Stay Caffeinated

A reader once commented that Jeri Howard, the private investigator in my long-running series, drinks a lot of coffee. Indeed she does. More than I do. Her favorite drink, and mine, is a latte. And none of that pumpkin spice stuff for either of us.

From a writer’s standpoint, there are perfectly good reasons for Jeri’s coffee habit. Attribution for one. And adding flavor to the scene for another.

Let’s look at attribution. When one character is having a conversation with another character, you can get lost in a forest of “said.” He said this, she said that. As a reader, I like it when I can tell which character is talking, and I’ve read far too many books where I lose track of who is saying what. Having Jeri talk with a witness over a cup of java helps.

Here’s an example from The Things We Keep. Jeri leads into the conversation:

“What about you? How did you deal with it?”

He took another sip of his cappuccino and set the cup in the saucer. “Funny you should ask…”

As for adding flavor to the narrative, in the early stages of a book, I often write scenes with minimal details and lots of dialog. Then I’ll go back and add details to flesh out the scene and reveal things about the characters.

Another example, this one from Water Signs, where Jeri talks with a security guard who works on a site where there’s been a death.

Dupre got out, wearing his Manville Security uniform. He walked toward me, gesturing toward the door to the Peerless retail outlet. “Can I get a coffee first?”

I saluted him with my own cup. “Far be it from me to get between a man and his caffeine.”

Dupre laughed and went inside, coming out a moment later with the largest available cup. He took a sip and sighed. “Oh, yeah, I needed that.”

Coffee also gives Jeri camouflage in Cold Trail. Here, she’s trailed a potential suspect to a Starbucks, where he meets up with a defense attorney who hasn’t been returning Jeri’s phone calls.

The two men went inside the Starbucks. I followed. They queued up to order drinks, plain coffee for Scott, a cappuccino for Rhine, who paid for the drinks. When they got their coffees, I took my turn and ordered an iced latte. They found a table near the back. I got my latte and sat down at a nearby table, making sure Scott’s back was to me. . . . I got out my cell phone, pretending to take a call. I snapped a couple of photos of the two men, hoping the noise of the coffee shop would mask the sound of the shutter.

When it comes to food, well, lots of opportunities to flesh out characters. My sleuthing Zephyrette Jill McLeod rides the rails on the old California Zephyr, where her favorite dining car breakfast is French toast with crisp bacon, and coffee, of course. In the first book in the series, Death Rides the Zephyr, Jill has already had breakfast when she encounters two passengers heading into the dining car—Mrs. Tidsdale and Emily, the little girl she’s chaperoning on the trip to Denver.

Mrs. Tidsdale looked as though she wasn’t quite awake. . . . “God, I need coffee, and plenty of it,” she said, in response to Jill’s greeting.

We have really good French toast,” Jill told Emily. “You should try it.”

Mrs. Tidsdale blanched. “Can I get a Bloody Mary instead?”

“You’d have to go to the lounge for that.”

“Don’t worry, I will. As soon as we get some breakfast. Come to think of it, I could make the acquaintance of some ham and eggs.” Mrs. Tidsdale looked down at Emily. “Does that sound good, sweetie?”

Emily looked dubious. “I like French toast. With bacon.”

“Then French toast and bacon for you, ham and eggs for me,” Mrs. Tidsdale said.

Of course, there could be a downside to consuming all that coffee. One of my books features someone whose cup of java has been spiked with a deadly poison. No, I won’t tell you which book.

Good food and good coffee, great ways for this writer to flavor my fiction.