Well, winter arrived here in the East like an uninvited and very obnoxious guest, the kind who drowns out everyone else and turns your well-planned dinner party into an exercise in frustration.
Millions are without power, downed tree limbs are everywhere, cars are smashed, there's a foot of snow in places, it's a big fat mess and it's still only October.
Got me to thinking: which season is the most murderous? Winter, with its pull indoors, its cozy fires, warming food, camaraderie, and just general constraint seems the least homicidal. It's just too damn cold to kill.
Spring is so lovely, a rebirth, flowers and warming breezes, green buds and pretty girls, promise and play. In the face of all that benevolence, I could see someone snap. He's got murder on his mind, damnit, he'll show all that beauty who's boss! Knock pretty little spring down a peg! Kill!
Fall is such a bittersweet season, the leaves are changing, there's a fragile beauty in the air, days (and lives) are growing shorter, a sense of the clock ticking down to ... death. Our killer feels his time is running out, it's now or never and so ... he makes his move. The deed is done.
Summer, ah, sweet languorous summer, when we've enveloped in the heat, the heat, that terrible stifling sexy heat, those long clinging nights when terrible thoughts and murderous urges percolate in the dense air, clothes come off, passions rise, jealousy and rage and a hint of madness -- it can all lead to only one place and that place ain't pretty.
And the seasons they go round and round, killing urges go up and down ...
p.s. -- Yes, I know it's Halloween (and is there a less scary day in the year?).
11 comments:
Right now I'm feeling terribly murderous, Seb. No phone, wi-fi or TV. And there's a dangling branch, threatening to snap and take down my power line at any moment. At least I have my iPad for now. What's next for us, a plague of locusts?
Gotta go with the dark days of winter when people are closed in together, when drinking goes up, and holiday loneliness peaks.
Crimes of passion know no season, but I'm with Keith--close quarters and familiarity are breeding grounds for contempt.
see your point, Keith and Robin -- all that family togetherness is a sure recipe for murder.
and, Lois, thoughts are with you. bet you want to kill old man winter.
Definitely March. Day after day of gray, cold, damp. Spring still far away. Or even a bit later when the early spring winds blow 40 and 50 miles an hour every day. It makes people...SNAP
LOL, Sebastian, as a true mystery author, you can think up a reason for murder in ANY season, as can a twisted killer. ;-)
Here's hoping everyone has a Happy Halloween!
Seb- I agree with Keith. It's those dark days of winter and the months-long, gray dreainess that makes for insanity. Thankfully, I live where the sun shines some 320 days a year.
I was so excited to have no snow in the Midwest so far. But now I'm feeling guilty. My best wishes to all who are suffering the wrath of Mother Nature.
Winter, especially February. Nothing good about that month, except it's the shortest.
It's funny because everyone (well, two people) asks me why I started my Murder-by-Month mysteries in May. I say it's because I couldn't think of where I'd hide a dead body in Minnesota in January, and that's 50% true.
Seb, I think you're right, someone with homicidal tendencies can strike in any season. That said, cabin fever sure sends many in these parts around the proverbial bend, and it can be wicked bad...
Post a Comment