BooksChatter: ✉ Sometimes the flaws are the best part

Today author Susan Hunter takes over our blog to tell us about why "Sometimes the flaws are the best part"; Dangerous Flaws (8 December 2018, Himmel River Press, 366 pages) is her laterst release, a Mystery, book five in the Leah Nash Mysteries series.

"Susan's Hunter's Leah's Nash Mysteries are addictive!" ~ Darcia Helle, Amazon top 500 Reviewer, Vine Voice

"Leah Nash, and Susan Hunter, never disappoint. I’ve read all five Leah Nash Mysteries. Each revolves around an intriguing crime or mystery that has you turning pages to find the next bombshell. As a mystery lover, I look forward to trying to solve cases before the last page, but have not been very successful with this series. Picking up each new Leah Nash book is like a reunion with a group of favorite friends. Catching up on Leah’s latest pursuits is great fun, watching her take-no-prisoners attitude get her in and out of trouble is great reading, and the light touch of romance is a great addition to the story. I’ve recommended the entire series to my mystery-loving friends. We’re all looking forward to book six." ~ Amazon reviewer

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Sometimes The Flaws Are The Best Part

by Susan Hunter

Quite often readers ask me where the plots for the books in the Leah Nash Mysteries series come from. Sometimes, as in the case of the first novel in the series, Dangerous Habits, the idea springs from a real-life experience I’ve had—though heavily redacted, revised and reborn into an entirely fictional tale. Others have come from imagining how I would attempt to get away with a murder, and why. The plot for the latest book in the series, Dangerous Flaws, originated with reader comments about my lead character, Leah Nash. Leah is, as one reviewer put it, “a perfectly imperfect heroine.” With the emphasis on imperfect. Some people love her for her flaws—others find them less endearing.

I always read reviews, even though I know some authors claim to pay no attention to them. Bless their self-actualized, inner-directed hearts. I’m not that evolved on either the professional or personal level. I’m curious about what readers think about what I’ve written. If it’s good it makes me happy, if it’s bad it makes me think. Either way I try to use what I learn in going forward with the next story.

When I began working on the storyline for Dangerous Flaws, I decided to use the idea of flaws—in character, in perception and even in nature—as a thread that runs through the plot, both to start the story in motion and to bring about its conclusion. Some of the flaws are obvious—for example, Leah’s stubbornness and her tendency to believe that the way she sees things is the way everyone does—or should. Her ex-husband Nick has many flaws to choose from, but his comfort with the easy lie in difficult situations is the shortcoming that gets him into serious trouble in this story.

Reader favorite Miguel, Leah’s gay sidekick, has a flaw that ironically springs from his virtues—he’s funny, smart, engaged, and he loves people. But that whole-hearted acceptance can cause him to trust when he shouldn’t and to respond from his heart and not his head. Coop, Leah’s best friend since childhood, is calm and centered—except when Leah pushes him too far. But he has trouble recognizing that his measured by-the-book approach to his work as a police lieutenant—while useful and effective—isn’t the only way to tackle an investigation, especially when the stakes are personal.

Because I’m writing a series, I have the chance to work with characters who evolve over time, just like real people do. The characters in Dangerous Flaws have their share of failings and faults, weaknesses and strengths as most people do. Relationships change, perceptions alter and sometimes flaws are corrected—or made worse.

As a mystery writer, I’m drawn more to exploring the flaws than the virtues of my characters. That’s because it’s their shortcomings that lead to lies, misunderstandings, mistrust and mistakes, which in turn can lead to very serious consequences—like murder. And that’s what makes the plot in Dangerous Flaws, and most other murder stories, go-round.

A chilling murder shocks a small Wisconsin town.