Beloved Characters

When I decided to end the long-running Crispin Guest Medieval Noir series, it was not a whim. I didn’t tire of them, I had a plan. It was all laid out long ago. And I was committed to treating my beloved characters with the respect they and the readers deserved. In fact, by getting to the last three books in the series, I could really have fun with them, make them be more honest with one another than they had ever been. Hey, I loved them, too!

Long ago, I had planned that the series would have an endpoint. That’s the fun thing about writing a historical. You follow the timeline of real history, and that gives you all the possibilities you need to conclude a well-rounded character arc and walk away in a sensible manner.

With Sword of Shadows, we got to see how Crispin longed to see and touch the legendary sword Excalibur…and still solve some murders at the same time.

In Spiteful Bones, we saw how beloved characters John Rykener (a real person) and the fictional person I invented for the series, the lawyer Nigellus Cobmartin, moved on with their tale, and how Crispin’s son (spoiler!) came to appreciate his real father’s talents.

And in The Deadliest Sin, we concluded Crispin’s story full circle.

Believe me, it was a joy to be able to do that after fifteen years of writing them. Writing a long series gives the author a chance to let her characters evolve and grow. In Jack Tucker’s case, he was actually allowed to grow up, develop into a fine and discerning young man who could logically become a knight some day. And to see Crispin, by his taking this child under his wing, learn to mentor and to grow himself, even with a little moroseness still tethering him to the mistakes of his past. I’ve always said that a book series becomes the biggest NOVEL ever written when each book is viewed like a chapter in the character’s lives. Fifteen books and one short story are enough for anyone. And besides, I always wanted to conclude his story, finishing it, giving it that last dot of the period, which offered me a chance to explore TWO new historical series in two entirely separate time periods, as different as night is to day.

I have no regrets, though readers do write me occasionally to ask if Jack will get his own series. But in the face of so many other unnecessary prequels and sequels out there (I’m looking at YOU, Star Wars), I don’t find it profitable to go over past stories. When they are concluded as final as the one I penned, it needs that sense of finality. That you really do mean to say “The End”. It doesn’t seem fair to the reader to tease them, or for the stories to get too tired and stale. Authors do take care to make certain there is a full backstory, current story, and the hope in the reader’s imagination of where the characters go from the last page of the last book, that any further telling is overdone. I will write no more of those characters and I am happy with that.

And by not giving Crispin or Jack death dates, in my mind they are still alive. Still living their lives, enjoying their children and being true to themselves. Two six-hundred-year-old gents in London. That’s pretty satisfying.