Prosecco, gondolas, and death abroad: Christine Volker’s Venetian Blood
Did you always envision this story taking place in Venice, or did the setting occur to you as you developed the story?
Always Venice, based on my love for the city, the richness of its history, my own experiences and the centrality of that place for the complete unfolding of Anna’s story. My writing always begins with the setting, even before character and plot. So Venice came before everything else. Which, some might say, is fitting.
Who are some mystery authors you admire, and why?
It shouldn’t surprise you that these authors feature plenty of faraway locations, complex protagonists and thrilling plots.
Arturo Perez-Reverte, for his masterful writing, capturing of character and an occasional droll aside despite his books’ serious themes. I haven’t read one of his works in the original Spanish yet, but that’s on my list, like his Bridge of Assassins, set in Venice.
Joseph Kanon. His interweaving of history and morally conflicted characters is superb. Istanbul Passage is one of my favorites.
Elizabeth George. In her Lynley novels, imperfect characters, with their own quiet demons are called to a higher duty in compelling English settings.
Venice has been a literary and dramatic setting for centuries, and having visited there a few years ago I understand why! How were you able to write about a well-recognized locale in an original way?
I crafted an atypical heroine — someone who’s also a murder suspect in danger. We see Venice through Anna’s eyes, instead of description for its own sake. Frequently, I used images of the city to foreshadow, or dial up the mystery and suspense. Anna’s sensory experience immerses readers in the atmosphere, whether it’s the smell of the sea, or what Prosecco tastes like. Other times, dialog enlivens a description or a bit of history, and I take readers into Anna’s related thoughts. She puts her stamp on everything the reader perceives.
How can a mystery author succeed in making extraordinary events believable?
I don’t know that they’re ever entirely believable, but readers are willing to put aside their doubts if they’re steeped in the drama and characters. If the situations in the book are compelling and seem real, readers don’t care that it’s imaginary. They’re transported, like on a magic carpet ride. They feel the increasing stakes as suspense ratchets up, and worry about survival of the characters and outcomes. But you must give them a smooth landing at the end that satisfies, where the universe goes back into balance.
Do you think the story would have been different with a male narrator/protagonist? Would we have viewed the person differently?
Definitely. I’d have to tear it up and rewrite it. Like Anna, a male protagonist could be nursing wounds from his disintegrated marriage, but there’d be less sympathy and tolerance of his behavior, and the infertility sub-theme would go out the window. I would have had to strike a balance between his pain and fear and strength, or people would think he was a wimp. In many ways, our expectations for male behavior are narrower than for females these days. Women have been expanding their roles in society, breaking through, which is a great thing. Anna, for example, is a math whiz and scientist. But does society accept men crying? Not so much. They have to hold it in. Readers would have been ready to see a male protagonist in daring feats and fights to resolve the mystery and not crying in a church or running away from someone following him in the dark of night.
Unless I wanted to enter LGBT territory, I would have had to change the dead man’s sex to female for the short-lived affair with Anna. But given his personal history and the entirety of what he was up to (I can’t reveal it without spoiling the book), he wouldn’t be believable as a woman. Or, I could make the protagonist a gay man having an affair with Sergio, which would have made crafting them even more difficult and they were already complicated enough. In short, a different choice of the protagonist’s sex would have dictated multiple changes in each scene of the plot, the relationships, the sexes, and the backgrounds of other characters—just about everything except Venice itself.
You may read more about Christine Volker and order Venetian Blood here.