Karen
Rose is a USA Today best-selling author of seventeen novels. She has
received numerous awards for her novels from the Romance Writers of America.
Her latest novel is Alone in The
Dark, the second in the Cincinnati series.
Everyone
has secrets. Some of us have weightier secrets than others, but book
characters tend to have the deepest secrets of all, because that’s what makes
them interesting.
One
of my popular characters was fire-fighter David Hunter, who was featured in
four books before he finally got his story in SILENT SCREAM. David was handsome, polite, hardworking,
smart, donated his time to charity, and loved his mother. I felt a little
panicked when I started his book. “He’s
too perfect!” I told one of my friends. She smiled evilly and said, “I wonder what he’s hiding.” Bada
boom, I had his story.
The
character’s secret itself is important because it shows where they’ve been and
what obstacles they’ve had (or still have) to overcome. But the reason
they’ve kept the secret all this time is equally important because it
reveals who they are. They might keep a secret out of fear or shame, or
perhaps out of honour – a promise kept. Or perhaps even to protect
someone. All facets of the character’s personality.
A
character deciding to share his secret denotes a serious trust in the other
person. It’s also a serious commitment on the part of the other person because
a kept secret can be a heavy burden to shoulder. Agreeing to accept
someone’s deepest demon is agreeing to accept them, warts, baggage, and
all. It’s one of the hallmarks of true love.
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Alone in the Dark by Karen Rose (Headline) is out now £7.99
Former
Army Ranger Marcus O’Bannion and homocide cop Scarlett Bishop have met only
briefly but when Scarlett receives a phone call in the middle of the night, she
immediately recognises the haunting smooth voice asking her to meet him in one
of Cincinnati’s roughest areas. On arriving, Scarlett finds the body of a
seventeen-year-old Asian girl and Marcus injured. A fierce champion of victims’
rights, Marcus claims the young woman was working for an affluent local family
and the last time he saw her she was terrified, abused and clearly in need of
help. Having agreed to meet her, both Marcus and the young woman were targeted
for death. As they investigate, Scarlett and Marcus are pulled into the
dangerous world of human trafficking where they soon realise they are going to
have to become as ruthless as those they are hunting. Because if they dont’ how
many other girls may end up alone in the dark?
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