Who is Alicia Allen?
Characterization is one of the key components in a novel so, for authors, it is crucial when creating a lead character that the “creation” will appeal to a wide range of readers. This is particularly important for any author writing a series featuring the same character and who wants readers to read the rest of the novels in that series.
A
Model Murder is the first part of the Alicia Allen
Investigates crime trilogy and introduces Alicia, the spirited Anglo-Italian,
private client London solicitor with a passion for solving crime and for
munching Pringles. I am often asked questions about where the idea of Alicia came
from. The most common ones are:
1. Why is she a solicitor?
2. Why did I make her a private client
solicitor?
3. Where did the idea to make her
Anglo-Italian come from?
4. Why Pringles?
I believe that the old adage “write about
what you know” is good advice and a very good place to begin when developing
and shaping a lead character. I qualified and worked as a family lawyer before
I became an author so it seemed natural for me to create a character who was a
solicitor because I could write about her work as a solicitor from my own
personal experience of working within the law and dealing with lawyers and
clients on a daily basis. Knowing the ins-and-outs of office politics in a
legal setting has been particularly useful in the plots of all three novels in
the series.
I made Alicia a private client solicitor
rather than a criminal lawyer because it was a slightly different angle.
Additionally, as a private client solicitor dealing with Wills and Inheritance
there is much scope for corruption and murder and something which Alicia
particularly discovers in the course of her work in Wilful
Murder and Murder in Hand, the second and third books in the trilogy.
The Italian influence comes from being an
Italophile with a love of the language, country and culture and that is a theme
running through all the books. I also have an Italian background from way back
which is probably why the influence is so strong and the desire to express it
on paper. When I was researching for Murder in Hand, half of which is set in Italy, I came across some
very interesting cases in Italy of family inheritances vanishing in mysterious
circumstances, which sparked the idea for the plot.
Why Pringles? Pringles seems a very good
fit for Alicia’s personality as once you start eating them you cannot stop and
in the same way once Alicia begins investigating a case she feels compelled to
press on whatever the consequences. And I think it is an engaging side to her
personality. She has her foibles and that makes her very human.
You can read the latest news and media on the Alicia Allen
Investigates crime trilogy at the Alicia Allen Investigates website
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I loved getting to know Alicia Allen...what a delightful post!
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