising a son, and the man she put in prison is free and seeking revenge. She moves to a home in a new neighborhood—then learns that her next-door neighbor is the by-the-book officer who arrested her. Now he’s a Colorado Springs P.D. Lieutenant. Like it or not, he may be the only one who can protect her and her son from the past he helped create.

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THE PAST CAME HUNTING
Romantic Suspense
BY DONNELL ANN BELL

Cutting out the Cardboard Characters
By Donnell Ann Bell

Recently, when your esteemed host, Karen Docter and I caught up via phone, our conversation brought back many memories of us learning about storytelling and the world of publishing. She asked me to write a blog and concentrate on one book, which is tough. But I thought about it and decided to start with the book that gave me my start, The Past Came Hunting.

Have you ever read a book in which the villain (antagonist) was so out there, so unbelievable, you couldn’t quite get into the story? Oh, the hero (protagonist) was all right, but the villain just wasn’t quite the right fit for the story.

 I’m not talking about supernatural characters that are part of say the Batman or Superman or the Marvel Comic collection, in which the protagonists themselves are so out there. In those cases, readers have already suspended their belief. In those cases, the writer equips the villains with opposite powers that will thwart the hero at every turn. Moreover, those superheroes are generally so righteous, the arch enemy better be downright diabolical.

I don’t write supernatural characters. I write romantic suspense, police procedure and cold case suspense. Not only do I have to keep in mind that no human being is one hundred percent perfect, they must have the motivation that drives them to do what they do.

For the hero/protagonist in The Past Came Hunting, I created Lieutenant Joe Crandall. Joe is divorced and raising a teenaged son alone. He’s overworked and under stress as a series of robberies are going down in his city and the cases appear to be orchestrated, which delays police intervention.

The female protagonist in the story has issues of her own. Melanie Daniels Norris is a widow and raising a teenage son, also. And when she relocates to the city in which Joe lives, she’ll discover the shock of her life (and of course it all surrounds Lt. Joe Crandall).

Melanie is literally running for her life in this story. She knows Joe Crandall from many years before and their reunion will be anything but amicable. To accomplish the conflict between them, I had to give Melanie her own background and set of goals and motivations. One very strong motivation is that her teenage son knows nothing about her past.

Which brings me to the antagonist in the story. He’s well acquainted with both Joe and Melanie, and when BelleBooks bought the book, I had an outstanding editor who said I was close, but that I needed to get more inside my antagonist’s head. She had me read a book called The Sociopath Next Door, which was a good thing because I’m blessed never to have been around many sociopaths before. This outstanding book, written by Martha Stout, PHD, was such an eye opener, it made my understanding of Drake Maxwell that much clearer.

I’m proud of this award-winning book because it gave me my start. It also cleared the way for every other book I’ve written because the last thing I want is for readers to say they couldn’t relate to my characters. I realize now that every character must be as three-dimensional as possible, not appear a paper cut-out of someone else’s work or in effect, cardboard.

About Author Donnell Ann Bell…

Links to Donnell’s websites, blogs, books, #ad etc.:

Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/3YuuP49

Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/43gJvXa

Bonus! Deleted Scene!

https://donnellannbell.net/books/romantic-suspense-thrillers/the-past-came-hunting/deleted-scene-the-past-came-hunting/

Happy Reading!

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