As a special offshoot from the “Femme Visuale” series, Solange Ritchie (“Femme Fictionale,” you might say) is a Florida and Cali-based novelist who will be celebrating her first published work of thriller fiction The Burning Man with a talk and book signing at Barnes & Noble this weekend. Ritchie is not only herself a Wonder Woman (lawyer by day, murder mystery writer by night), but she makes it a priority in her work to feature women as independent, intelligent, butt-kickin’ broads. I doubt you’ll see her protagonists ever pictured as the stereotypical damsel in distress.
Saturday, March 19. Talk and book signing from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. Barnes & Noble, 213 N. Dale Mabry, Tampa.
To get a little teaser of her debut thriller The Burning Man (and no, we aren’t talking about that Burning Man), we jump into the chaotic life of Dr. Cat Powers, who juggles the jobs of forensic pathologist, FBI agent, criminal profiler, and single mom like a champ. Powers, one of the country’s best, is called to the job to solve a string of horrific murders of young California girls (one can only assume the mode of killing *cough cough it's in the title*). Things get personal between the depraved serial killer and Dr. Powers as the murders escalate, and the killer starts to target the pathologist’s one vulnerability: her innocent six-year-old son.
Born and raised in Jamaica, Ritchie is more open and sensitive to others since she grew up in a multi-ethnic society. This empathy, along with her experience as a lawyer, allows her to create credible, “real life” characters from daily situations with clients, judges, and juries. From the very beginning of the book, Ritchie hooks you in: “As a busy lawyer, my leisure time to read is precious. I love reading in this genre, but got tired of books starting slowly and waiting until page 30 to have the first dead body turn up.” (Wait no longer with her shocking book: Starting at the first page, you jump into the action.)
Many contemporary women (and men, too) struggle to balance the daily challenges of work and home life, especially professional women. Ritchie says, “We all want to be great mothers, great wives, and great career women, but it is a tough road to hoe.” By creating a female hero, as opposed to the typical macho, macho man, Ritchie provides a role model that is relatable not only for women, but men as well.
“Yes, women will relate to Cat as a single mother struggling to find balance, but let's face it: There are a lot of single and divorced dads out there too who have the same balance issues with work and raising children and toddlers. I give Cat a male ‘sidekick’ who brings males into the equation. While he is not as experienced as Cat in handling high-profile cases, he balances her character,” Ritchie explains.
Ritchie first began writing when she was in a dark place in her life: “I started writing to deal with the stress from the illness and loss of my first husband who was only 40 when he died due to gross medical negligence. I was 37 when I lost him. Writing became an escape for me from the troubles I was dealing with as far as his health. I got tired of reading the stereotypical male detective or the ex-military type of lead in this genre. I thought we need a kick-butt woman to carry the day. Thus, Dr. Catherine (‘Cat’) Powers was born.”
Staying true to her practice as a lawyer, Ritchie also did thorough research on serial killers to find out how they ticked.
“I found doing the research made the character more real and I drew on the research to make him more human," she says. "In The Silence of the Lambs, one of the things that made me crazy was that they never explained why Dr. Lecter was as crazy as he was. So I set out to write that kind of a character but to explain him and his motivations.”
To get her character Dr. Powers just right, the writer toured the Orange County jail and morgue to interview people to create the perfect protagonist.
“She is a woman I would love to have as my best friend — strong, powerful and fearless — qualities I love and admire, but she is not based on a real person. The story, the evidence, the client likability and the way in which the story is presented, can make or break a case. I wanted readers to take a journey with me that was real into the mind of serial killer. I wanted them to be able to feel the sand shift under Cat's feet as she wades out to another dead body found floating in the Pacific Ocean just off Dana Point. Only with specifics, can you evoke that visceral sense of fear and dread with the reader, that sense of reality," she says.
So for all of those folks out there asking about a series, Ritchie has an answer for y’all:
“Yes, I hope so. That was my intention in writing the lead character Dr. Powers. I wanted each book to be based on a new crime that she is called into solve. I intend the relationship between she and her young son, Joey, to develop. I want readers to relate to the difficult career life balance issues she, as a divorced working mom, with a demanding career and young child at home, has to face. Readers will be happy to know that a second, third and fourth novel in the Dr. Cat Powers series have already been penned. They will take Cat on another journey to California to deal with a serial arsonist, a journey to Miami area to handle a dirty international law firm that is involved in sex trafficking and prostitution, and the fourth will have Cat being the eyes and ears to the President of the United States as two Syrian-born bombers begin a reign of terror in New York that stretches across the US.”
What are you waiting for? Saturday plans are here! Meet up with Solange Ritchie at Barnes & Noble this Saturday, grab a book and a coffee, (maybe steal some of their wifi) and sink into a good, thrilling mystery. To find out more about the author, visit her website.
Urban Dictionary defines Femme Fatale as “a woman with both intelligence and sex appeal that uses these skills to manipulate poor helpless men into doing what she wants. May cause death.” Keeping in line with this concept, the women highlighted in Caitlin Albritton's "Femme Visuale" series aims to highlight local women artists and show off some lesser-known talent that's been hiding in the shadows. In the art world, if it ain't big and loud, it ain't being seen (looking at you, Koons). Art as a grand spectacle leaves little room for modest, sincere, or quiet voices, especially women's voices. And I promise, we won’t bite.
This article appears in Feb 25 – Mar 2, 2016.