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Live Quietly With Their Trauma
Crickets follows a woman back to her hometown after her father’s death, where she’s forced to face her past and an unexpected enemy. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?
This is probably a stereotypical middle-aged peril, but going home always feels to me like stepping into a different person. I think stories born in homecomings offer really fertile ground for character growth. Your review said this more eloquently, but there seems to be something special about “home” that forces us to face the people we used to be and the aspects of our lives we can physically move on from in other settings.
Kara is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
Thanks! I was interested in exploring the ways trauma can stall someone and present various challenges which in most cases aren’t easily seen by others. I think Kara, who’s so bright and aware of what’s going on for her internally, provided a good vehicle for this. Writing in first person gives me a chance to show how at odds her internal narrative is with the face she presents to the world, and I think her struggle is familiar to a lot of people who live quietly with their trauma (so I hope I got this right).
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
I mentioned I was interested in the longer-term effects of trauma, but Crickets also gave me the chance to learn more about how our society treats sexual crimes in particular so differently than other types of crime. I was shocked by the number of rape kits that aren’t even processed and the various ways victims of sexual crimes are often gaslighted—whether intentionally or not—as they report these experiences and try to get justice. The lengths women in particular, but also other marginalized groups go to trying to avoid assault in the first place is unreal, but learning more about how many of these victims are treated “after” was especially disturbing to me, and this is an experience I think should be better understood so we can properly address it.
When and where will your book be available?
Crickets is available for pre-order on Amazon and will be available for purchase from major retailers on September 13th.
Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Website
She thought she knew who was responsible. She thought it was over.
But she doesn’t know everything that happened that night.
When her father passes away unexpectedly, Kara’s forced to return to Paige. It should be a safe little town, especially for the daughter of its favorite sheriff, but something’s not right with Kara’s memories. There are times that have gone missing. In fact, there are more and more of them the longer she stays in town.
Maybe it’s her hometown getting to her. Or maybe it’s just him.
Crickets
Lee Chappel’s Crickets has just the perfect combination of suspense and drama, making it eerily realistic. It follows the life of Kara, a sexual abuse survivor who is still haunted by the night her life changed. Forced to come back to her hometown of Paige by her father’s unexpected death, Kara now has to decide how to deal with her demons; run or stay.
Moreover, during her stay in her childhood home, strange things begin to happen, further blurring her perception of what is real and what is imaginary. From chapter to chapter, it also becomes painfully clear that her assault and her father’s death are connected.
By primarily using the perspective of Kara and a new detective Sam Ellis, Lee gives a multi-faceted yet cohesive view of the narrative. We are not only pulled into the raw emotion of Kara’s experiences but we, like Sam, wonder who the villain is. And when it’s finally revealed who has it out for Kara, it hits us like a ton of bricks. It is unexpected and painful, yet makes sense.
If you love solving mysteries, this is definitely the book for you. Every chapter leaves you feeling like you have just been handed a jigsaw piece but don’t know where it fits.
It also helps that the book is easy to read; the author uses simple language and has a writing style that makes the narrative feel light. And the dialogue is well-crafted as well. Not only are the characters having very realistic conversations but the author also goes out of his way to add a lot of depth to the dialogue scenes. There are clear descriptions of facial expressions, personality ticks, and the emotional state of those in dialogue.
But by far the most interesting technique the author has used is employing a showing instead of telling approach. Instead of telling us that a character is kind or describing them in tons of wordy paragraphs, the author simply includes scenes where this character shows this virtue in action. This not only eliminates a lot of unnecessary tangents but also lets you understand a character on a deeper level by just observing them.
It also makes it more mind-blowing when you discover who the villain is because so many crumbs have been left along the way. Lee Chappel’s Crickets is a thrilling mystery novel that will having you biting your nails.
Pages: 345
LITERARY TITAN 