Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil

Lifelike characters. Every author strives to write them, and every reader longs to read them. So we give them flaws. Maybe their ego is so big, they trip over it. Maybe their low self-esteem keeps them from believing they can be the one to solve the murder. But what happens when your detective or amateur sleuth is blind? Or deaf? Or both? 

I'm currently in the process of reading the five books in Ellery Adam's Hope Street Church cozy mystery series. (Exciting announcement about this coming soon!) In the Hope Street books, the main character, Cooper, and her friends from her bible study group band together to solve murders. The leader of the bible study group is blind. 

While this blind character isn't the main character, she shows up on a lot of pages. So how does an author write a character who is blind? How does she help solve cases if she can't see evidence? 

The answer is to make her just like any other character. She has strengths, like her compassion and understanding nature, her intuition, her ability to see the truth behind words and motivations. She keeps her friends on track and grounded. She's an integral part of the team in her own way, just like all the others. She's also a great artist! 

And that's the key to writing a solid, diverse, realistic character. It's not about her blindness, it's about her as a person. She overcomes obstacles, just like everyone else, and pitches in to save the day. 

Do you know of any great mysteries with blind or deaf characters? Leave us a recommendation in the comments!

Until next time....

Jamie Blair

Deadly Dog Days, November 2016