Leah Devlin: Writing “The Bends”

It’s always fun to read an author’s take on their novel — small insights that reveal the heart and soul of a work. Leah Devlin engages and tempts readers with a terrific post on her murder mystery, The Bends, the third novel of the Woods Hole Mysteries. Here’s a snippet of the essay from her blog:

“While walking my dog this morning, amidst the blowing leaves of early fall, I got to thinking about The Bends. Of all my novels, its creation holds a particularly dear memory in my heart. I was at home recovering from a botched surgery that left me out of work for nearly a year. My son, just having finished a master’s degree in English Literature was home briefly before heading off the US Navy’s Officer Candidate School (OCS) (his ship is now doing humanitarian work in the US Virgin Islands after the wake of Irma). While he was training for OCS, I was hobbling same circuitous trails through the woods to regain my strength. Often he’d stop and walk the trails with me. I had a lot of time on my hands – I was frustrated and bored! – and he suggested that I write a sequel to Aegir’s Curse. He half-jokingly suggested an awkward detective with an awkward name, and a creepy Peeping Tom. Instead of focusing the story on the trouble-magnet Nobel Laureate Dr. Lindsey Nolan of the first two stories (The Bottom Dwellers and Aegir’s Curse), write about Lindsey’s adopted teenage daughter Maggie, my son said. The more I thought about it, the more I liked his idea.

Read the entire essay at Leah Devlin’s blog.