I have been really struggling with my current WIP, Sins of the Father, the thirteenth Inspector Green novel. The word count suggests I am three-quarters of the way through, which means I should have at least a vague idea how I'm going to "land this sucker". The last quarter of a book is all about catching all the balls I have tossed up in the air, pulling them together into a satisfying, dramatic climax, and tying together the loose ends. The central question of the story must be answered as well as most of the subordinate questions. I don't mind some ambiguity that leaves a few puzzle pieces unplaced, but it's a fine line between that and leaving readers dangling and frustrated.
But meanwhile, Sins of the Father is still out in the weeds, looking for direction. As I wrestled with the question "What next?", I realized that part of my problem is not knowing what my characters, especially my police characters, would be doing in the real world. I try to write reasonably realistic stories which means trying to follow proper police investigative procedures and avoiding having the cops make outlandish or frankly illegal moves. But in this book, I have embroiled them in a plot that involves them in situations outside their normal investigative protocols. I know a reasonable amount about police protocol, but in this story, I have ventured far beyond my comfort zone. I have rogue cops, secrets, cover-ups, and inter-jurisdictional complications with other police forces. It's the nature of the story I have developed, but I still want to preserve some appearance of realism. I don't want readers with some knowledge of normal procedure and acceptable conduct to throw the book at the wall in exasperation. Would such and such an action be grounds for dismissal? How much can an officer get away with? Would police forces keep secrets from each other without consequences? And so on.
I don't have answers to these questions as I plough ahead with the story, but I have a solution. Once I have finished the first draft the best I can, with fingers crossed it's not too outlandish, I hope to send the manuscript to a couple of retired police friends for their input. Both of them love mysteries and hopefully will be able to offer suggestions if I have bent credibility too far. It is fiction, after all, and some suspension of disbelief is acceptable in the interests of a good story. Sometimes it's a matter of setting up the motivations properly. Instead of thinking "Oh, he would never do that!", I can reframe the issue as "under what conditions might he do that."
I still don't know what should come next, but I have some idea of where I want to end up. I just have to figure out how to get there, and leave the realism aside for the time being. Trusting the cops will set me straight.
