Digging Deeper into The Wrong Sort
to Die by Paula Harmon
June 1910.
Fighting her corner in a man’s world, Dr Margaret Demeray works as a pathologist in a London hospital for the poor. Suppressing her worry that she’s breaching confidentiality, Margaret gives a stranger called Fox information about a dead down-and-out, in the hope he’ll use it to raise awareness of bad working conditions.
But when a second man appears to die the same way, Margaret starts to wonder why the enigmatic Fox keeps turning up to ask ever more complex questions.
She decides to work alone, uncertain of his motives and wary of her attraction to him. Once she starts investigating however, her home is burgled, she’s attacked in broad daylight and a close friend becomes distant. Fox offers the chance to forge an alliance, saying he knows why the men have died but needs her to find out what is killing them and who is behind it.
Yet how come the closer she gets to him the more danger she faces? And how can a memory she’d buried possibly be linked to the deaths?
Margaret must discover the truth before someone - known or unknown - silences her for good.
The antagonist’s view of the protagonist
Margaret
Demeray is determined, I’ll give her that. She’s good at her job, which is
surprising, given that being a pathologist is most unfeminine. As if wanting
the vote isn’t bad enough, she has a job which any decent woman would be
repulsed by, and for such an attractive woman to do such a thing seems a waste.
If she has to dabble in science, why not find something more - I don’t know -
sterile? She surrounds herself with quite the wrong sort, including the sort of
men who let themselves be hen-pecked by a sharp-tongued harpy and are afraid to
do anything but flatter her. Perhaps harpy is unkind but she’s certainly good
at speaking back. I quite like her spirit, even if it’s wearing. There’s no
challenge in breaking the will of a bashful girl is there?
The protagonist’s view of the antagonist
He
seems to be on my side, says he believes in me and sometimes I can’t quite
decipher the way he looks at me or whether he’s teasing. Brilliant of course,
or at least - that’s the way it seems. At the end of the day, we’re after the
same thing aren’t we? So surely it doesn’t matter if he doesn’t quite grasp
what I really want or what I’m really like. And he’s so annoying, always right
about everything and then gets annoyed when I snap at him. I just wonder if
behind all the conventional, predictable words, there’s something that I’ve
missed. Perhaps I shouldn’t lose my temper so much. Perhaps I should tell him
what I’ve found out. But then.. I just feel as if there’s something I don’t
quite know about him, so how can I trust him?
Who would you choose to play each of them in a film or TV series?
The
protagonist Margaret has auburn hair which she likes to think is chestnut.
Karen Gillan looks pretty close to how I imagine her and gives the same
impression of feistiness which Margaret has.
As for the antagonist, Benedict Cumberbatch would be good for the antagonist, partly because he can express such a range of expressions from completely detached to passionate.
What is the weirdest disposal of a body in any of your books?
One of
them (in ‘Murder Durnovaria’) was buried in a sacred grove surrounded by
neolithic standing stones in the hope no-one would ever find it.
Bio
Paula Harmon writes chiefly
but not only historical mysteries. She was born in North London but her father
relocated the family every two years until they settled in South Wales when
Paula was eight. She later graduated from Chichester University before making
her home in Gloucestershire and then Dorset where she has lived since 2005.
Paula is a civil servant, married with two adult children. She has several writing
projects underway and wonders where the housework fairies are, because the house is a
mess and she can’t think why.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/paulaharmonwrites
https://twitter.com/Paula_S_Harmon
MURDER BRITANNICA SERIES (2nd Century Roman Britain)
Lucretia just wants to get richer,
quicker. It’s such a shame that people keep dropping dead and old adversary
wise-woman Tryssa keeps asking awkward questions.
MARGARET DEMERAY SERIES (1910s)
When Dr Margaret Demeray is approached
by a stranger called Fox to discover what’s
killing paupers, she expects justice.
What's she gets is danger.
The Caster and Fleet Mysteries (1890s London, six book series co-authored by Liz Hedgecock)
The Case of the Black Tulips (book one)
When Katherine
Demeray opens a letter addressed to her missing father, little does she imagine
finding herself in partnership with socialite Connie Swift, racing against time
to solve mysteries.
The Cluttering Discombobulator
One man’s battle
against common sense and the family caught up in the chaos around him.
Secrets and mysteries,
strangers and friends. Stories as varied and changing as British skies.
Christmas without the
hype says it is - stories for midwinter.
Weird and Peculiar Tales (with Val Portelli)
Short stories from
this world and beyond.
Writing Competitions
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