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Author: Cameron Scott Kirk
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The Beautiful Harpies is a murder mystery, a tale of violence and revenge, a story for those who have ever fantasized about murdering their spouse.
“You’ve all thought about stabbing the bastard,” Sage said. “Rolled the thought round your minds. Come on now.” She looked out over the gathered throng and smirked. “Not one of you ain’t contemplated setting him on fire while he lay drunk and a-snoring, don’t deny it, ladies.” A murmuring broke out among the men in the crowd; the women were quiet, and several shared surreptitious glances with others of their gender. Sage smiled more broadly. “Well, I have a revelation for you all. God won’t mind one little bit. Go ahead and get yourselves free. Tonight.”
I am not condoning murder. Sage may have reason to feel the way she does, but murder is not the answer, except in the most extreme of situations. Thankfully. I’ve never lived those circumstances, and I hope you haven’t either. The Beautiful Harpies is merely a fantasy, and in every good fantasy there is conflict. It just so happens that the conflict between husband and wife is a central motif in the novel.
Every conflict needs a stage upon which the actors play it out. Dysael is that stage: a fantastical, early industrial cesspit in which gender roles are clearly established. Murder is a crime most foul, and yet the nature of those responsible makes the crime truly unforgivable. Witches, harpies, menstruating demons, hell whores. Female murderers. The masculine Law as represented by Vincent Thackery, really does get its knickers in a twist at the outrageous
uprising of a disgruntled female populace. It’s war and Thackery will not take a backward step.
So, having established the characters, the conflict and the setting, I’d like to say a little about how these things work together. I’m not a fan of info drops: an author, for example, describing a house and all its rooms before focusing on the characters and conflict. My way of doing it is getting to the characters immediately and then reveal where they are. As the characters move about the house, more rooms are illuminated to the reader. In other words, the world should only be revealed through the eyes and experiences of the characters. Thus, in the Beautiful Harpies, Sister Kempson and Constable Thackery, in the search for the murderer(s), become the main vehicles for worldbuilding. As we follow these two points of view, more and more of the city is revealed to us until we have a pretty good picture of what Dysael is all about. Many of the murder victims occupy the lower social classes, and we visit, for example, a catgut spinner’s workshop and are exposed to all the vile sights and smells of this trade, adding to the overall impression of Dysael as a filthy, piss-ridden muckheap with delusions of industrial grandeur. The city isn’t a happy place, but it serves as an appropriate backdrop for the grimdark elements of The Beautiful Harpies, and so, while it’s dank and depressing, I can’t help but think of it fondly. As long as I don’t have to live there, of course.
I urge you to take a short journey to Dysael and partake of murder. After all, it’s only fantasy.
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