I recently received some feedback for the next book in the Peasedale Woods Killers series, book three, The Other Killer, where the beta reader said the overriding theme in the series is that mothers love their sons.
She is, absolutely, right.
I am a mother of two boys, and I have also been involved in the raising of three stepchildren, two of which are also boys. I wrote the first book in this series, The Other Boy, in response to a documentary I watched about Dean Corll, the Candyman serial killer, responsible for the rape, mutilation, and murder of over twenty teenage boys and young men.
The story I wrote focused on the teenage accomplices of the killer, the story told from the point of view of the grieving, desperate parents, unaware of what their sons were involved in.
The Other Mother continues the story for Suzannah, one of the mothers. It is about how she negotiates life after her son is incarcerated, the sacrifices and choices she must make to try and forge a new life, with a new partner and a new baby, and how badly things can go wrong when the past comes back to bite you.
“No one wants to get close to me, to the mother of a monster, a woman who spawned the devil.”
The idea that a mother’s love is unconditional and all-consuming resonates throughout the story, and when the threats to Suzannah ramp up, her fear drives her to make some terrible decisions.
I love delving into the psychology of my characters, which is why have been drawn to writing psychological thrillers. I like to watch the darkness that my characters work hard to contain spill out when they are put under pressure, risking their sanity and their salvation. I love to put people into desperate situations, and then find out how they will claw their way out.
“I’m between a rock and a hard place, and all roads lead to destruction.”
My stories also look at teenagers, those tough years of change and growth, driven by raging hormones, big dreams, volatile emotions, and fragile egos. Choices made in those years can be so far reaching, they can really shape the grown up that emerges from the chaos, and this is seen in many of the characters in The Other Mother. Actions that can’t be undone, decisions that cause damage, relationships that create a dangerous toxicity, feelings that are twisted and manipulated for selfish reasons.
“Did you? Put me first, huh? Is that what you tell yourself so you can sleep at night?”
Secrets also play a big part in this story, and I wanted to show how a character can tell a lie that grows into a bigger lie, and this in turn creates the need for yet more and more lies. Suzannah’s story is like quicksand, the more she struggles to hide the truth of her past, the faster she sinks.
“I will always be that duck on the pond, however serene I make my life appear; below the surface I must paddle like crazy to keep myself afloat. The day I stop paddling will be the day I sink.”
But, throughout Suzannah’s journey there is also love, in abundance, in many forms. Romantic love, friendship, and the unconditional love shared between parents and their children. All the loves in The Other Mother are tested, they are all put under strain, and each one leads to places that the characters would not have gone if love was not involved.
Love can be hard won, too easily taken for granted, or disrespected, it can drive good and bad behaviours, and it is not always an emotion that brings happiness.
“And then there’s the relief. That’s the feeling that really stings, the one that plays on my conscience long after I’ve left.”
A mystery is about solving a crime; a thriller is about surviving it. This is Suzannah’s survival story. I hope you enjoy it.