Superstar conductor Sir Gregory Langhorne and his globe-trotting, violin-soloist son Jonathan Langhorne are the best of friends—until a brutal murder shatters their lives and Jonathan becomes the prime suspect.
Six years later, Sir Gregory is now the music director of the world famous Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and has finally reconciled with his son Jonathan, just as members of the orchestra are being killed off one by one.
The challenge for brilliant young hotshot Philadelphia Detective Cynthia Masters is to solve not only the orchestra murders, but the question of why murder seems to follow the Langhornes. Has Masters finally met her match—a case that cannot be solved? Set in London and Philadelphia, this dramatic story of murder, infidelity, and the abuse of money and power establishes Cynthia Masters as a world-class detective in this thrilling and unusual mystery.
How to Make Your Characters Believable
The secret to making your
readers connect with your characters is to have them jump off the page and into
the room of the reader. There’s no
formula for doing this. There are a
variety of important elements, however.
The reader must be able to identify with the characters—even if the
characters are completely crazy. Unless
we are the most boring person on earth, we all have crazy, bizarre thoughts
from time to time. Sometimes these
thoughts just make us chuckle; other times our thoughts can startle us.
Literary characters are interesting when they are extreme (in varying
degrees). Characters who are criminals
can lead apparently normal lives and have an element to their personalities
that is extreme. Look at the real-life
serial killers who lead outwardly normal lives.
Literary characters, like their living counterparts, often justify their
extreme thoughts, normalizing them in their own minds. In many cases, (and of course to a much
lesser degree) the reader can identify with ‘extreme thinking.’
The more detail an author can supply for a character, the more ‘real’
the character becomes. What can
distinguish a literary character from a real person we might know in everyday
life is that in literature we can read, hear, and understand the thoughts of a
character-- assuming the author presents it well. We can only read the thoughts of a real
person if they tell us, or do something very obvious. The magic of fictional characters is that we
can see right into their minds.
Characters need to have depth.
We need to feel their struggles and experience their challenges with
them. If people are glib and situations are shallow…well, who is going to
care?
Author Biography (from her website renafruchterbooks.com)
Rena Fruchter is the author of three books—two critically acclaimed
books in the biographical genre—Dudley Moore—An Intimate Portrait, and I’m
Chevy Chase…and you’re not. And now, her
exciting new book: The Orchestra Murders—A Cynthia Masters Mystery.
Ms. Fruchter is a renowned pianist, writer and educator, and director
of an arts organization. Her
performances have taken her throughout the United States, Europe, Australia and
the Far East in both solo and ensemble appearances. She made her solo debut with the Philadelphia
Orchestra at the age of six, performing the Haydn Piano Concerto in D
Major. Appearances with other orchestras
and on radio and television followed. At
age eleven, she gave her first performance with the Boston Pops under Arthur Fiedler
at the Esplanade, later returning to perform the Schumann Piano Concerto with
the Boston Pops in Symphony Hall.
Rena is married to Brian Dallow, and they are the parents of four adult
children, including a set of triplets. They live in New Jersey.
