LUCY BURDETTE: Today's guest, Victoria Gilbert, is one of my author pals at Crooked Lane Books. Booked for Death, the first in her book lovers B & B mystery series, will be published on August 11. Welcome Vicki!
VICTORIA GILBERT: I’m thrilled to have been invited to be a guest on the Jungle Red Writers blog, and have thought long and hard about an appropriate topic. I finally decided that I should write about something close to my heart—my love of unsolved mysteries.
Not just the real-life variety, although I am fascinated by those, but also the mysteries that authors leave unsolved in their stories. I admit I’m obsessed with novels that leave me thinking and puzzling long after I finish the book.
I know this practice drives some readers up the wall. I think you can guarantee that at least fifty percent of those who read Tana French’s IN THE WOODS will throw the book across the room when they reach the end. But I love its ambiguous ending, just like I love Henry James’s masterpiece, THE TURN OF THE SCREW, or the more recent, but equally enigmatic ghost story, THE WOMAN IN BLACK by Susan Hill. (The film versions are sadly, not true to the novel).
In each of these books, the author allows at least one mystery to remain unsolved at the end, forcing the reader to make up their own mind about what happened and why. In the case of IN THE WOODS, French has her detectives solve the central crime, but leaves the mystery of what happened in childhood to one of her main characters open-ended. I enjoyed this, although I was in the minority when discussing this book with my book club. Many felt that French shouldn’t have left what happened in the past unexplained. I can understand this desire to know everything, but for me, leaving this mysterious event mysterious enhanced the book. Perhaps it’s because I feel there are so many unexplained aspects of life that this gave the story a veracity and impact it might have otherwise lacked.
THE TURN OF THE SCREW and THE WOMAN IN BLACK use a different technique to achieve their ambiguity—not an unexplained event, but rather a questioning of the veracity of their first-person narrator or protagonist. Of course, the unreliable narrator is popular today, but these stories handle this technique with a subtly that is often missing in recent novels. They don’t just have a “twist;” they force us to question central aspects of the story. Are the ghosts real, or are they the products of the protagonist’s imagination, or even derangement? Both books are so brilliantly written that they can be read either way or, indeed, in multiple ways. Which, to me, makes them worth reading over and over again.
I’ve tried to incorporate a touch of this technique in my own cozy mysteries, including the newest, Booked for Death. Now, I’m not claiming I do it as well as the above referenced authors, but I have included some things that can be read in alternate ways. If you believe in ghosts or the fae or other aspects of the supernatural, you can view certain events and scenes in my books as real instances of paranormal activity. But if you are a skeptic, you can also read them as coincidences or random occurrences. I don’t come down explicitly on either side in the books—different characters express varying opinions—because I don’t want to make up the reader’s mind for them. Just like in life, where strange and inexplicable happenings do occur, I like to leave such things open to interpretation.
How do you feel about leaving a few mysteries unexplained, or some unanswered questions in a book, especially if the main mystery IS explained? And—do you believe in ghosts or other aspects of paranormal activity, or are you a skeptic? (There are no wrong answers to this!). Victoria will be giving away a copy of Booked to Death (in August!) to one lucky commenter...
About Booked for Death: A book lover's B&B in the idyllic waterfront village of Beaufort, NC becomes the scene of a brutal murder. Chapters Bed-and-Breakfast is a reader's paradise, hosting special events celebrating books, genres, and authors. It's the perfect literary retreat--until a rare book dealer turns up dead during a celebration of Golden Age mystery author Josephine Tey.
About Victoria: Raised in a historic small town near the Blue Ridge Mountains, Victoria Gilbert turned her early obsession with books into a dual career as an author and librarian. Victoria writes the Blue Ridge Library Mystery series and the Book Lover’s B&B series for Crooked Lane Books. A member of Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, and Sisters in Crime, Victoria is represented by Frances Black at Literary Counsel. She lives near Winston-Salem, NC with her husband, son, and some very spoiled cats.
Check out her website for more information on her books and links to all her social media accounts.
You can find buy links for all her currently published books here (and order via indie bookstores!)
