I’ve just re-read one of my own books – I wrote it quite a while ago, and the one thing which particularly dates it is texting. The characters all have phones and message each other constantly, but it was written when texts were limited to a certain number of characters, “c u l8a” – “see you later” for example! The book I’ve been looking at again is “The Stalking of Rosa Czekov“
Rosa Czekov is an ordinary person who, through an extraordinary act of courage, brings herself to public attention. Rosa is modest and private, and this unwelcome publicity attracts a stalker who makes her life a misery and brings her to the verge of a breakdown. Her cousin, Tyche Kane, has a mission to discover who is tormenting Rosa and bring him or her to retribution. In the course of her pursuit, Tyche uncovers many secrets in an effort to prove Rosa was not just imagining her persecutor. However, her quest not only puts her own life at risk, but endangers Rosa’s friends and family and leads to the murder of someone very close to her
I’m surprised to see I published it in July 2012, but I guess I’m still too close to it to appreciate whether my writing has changed – especially since my last eight books have all had a first person narrator, where as in “Rosa” the story is told from the point of view of Rosa’s cousin. The title says it all – Rosa Czekov was stalked, but she does not really appear in the book, her cousin from Australia, Tyche Kane, arrives in Easthope where Rosa had lived, and her husband, family and friends still live. Rosa herself was lost in a train crash some time before the story starts. She had been receiving frightening messages from a stalker, so frightening that she left her home and all those she loved to escape it. Tyche wants to find out what and who drove her to leave and catch the fateful train. She meets up with Luka, Rosa’s bereaved husband, his best friend Rudi and wife Estelle, Rosa’s sister, Gerry, and Rosa’s best friend, Melanie. Tyche initially has all of them on her list as possible “suspects”, as well as other people Rosa was close to – including unbeknown to her family and friends, a secret lover. Tyche makes her quest very public, by her extravagant behaviour, and by her provocative and challenging questioning. She develops close, sometimes very close – even intimate, relationships with those she suspects might know something or have contributed somehow to Rosa leaving Easthope.
To be honest, I was quite gripped (a very immodest thing to say) but I was somewhat shocked at some of the bad language Tyche in particular uses. If you haven’t read it, and think you might like to, I’d be very interested in your comments and even criticism, and you can find it here:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/b/ref=UK_Repeat_GC_DP_All_ILM-XGL_THX
Lois Elsden 