"Excitement means nothing, King, my boy. It's a man who comes to the club out of desperation that finds his heart and soul there, on the road, with his brothers. You come to the MC a broken man, and it'll make you whole again, mark my words."
~Phillip Calloway, The Skeleton King
Dartmoor book three is a departure from the first two in several ways. Most notably, Walsh is much milder and less imposing than Mercy and Michael were before him. Not just because of his height (honestly, I'm still a little bemused about the reaction to his and his brothers' height. I just...don't really get it), but because of his personality. He's quiet and thoughtful; if you're lucky, you'll get a snort and an eyebrow lift out of him. He's better with numbers than with breaking kneecaps - though he's got a strong stomach when it comes to violence. He's Mercy's preferred "secretary" when it's sledgehammer time.
I look at it this way: Walsh is the CFO to Ghost's CEO of the Dartmoor Inc. experiment. The club, like any successful enterprise, requires diverse talents. They can't all be head-bashers; you've got to have some logical, common sense guys in there, too, to stay on top of the financial side of things. That's Walsh - that's the Walsh I wrote into Fearless, and I don't believe in changing characters just because it's time to center a book on them.
Emmie's a different sort of leading female, too. We had Ava, who was born into the club, and then Holly, running from a family far more terrifying than the club. But then there's Emmie, who's not an outlaw, and who has no interest in becoming one, either. She's a club outsider, and she carries all the fears and prejudices most of the Knoxville civilians do. Still, she's attracted to Walsh, and things are going nearly well - until she follows him over to the cattle property that night, sees something she shouldn't, and is strong-armed into a courthouse wedding.
In my marathon of MC documentary watching back in the day, I encountered several tales like this: of women who'd "seen too much" having to marry into the club to prevent them from being able to ever testify. (It's better than the alternative, let me tell you). It's a case of pulling a person so far in that they can't get out, and it was something I thought would be fun to explore with Dartmoor.
In this case, with Walsh and Emmie, it created a really tense dynamic, at least for a little while. There was attraction on both their parts, and even real feelings on Walsh's, but suddenly Emmie is terrified and distrustful. She spends the back half of the book torn between falling for him and fighting everything polite society has told her she ought to think about this situation she's wound up in.
They're well-suited, though, and by the end, it's real love keeping them connected.
I'm always keeping an eye out for a chance to work equestrian sports into my books, and TSK was a perfect opportunity.
This book also provided plot movement for some of the bigger, overarching, background stories in the series - namely Aidan's misguided redemption attempt, and Vince Fielding becoming the club's lackey. I'll blog about those important plot points tomorrow!
Happy Valentine's Day.
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