The Blackbird Season Blog tour

Today we welcome to the Blog Kate Moretti the author of The Blackbird season to discuss her Favourite Characters in Crime Novels, which has got me thinking about who my favourite characters are! The Black Bird Season is out NOW and you can check out our review below. Over to Kate

Favorite Characters in Crime Novels



Some of the best characters in fiction come from the crime genre. They are lawless. They are evil, or worse, well-intentioned but misguided. Whether they are chasing criminals through darkened streets or they are the criminals being chased, crime novels have given us some of the most well-loved, and loathed, characters.


1. The Detective: I know I should say Sherlock Holmes here, but I will go against the grain and say my favorite fictional PI is probably Philip Marlowe. This is a double insult, I’m writing this for a British blog! I could at least say Hercule Poirot! I’m sorry. I fell in love with Sam Spade in college and graduated to Philip Marlowe in my late 20s. I love the sharp narration, the quick, witty dialogue, some dames and some gams and I’m all in. I shouldn’t love it as much as I do, it’s ridiculously sexist to say things like “her face fell apart like a bride’s pie crust” and “I could see that thinking was always going to be a bother for her”. The best of the bard-boiled, whiskey-slugging, Camel-and-pipe smoking best.

2. The Serial Killer: Obviously the bar is set at Hannibal Lecter. However, he’s not my personal favorite. I have to go with Tom Ripley on this one. He’s innocuous looking. A bit nerdy. Enigmatic. Affable, almost. In fact, it’s impossible not to like him and as a reader, root for him. He’s almost always a tiny bit sorry after he kills someone. Not, mind you, because it’s morally wrong but because he really doesn’t enjoy murder and despises his own lack of control. He’s chilling and somehow, lovable. Even Lecter couldn’t do that.

3. The Ultra-feminist: Lisbeth Salandar. She’s confusing. She’s loves Bloomkvist and hates him. She’s bisexual. She despises superficiality but gets breast implants. She’s incredibly smart, but a giant pain in the ass. She listens to no one and defies stereotype and cliche. Every time you think you know her she does something diabolical like drugs and tattoos her rapist and steals several billion dollars from an international criminal. Two words: Bad. Ass.

4. The Unreliable Narrator: Amy Dunne. Ok, I know. How obvious! But she’s the girl that started the craze. The terrifyingly smart wife to Nick Dunne who (spoiler alert, to the one person who hasn’t read Gone Girl yet) stages her own kidnapping as a revenge plot and secretly sends her husband on a wild goose chase all in the name of anniversary love? Wow. How can you not love/hate/admire her?

5. The Cop: Who else? Harry Bosch. The vietnam vet who has been fired and rehired from the LAPD more times than you can count. He’s a rebel who says that Everybody counts, or nobody counts. He arguably revived the traditional police procedural. He’s been in love, had a daughter, made mistakes. He’s frustratingly stubborn and stoic. You sympathize with both his boss, his enemies, and all his exes. But he always, always, gets his guy even if he has to bend the law to do it.


Check out the other stops on the blog tour: 

The Blackbird Season Review:

Years ago I read the slap, which looked at how a singular act affected the lives of people in the aftermath. IN a similar way the strength of this book was looking through the perspective of multiple characters and how they see the world and the actions of people around them. This creates an intimate web, and one of confusion because you don't know what to believe and your ideas slowly slip and change as you flit between the characters and more information and opinion is relieved. 

People are generally fascinating and we're seeing it all round us at the moment and how one moment can change the way people see, and look at something and this was so raw here.Small town big effect. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone was friends with Nate and in one quick moment the tide turned and that breakdown is great drama to watch.

Then there was this fantastic element of the blackbirds falling from the sky. Its this strange and beautiful imagery and you don;t know how it all connect for so long, because for a while it is two very jarring story lines but a great parallel for what it represents.