Wrongdoings is retired Jungian psychotherapist Lauren Sleeman’s first murder mystery and third novel.
She has self-published the book under her pseudonym L A Joye to differentiate it from her academic writing and two previous novels exploring feminist mythology.
Wrongdoings is set in 1940s Southland. It is a complete departure in genre and setting from her other books, La Magadelena and Behold, which retell well-known stories through a feminist lens.
Murder mysteries have long been Sleeman’s other passion, when not researching archetypes, mythology and patriarchal telling of women’s stories.
"This particular book has been on the backburner, in my mind in various iterations for a long time.
"Since then, I have written a master’s thesis and the two other books. They seemed a bit more pressing but this one never went away. It was always sitting there, so when it came to write it, it came quite quickly," she said.
Sleeman has used fictional licence and transported a group of United States Marines into Winton.
Her hero is the local Detective Inspector John MacBride, a shell-shocked veteran of World War 1, who is due to retire.
Marine Randolph Harrington — something of a heart-throb with the ladies — is a saxophonist with the US Marine jazz band and has been found dead on the banks of the Oreti River.
"I know women found these Americans just dreamy, so I thought weaving in a charismatic American marine would make for a reasonable kind of plot," Sleeman explained.
Sleeman said Wrongdoings was a complete change from her previous novels, "a read for blokes", but ‘‘an acceptable read for any one".
"It is called cosy crime. You curl up with a book, you are not required to think too much, you just relax and solve a murder mystery."
She has great fun digging into her fictional characters’ behaviours with her Jungian-tuned brain.
"When I started studying [archetypes and mythologies] a long time ago, I realised the gods behaviour . . . encapsulates in a grandiose kind of way, all the characteristics humans have. There is greed, envy, jealousy, love and hate — a whole lot of human emotions. I just loved that about working with people too. You get to hear their narrative, their story, their mythology if you like, and help them navigate their way through it and make sense of situations they have found themselves in.
‘‘So, writing about characters, I just love it. It is my passion. I just love writing about people, and I love the combination of characteristics that make up each different person."
She says the archetype of the murdered man, Harrington, who has left behind many a broken heart, is ‘‘the arch-narcissist", ‘‘sort of like the Greek god".
Harrington’s bullying commanding officer is the bane of the Detective Inspector MacBride’s investigation and a "defensive, protective" type of man.
‘‘The Detective Inspector himself is suffering from what we call PTSD but what they would have known as shell shock from the Great War. He is struggling away with that but is a thoroughly decent sort of a chap."
Sleeman has given her female characters a strong presence too.
When researching women’s contributions during the world wars she was struck by how invisible they were.
‘‘MacBride’s wife Alice is a sister at the Dee St Hospital. She and her very good friend, Matron Clementine Urquhart, are formidable, strong capable women who have also been to war."
Other female characters in the book are also strong characters.
"When you sit down to write — and I have heard a lot of writers say this and it is so true — because characters become quite developed within you, they take on a life of their own.
‘‘So I am typing away and thinking "Oh, I didn’t expect you to say that". Or "that’s a good idea”. It can be quite funny."
The book is available at Wanaka Paper Plus or via Sleeman’s website.
Copies may soon be available in some public libraries as well.
