4 widowers
Q. What do the following books have in common (aside from the fact I've read them in the past month) : Christine Falls by Benjamin Black, Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum, A Small Death in Lisbon by Robert Wilson and Grey Souls by Philippe Claudel?
A. All four books feature protagonists who are widowers.
In Christine Falls, the main character, Quirke, is a pathologist whose wife died in childbirth almost 20 years earlier.
In Don't Look Back, which is set in Norway, Inspector Sejer lost his wife 8 years earlier to (an unspecified) illness.
In A Small Death in Lisbon, yet another policeman, Inspector Ze Coelho, is a widower raising a confident, wise-beyond-her-years teenage daughter. (I no longer have the book to double-check, but I think his wife died in a car accident.)
In Grey Souls, the narrator -- oh yes, another police man, this time from France -- is a widower whose wife died in childbirth.
Can anyone see a pattern developing here? Is it always necessary for the main characters in crime novels, literary or otherwise, to be widowers? Arnaldur Indriðason's Inspector Erlendur Sveinsson (from Tainted Blood, Silence of the Grave et al) is estranged from his wife (and has a drug-addicted daughter) so he might as well be a widower. I know Donna Leon's wonderfully likeable Commissario Guido Brunetti (from her Venetian crime series) is a happily married man with two teenage children, but I'm beginning to think he might be the exception to the rule.
Can anyone else name fictional detectives, inspectors and the like who are widowed?
PD James' Adam Dalgliesh (and a poet to boot).
Posted by: Leah | Sunday, December 03, 2006 at 03:52 PM
Bond. James Bond.
Not exactly a detective, I know, but pretty archetypal as far as male "heros" go.
Isn't Batman a widower too?
Posted by: Isabella | Monday, December 04, 2006 at 01:52 PM
Leah, shame on me, but I've never read a PD James book before! Do you have any suggestions about which one might be the best to start with?
Isabella, is Bond a widower? I'm not a big fan, but I always thought he was a bachelor boy. Batman, however, was definitely a widower. Thanks for reminding me! ;)
Posted by: kimbofo | Monday, December 04, 2006 at 08:29 PM
I enjoyed Unnatural Causes earlier this year, a mystery set in a village populated by writers and it features Dalgliesh's aunt. I have a soft spot for elderly aunts in fictions too much PG Wodehouse and Agatha Christie!
I would also recommend The Children of Men, not a mystery but a good dystopian story.
Posted by: Leah | Tuesday, December 05, 2006 at 01:32 PM
Isabella, my Other Half has confirmed that Bond was, indeed, a widower. Just shows what I know!
Leah, thanks for the recommendation. Will add to my wishlist!
Posted by: kimbofo | Tuesday, December 05, 2006 at 05:45 PM