Meet Ben Ellit: A Detective Running from the Past
Some detectives are chasing criminals. Ben Eliot is running from ghosts. When I started writing Song of Shadows , I didn't need a hero. I needed a man haunted by silence. Someone who knows that the truth is rarely pure - and often comes in blood. Ben left Willow Creek twenty years ago with a bloodstained jacket and a name he didn't want to keep. He's been running ever since - through motel rooms, fake IDs, cheap bourbon, and cases that mirror his own fractured past. He's not one to kick down doors or make speeches. He observes. He memorizes. And when he finally returns home, he brings with him not answers - but more questions. What I like most about Ben is that he's not fearless - he's just tired of pretending. He's sarcastic, aloof, but somewhere deep inside him there's still a flame of who he used to be. Song of Shadows is as much about him remembering his old self as it is about solving the mystery of Emily Carter's disappearance. In many ways, ...