The crime scene is more than the chalk outline marking where the victim falls.
It’s the world surrounding that pale silhouette, spreading out in uneven ripples
from the perimeter cordoned off with yellow tape to the metes and bounds of the
jurisdiction that investigates and prosecutes the offense to the ill-defined
society that wittingly or not harbors a killer in its midst.
The place where these overlapping scenes congeal and conspire is as alive and
organic as any flesh and blood character. It makes and breaks promises, rewards
strength and punishes weakness. It fills hearts with hope and drains them
without a backward glance. Done right, place becomes a central character,
casting heroes and villains against a geographic backdrop, driving the action as
surely as any twitchy trigger finger.
Los Angeles has been immortalized as a place character by authors from Raymond Chandler to Michael Connelly. Dennis Lehane created
domineering characters in the Points and the Flats of Boston while Elmore Leonard gave
Detroit a singular pulse. George Pelecanos made real Washington,
D.C.’s struggle to provide justice for all. New York’s literary parents are
legion and legendary. Fictional places are no less powerful characters as Scott Turow and Nancy Pickard proved with
their creations of Kindle County and Small Plains, KS. Read and listen to a
terrific four-part series on NPR as Michael Connelly and three
other world class mystery writers talk about the places that are characters in their novels.
My books take place in my hometown of Kansas City where my family has lived for
nearly one hundred years. One of my great-grandfathers left Poland in 1881 for
the New World under cover of darkness rather than marry the girl his parents had
chosen for him, settling in Kansas City for reasons lost to time. Another
great-grandfather, also from Eastern Europe, ran a grocery store in Alaska
during the gold rush, later deciding to move to Kansas City because it was in
the center of the country. My grandfather and a friend, down on their luck
during the Depression, asked Kansas City’s legendary boss, Tom Pendergast, for
permission to sell the scrap from the construction of Bagnel Dam at the Lake of
the Ozarks, giving birth to a salvage business that lasted more than forty
years.
Originally nothing more than a trading post at the confluence of the Missouri
and Kansas rivers, in 1838 the founders decided against naming it Possum Trot,
settling for the more visionary Town of Kansas, later incorporating it as Kansas
City in 1850. Once a wide-open town known for speakeasies, jazz and corrupt
machine politics, everything has always been up to date in Kansas City. Mindful
of its wooly past, Kansas City has a hard edge and soft heart.
Today, Kansas City is home to more than two million people spread over 380
square miles, though less than a fourth of them live inside the legal boundaries
of Kansas City, MO. The metropolitan area covers territory straddling the
Missouri-Kansas state line, from the airport north of the Missouri River, to the
NASCAR track across the state line in western Wyandotte County, Kansas, to the
Truman Sports Complex in eastern Jackson County, Missouri. There are better than
forty municipalities spread over five counties and two states, enough for
everyone to claim a fiefdom yet many will tell a stranger that they live in
Kansas City rather than Raytown, Prairie Village, Independence or Overland Park.
The southern reaches aren’t identified with an iconic landmark. In Johnson
County on the Kansas side, they are defined by large, new and expensive rooftops
sheltering more per capita disposable income than all but a handful of the
country’s zip codes, extending beyond the eye’s reach much as prairie grasses
must have in another time. The rooftops on the Missouri side are smaller, older
and modest, covering the working middle class. Despite its reach, you can drive
from one edge of the metropolitan area to the other in forty-five minutes, sixty
in traffic.
Besides being part of the tornado corridor and good for storm chasers, I learned Kansas City has a great art museum. (Alyson Widen 3:39pm November 29, 2010)
Fabulous thanks!! (Mary Preston 5:01pm November 29, 2010)
always wanted to viisit kanas (Tasha Tipton 5:32pm November 29, 2010)
I would love to visit Kansas. I have a friend who lived there for a while she loved it. I always think of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz when I think of Kansas! (Brenda Rupp 6:13pm November 29, 2010)
Never been but always wanted too. (Vickie Hightower 7:46pm November 29, 2010)
After reading this I would like to visit Kansas City. You made me realize how much the location adds to the story. One of my favorite authors is Les Roberts who used Cleveland, Ohio as the setting for Milan Jacovich mysteries. I enjoy reading about an area that I can relate to. (Rosemary Krejsa 7:50pm November 29, 2010)
I never thought of the place as a character in a book , but after reading your post, I must agree. The setting of a book is equally as important as any individual within the story line. I was interested to read about your home town of Kansas City. Thank you for sharing. (Robin McKay 9:43pm November 29, 2010)
I enjoyed reading about your heritage and about their involvement in Kansas City. My Grandparents came to this country from Poland. My Grandfather was in his early 20's, and my Grandmother was in her teens. They both came to Detroit after landing at Ellis Island, met through a mutual friend, got married, and had 14 children, one who passed away shortly after childbirth. On my Mother's side, both of my Grandparents came from Poland as well, and pretty much went through the same process, although they only had 5 children. I feel it's important to know and hang onto your heritage for future generations, and I enjoyed learning about Kansas City, since I've never been there. I'm sure your book will be interesting reading. (Peggy Roberson 11:10am November 30, 2010)
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