Hello,
I am writing an SF novel where my main character, an aging detective, does not know the exact circumstances surrounding the death of his wife a decade earlier. Although his finding out isn't the main focus of the novel, it is something that is always on his mind, and it ends up as a major plot thread.
I have not read much detective fiction, but I have the impression that having a personal tragedy, perhaps unsolved, among the family or friends of the detective, is fairly common. Would you say that it is common to the point of being a cliche of the genre? I want to stay with this idea, but if it elicits, "Not another mysterious death of a wife!" groans, I'll know I need to try harder to make it less predictable.
I am writing an SF novel where my main character, an aging detective, does not know the exact circumstances surrounding the death of his wife a decade earlier. Although his finding out isn't the main focus of the novel, it is something that is always on his mind, and it ends up as a major plot thread.
I have not read much detective fiction, but I have the impression that having a personal tragedy, perhaps unsolved, among the family or friends of the detective, is fairly common. Would you say that it is common to the point of being a cliche of the genre? I want to stay with this idea, but if it elicits, "Not another mysterious death of a wife!" groans, I'll know I need to try harder to make it less predictable.