Danger!!

RHYS BOWEN:  Every one of the Jungle Reds writes books that have a certain element of danger at their core. The central character is a sleuth and therefore puts him or herself knowingly into danger at times. Or in suspense novels the heroine finds herself in danger through no fault of her own and has to discover who wants to harm her. And how to escape. 

I’ve also written several books about WWII in which there is understood background danger apart from the personal story I am telling. My hero has crashed his plane and is hiding out in a bombed monastery. My heroine is stuck as an enemy alien in Venice, or, in the case of the latest book, in the south of France.

I think it’s true to say that all our characters face danger with great bravery. They do not run from it. They do the role they are called to do. But this is fiction. So I’d like to know:  have any of you been in real danger in your lives? 

When  this idea came to me I had to think for a long time. Have I ever been in danger–apart from lying in my pram in a war with no idea what was going on. One occasion did come to mind:

I was a student at the university of Freiburg in south Germany and every weekend a friend and I hitchhiked down to Switzerland. We’d made a bet to swim in every major lake during the summer.  Usually we were picky about rides. We’d take a single occupant, often a truck, preferably a woman driver.  

But on this occasion it was pouring with rain and we were cold and miserable in the middle of nowhere. We were relieved when a  big, black car came to a halt and we piled into the back seat.  It was only as it drove off that we noticed the front seat had two men in it, both wearing the sort of hats that gangsters wear. They were sort of slouched down in the front seat and we couldn’t see their faces. We thanked them, told them how we were students… they didn’t reply.

Then without warning they turned off the road onto a track through a thick pine forest. Now we were really scared.

        “Is this the way to Luzern?” I asked in a trembling voice, “Because that’s where we need to go.” ( I should point out that both of us spoke perfect German)

        “It’s a short cut,” one of them said and they both laughed.. The sort of laugh they laugh in movies before they get out the chain saw in the dungeon.

        Ruth grabbed me. “Get out the fruit knife,” she whispered.  I had been carrying a tiny pearl handled knife to peel fruit. It was totally blunt, rounded blade and would not have defended us against a hamster, but I rummaged for it. My brain was trying to come up with something sensible to do when the car stopped. Could I grab the guy in front of me by the throat? Could we run? The trees grew close together and were thin enough that you couldn’t hide behind one.

After about twenty minutes of holding my breath while Ruth grabbed my wrist so hard that I had a bruise afterward we emerged from the trees onto another road.

        “Short cut,” one of the men said and they laughed again. And it was a short cut. It took about twenty minutes off the trip.

So that is my one brush with danger and I have to confess that I was not cool or brave as my characters have been.

So Reds have you ever been in danger? (We know you have, Hank, but please give us some examples).

JENN McKINLAY: That short story gave me the chills, Rhys. Eeek! After a quick mental review, I realize the only danger I’ve ever been in has been of my own foolish making. Being six feet tall and raised with a brother who taught me how to fight (and win) I’ve never been in physical peril from another person. I have, however, fallen into a frozen river because I was being careless and when I went under the ice the same brother fished me out and saved my life. And, no, I was not brave. I cried like a big baby but in my defense I was only six years old. 

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Gosh, Rhys, I agree on the chills! Your story could have ended very badly–or maybe we just read too many crime novels!

I've had to really think about your question. I was in a car accident when I was fourteen that very easily could have been fatal, but the good thing about that (other than not dying!) was that I didn't have any time to experience fear, and I had no memory of the impact afterwards. Later on in my teens, I was swimming in Acapulco Bay and got caught in an undertow. That was absolutely terrifying!! Another, stronger swimmer, a man, saw that I was in trouble and pulled me out, but I have ever since been afraid of deep water.

RHYS: I was in a horrible car accident also, Debs, but there was nothing I could do about it. I was hit from behind and knocked into oncoming traffic. I was actually a horrified spectator and luckily not badly injured although my car (a one-week old Mercedes) was totalled.

LUCY BURDETTE: I’m thinking and thinking about danger because in every book Hayley and some of her pals end up in a dangerous situation. Yet I am terrified of danger and not the least bit brave. Most of the things I can think of are situations where I was young and too dumb to think through the consequences. One example, going to a gigantic fiddle festival with thousands of drug crazed music people. Many many things could have gone wrong, but fortunately for us they did not. Or how about driving on a sheet of black ice in an old station wagon with wheel drive?? I think this is partly why having children is so scary, because we know what we did ourselves as young people and how lucky we were!

HALLIE EPHRON: Recently I had an Uber driver who ran a nonstop monologue regaling me with how he once had a rider who stuck his arm out the window and … a very bad thing happened… as we’re flying along 93N to the airport. It was unnerving and I think, in retrospect, entirely made up. 

Most scary were the nights when  I waited up for one of my girls to come home from a date as the clock ticked past midnight. One. Two… I do think the ANTICIPATION of something bad happening is its own kind of scariness. Which is, after all, what we call “suspense.”

RHYS: Oh Hallie, this struck a nerve. Yes. Sitting by the window, listening for the sound of a car coming up our steep hill. Huge sigh of relief when the headlights arrived outside.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Oh, gosh, yes, as a reporter I’ve been threatened, chased, stalked, sued, yelled at, pushed down, and followed home. And caught in a cult church with a hidden camera. But that’s TV.  But in regular life, I always think about how close we come, all the time, and we don’t  even know it. Or when the bus whooshes by, and you realize it missed by inches.