Chatting with Det. Ellie Fitzpatrick, Heroine of Resort to Murder!

By Glenys O'Connell  @GlenysOConnell

 

*Psst! Leave a Comment & You Could Win a Print Copy of Resort to Murder!*

 

 

I'm happy to have police Detective Ellie Fitzpatrick here to talk to us today. Ellie is the heroine of Resort to Murder, my romantic suspense set in Yorkshire, England.  I'd love to have a photo of Ellie to share with you, because she's gorgeous, but at times like this I'm forced to accept she's not actually real. I don't send my characters birthday cards, either. That way I can pretend to be hanging onto at least a shred of sanity...

Shhhh! She's here.

Me: Good morning, Detective - may I call you Ellie?

E.F: Of course. It's nice to be here. I haven't been out much since you wrote The End. <glares at writer>.

Me: Er, yes, well - all good things come to an end. Now, I understand you were the victim of a stalker...

E.F: Stop right there! I've never been a victim, and I don't like it when people like you say things that make it look like a woman is somehow to blame or helpless..

Me: Oh, Ellie, I didn't mean...

E.F: No, I'm sorry. I'm still pretty strung out after everything I went through. Everything you put me through.

Me (making shushing noises): Ellie, we'll talk about this later, in counselling. For now, I just want to tell the nice readers a little about your story.

E.F: You know, why don't you let me tell it. Then we might be out of here sooner - I've a great guy waiting for me with a bottle of wine and a massage.
See, folks, I was fast-tracked for promotion, partly because I have a university degree and mostly because I'm a bloody good cop. Sadly, that caused some resentment among my fellow officers. Being a woman in the police force means you have to work twice as hard as the guys, and still come have to cope with misogyny.
Anyway, I made a major breakthrough in arresting the Sunshine Slasher - a nastier piece of work you couldn't wish to meet. The jury convicted him in less than an hour, the evidence was so good.
Then this writer guy <disgusted snort> writes a book called Justice Denied, in which he claims that Sunshine is innocent.
Next thing, I'm asked to investigate claims that some of my fellow cops are taking bribes from a nasty bunch of slime sucking bottom dwellers. I so did not want to have to do that - investigating one's colleagues doesn't make you popular at all!
Suddenly, everything came crashing down in me - I was under suspicion myself for taking bribes after a huge sum of cash showed up in my bank account - money I couldn't account for. Believe me, now I know the pain of that, I'll be kinder to the next perp who claims he's being framed.

Me: I thought you said you could tell this faster than I could...?

EF: Yeah, well, I wasn't the one who had to cut 10,000 words out of this story when she was revising, am I?

Me: That was artistic...

E.F: Yeah, whatever.
Anyway, after a lot of smart detective work, being very kind to the sweetest stray dog on earth, and having to totally revise just about all my belief system, I finally got everything figured out.
Sunshine stayed in jail where he belonged, the sweetest stray dog on earth got to bite the psycho who was stalking me, and the man I really loved stormed in in the nick of time - I guess you had to leave it til the very last moment, didn't you? - to rescue me.

Me: Okay, okay - now, wouldn't it be fair to say that you were also being wooed by two delicious hunky guys - one dark and brooding and handsome, the other smart and rich with looks to die for?

EF: Yeah, and you took it into you head to make one of them a psycho creep. Worse, I hadn't got a clue. By the end of this story, I had to completely rework everything I believed about these two guys, about my ambitions - about so much that I'd taken for granted. I tell you, I doubted my own ability to make good judgements, both professionally and personally

Me: I am so sorry that you had to go through all that - but it was a happy ending, wasn't it?

EF: Sure it was, after one of those thugs beat me up and a psycho tried to kill me because he was obsessed with me. Sure it was a happy ending. At least I got this great guy and cute dog...

Me <deep sigh of relief> Well, thanks for coming in today and sharing your thoughts with us, Ellie, Maybe we'll see you again?

EF: Not bloody likely. I'm busy writing a novel about a mean, unfeeling writer who is made to pay the price for ill treating her characters. <slams out of interview room>

Well, friends, as you can see, sometimes a writer's characters can develop minds of their own and become a little too real.....

Glenys O'Connell is the author of four romantic suspense and comedy books. Resort to Murder was published by The Wild Rose Press, and you can see it on Amazon or read an excerpt here on my website.
Leave a comment about characters, romantic suspense, or this blog and your name will be entered in a draw to win a copy of Resort to Murder so that you can see what a nice person Ellie really is - when she's not under stress!