The reviews for The Informer, the latest DCI Blizzard novel published by the Book Folks, a Joffe Books imprint, on Amazon and the like have been overwhelmingly positive, which is gratifying.
What is particularly gratifying is that the novel has made readers think. Let me say at the outset that I know that not every author likes weaving themes into their novels, preferring instead to get on with telling the story without allowing things to get too deep.
However, for many other writers, themes, ie the big ideas, are integral to the DNA of their narratives. I am one of those authors who greatly values themes and in the case of The Informer, the themes include concern over the impact on some people of grief-tech, the recreation of dead relatives as avatars who act like real people, the power of AI, the way a charismatic character is able to shape impressionable people’s beliefs, the damaging effects on communities of hate-speech and the disastrous consequences of reduced spending on public housing, which can see residents losing respect for the areas in which they live, resulting in rising crime.
Themes are never the reason I am writing the story – I do not want to come over as preaching or as a campaigner but they do add depth and intrigue, and often trigger plotlines.
Also featuring in the novel is the nature of religious faith as the characters find themselves taking different approaches to an attack on a church, which leads them to question beliefs that they have never questioned before.
For me as a writer, themes like this add value to a story and aid the development of plotlines. They are not the main element, as I said earlier, I am not preaching and the novel is still there to tell a good story full of intrigue, drama and incident – that will never change – but having themes provides something extra that adds to the reader’s experience of the book. The reviews seem to support that statement with a number of people describing The Informer as unsettling – and that means they are engaged, which is what all authors seek of their readership.
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