A Q&A WITH MARY BURTON,
BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE SEVENTH
VICTIM
Mary, welcome! Thanks for joining us.
THE SEVENTH VICTIM is your latest suspense
novel. Will you tell us a bit about it?
The story begins as Texas Ranger James Beck
returns to duty after three weeks on administrative leave, earned by his
refusal to drop his investigation of the politically well-connected suspect he
believed killed ten-year-old Misty Gray. He’s soon on the scene of another
murder. This one sets off alarms when Beck notices the similarities between it
and the unsolved case of six women killed in Seattle. All blonde, the victims were strangled, wore
white dresses, and each had a penny in her hand. The seventh victim
survived.
I also introduce Lara Church, who's recently
returned to the Austin area, having inherited her grandmother's house, where
she'd spent all of her childhood summers.
She had plans to sell it but hasn't
been able to do so. It's too nice to be
back and settled in among comforting memories.
Lara's been on the run for seven years, rarely staying in one place
long, never expecting to again have a home, and having given up hope of regaining memories of the
night she escaped death at the hands of
the Seattle Strangler.
When Beck shows up demanding her help, she
refuses. She's tried desperately to
recall that night. Now that she has a chance at a normal life, she's determined
not to be dragged back to the hellish world of shrinks and crime scene photos.
Why Austin?
Austin is the state capitol, a university
town and site of the central office of the Texas Rangers, which means my
investigators have access to sophisticated forensic science. It’s home to
musicians and artists, so it’s a perfect place for Lara to try to make a go of
her photography. It's rich in history and San Antonio and the Hill Country, which are very different
from Austin, are close. I also have the
freedom to move between them if needed to advance the plot or just to change up
the setting a bit if I want.
Plus, Texas has hundreds and hundreds of
lonely open miles with lots of places for a killer to roam. I also liked contrasting Austin against
Seattle, home to detective Mike Raines.
Whereas Seattle is known for cold dreary days so Austin is known for
hot, dry sunshine. Raines underscores
the differences between these cities as he searches Austin for a
"good" cup of coffee and complains about the dry heat.
Is it common for a victim of a violent crime
to have memory lapses, confusion, or even amnesia about the event the way Lara
does?
Memory lapses can happen in the case of a
concussion. While I was working on the
details of THE SEVENTH VICTIM and trying to figure out how Lara could have lost
her memory, I met a young lacrosse
player who talked about a head injury he’d suffered. He said he couldn’t remember the three days
before the injury. Memory loss and
concussion do occur. Once I was sure of
that, this critical plot point fell into place.
Why does Lara use such an old fashioned
camera? Is it something contemporary artists use today?
You still see modern artists using this
method of photography. It was most common during the Civil War. It’s very hands-on and requires a great deal
of attention and introspection. Lara uses a bellows camera, with glass
negatives that must be prepared one at a time.
It’s called wet plate photography. It takes a skilled hand to prepare
the negatives with silver nitrate and it takes lots of patience to take the
images. I think the images are
beautifully moody and rich.
In THE SEVENTH VICTIM, the police had never
found the Seattle Strangler, even though it was seven years later. Are there a lot of open cases with suspected
serial killers that have never been solved?
I think there are quite a few open murder cases
out there. The Seattle Strangler killed
women who worked the streets, who are at a very high risk for violence. Their cases often aren’t high profile and
don’t always get the attention of very overworked detectives.
What makes a killer a serial killer?
I don’t think anyone really has the answer
to that. Some are driven by evil
whereas others see themselves on a righteous mission. It’s something I think about a lot when I craft
killers.
How hard is it to introduce a romantic
relationship amid the violence?
The relationship for me starts the moment
the hero and heroine first see each other.
Its not love at first sight but there is a tension between the
characters that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the book. And as the plot deepens and the romance
grows, I like it best when the romance and the mystery are at
cross-purposes. Each adds conflict to
the other. As the killer grows more
violent and the love between the hero and heroine grows, the danger jumps, as
do the stakes.
What I love about romantic suspense is that
solving the suspense gives the reader a sense of justice whereas the romance
leaves the reader with hope that in the end good wins over evil.
What do you need to know when you begin a new
suspense novel?
I always start with motivation. The killer’s motivation is the most important
to me because he is the driver of the story.
If not for him, the hero and heroine might not ever meet. Why does the killer do what he does? It colors so much of the story. And then I turn to the hero and heroine. Once I know their strengths and weaknesses
then I can turn the killer loose.
Your recent novels have been set in your home
state of Virginia--in fact six of them, three in Richmond and three in
Alexandria. Are you just tired of your
home state?
LOL.
No. I love Virginia but I’ve
turned six different serial killers lose in the commonwealth and it’s time to
give the good folks of Virginia a break.
Plus, setting is a character in my mind.
Setting literally sets the stage and drives so many elements of the
book. It was time for a new setting to
change things up a bit.
You've been getting very strong reviews for
your novels over the past several years.
Does this go to your head? How does it affect the way you write or your
intuition about what readers would like to see?
The reviews have been great compliments and
I appreciate them all, but I don’t dwell on them. In fact, I only worry about the story that’s
in front of me right now. I’m always
trying to raise the bar and find new ways to surprise my reader.
What's next?
NO ESCAPE comes out in November 2013 and I
put the Rangers to work again in that one, as I do in a third Texas based romantic suspense, which is
finished but doesn't have a title yet.
I'm working on a new book right now--a romantic suspense--and loving
every minute of it.
THE SEVENTH VICTIM by Mary Burton
Zebra Books/Mass Market Original/Fiction
February 2013/On Sale 1-29-13/$7.99 ($8.99
Canada)/978-1-4201-2505-4,Ebook 978-1-4201-3906-6
* * * On December 31st a random winner will be chosen from all the comments on the posts for Mary's new title, and that winner will receive a paperback copy of THE SEVENTH VICTIM (US and Canada only) * * *
This sounds like a great story. Thanks so much for the post and the chance to win a copy.
ReplyDeletemanning_J2004 at yahoo dot com