Alex

In Lord Have Mercy, Alex's last name, Bonfils, is French, and literally translates to "good son."  Hence the title of Part One. I had his emotional journey mapped before I picked the name, so it wasn't as if I could pick anything else. And he is very much trying to live up to it. 

In Colin, we have a secret brother who was a secret from both parties: neither Mercy nor Colin knew they were related, though they knew each other...and didn't like one another all that much. Learning they were brothers was an ugly shock for both of them, and the fact that they never really asked themselves why they looked so alike was a bit of willful ignorance on both their parts. Once the truth came out, it reflected poorly on Remy, and on Colin's mother, Evie. They'd had an affair while she was married, the man he'd always thought to be his father had no blood relation to him. Y'all remember: it was a mess. 

I wanted to do something different with Alex. 

Though meeting him is another, even uglier shock for Mercy - since what are the odds of this happening twice? - Alex has known who, and what Mercy is since he was a child. In The Good Son, we learn that Alex first studied criminal justice, and then criminal psychology in an attempt to avoid what he has always seen as a family penchant for violence. A family curse of sorts. If Felix turned into Mercy, then it must somehow have been Remy's fault. Remy's upbringing? Or his DNA itself? Perhaps a blend of both. Either way, Alex ran far, far away from it, forever fearful that, despite his best efforts, he might still some day turn out like his brother. 

What he hasn't acknowledged - even to himself - but what we'll come to learn as the story unfolds, is that there was a part - a rather large part - of young Alex who was dying for a brother. He was an only child, and mostly fatherless, and there, across parking lots, glimpsed through car windows and in the milling crowds at Mardi Gras, was this towering figure who was his brother in blood, and could have been his brother in spirit, too, if the adults in both their lives had seen fit to introduce them. 

This series has always leaned heavily on themes of identity, and so Alex's dilemma is a fun, and fascinating fit in the larger Dartmoor universe. One of my favorite scenes to write was one of Alex's memories: the day he rented a boat and went out into the swamp, trying to see if it spoke to him. HIs fear and rejection inspired a relief that was undercut by longing. He knows he shouldn't want to belong to Mercy's world...but there's a part of him that's always craved it. 

Perspective is the driving force in each Dartmoor story, and it's no different here, with Alex. If I sound excited about what's to come, it's because I am! The poor guy has so much to learn about his family, and himself, and the way nothing is as simple as he hoped.