Murdering Victims… Thematically

It all began as a marketing ploy.

Provincetown, located on the very tip of Cape Cod, had been attracting tourists and summer residents for decades, and for good reason. Beaches, fried clams, bike paths, wildlife, fishing, whale-watching… the list of attractions goes on and on.

But it wasn’t really enough to sustain Ptown through the long winters, when the population plummeted. The town’s identity had changed again—from Wampanoag settlement to Portuguese fishing village to bohemian/art colony to gay resort—and new visitors sought new activities. So the town’s business guild came up with a plan: theme weeks. Throughout the summer season and into the “shoulder” seasons of spring and fall, weeks and long weekends were publicized as specially catering to one group or another. It worked. Family Week, for example, attracts gay couples with children, Carnival fills the town with merrymakers, Women’s Week and Girl Splash bring lesbians together, and Whale Week is sponsored by the venerable Center for Coastal Studies.

Creating theme weeks was a brilliant idea and has been a resounding success. Add on to it the events already in place—the international film festival, the Portuguese festival, Fantasia Fair, the schooner regatta, creative workshops, and more—and it’s fair to say Ptown is abuzz with waves of people washing in and out as though transported by the tides on our myriad beaches. Every week different faces, different attitudes, different energies flood the town.

And I had to ask: what better opportunity for a mystery writer? I knew I wanted to write a series set in Provincetown, which is where I live—I’ve almost always used real places as backgrounds for my writing—but I didn’t want to go down the Murder, She Wrote rabbit hole and wipe out everyone in town. The theme weeks and other festivals/events provide an excellent opportunity to retain the small-town feel but with an ever-changing cast of characters, including both victims and killers.

I have to say that I’m having fun with it. The basic ingredients don’t change, of course: greed, lust, and the pursuit of power are stitched into murder’s DNA. But someone visiting for the Tennessee Williams Festival, for example, will probably have a very different motive and modus operandi from a person who’s here for the boozy Fourth of July. It gives me so much scope for creating interesting people with interesting backstories engaged in interesting crimes.

What’s more, I’ve been blessed by the generosity of my town, by friends and iconic/eccentric residents kindly allowing me to use them in my books. What that means is when you read one of the stories and then visit Ptown, you’ll find yourself eating in the restaurants I feature, bumping into people I’ve described, and feeling altogether like you’re in a place that feels familiar, that you already know.

If that sound good to you, then please consider reading my Provincetown mystery series featuring my wedding-planner protagonist, Sydney Riley! Here are current and upcoming featured theme weeks:

·      Death of a Bear (Bear Week)

·      Murder at Fantasia Fair (Fantasia Fair)

·      The Deadliest Blessing (Portuguese Festival)

·      A Killer Carnival (Carnival Week)

·      A Fatal Folly (Holly Folly)

·      The Matinée Murders (Provincetown International Film Festival, coming in June 2020)