Oliver Harmon, a secondary character in my new Italy-based thriller She Knew Too Much, was particularly fun to write. A well-meaning Anglican priest, he’s vitally important in the first chapter when he interrupts a violent attack on Genie Clarke, the novel’s main character. From there on, he appears intermittently, but again is crucial in the climax.

What I enjoyed about writing him is he’s one of those people—and we all have known someone like this—who talks on and on, with only the slenderest connection between topics. He’s a walking run-on sentence. Yet, he’s also a particular friend of the second-most important character in the story, Leo Angelini, chief detective of Rome’s Polizia di Stato.

Writers are challenged to make their characters both interesting and believable. Real people, not cardboard cutouts. For Harmon, I tried to think what the preoccupations would be of someone like that, transplanted from his home country, who’s a not-perfect fit with his superiors, someone whose parishioners might find a wee bit tiresome, but good-hearted at the core. Genie actually find him quite entertaining, and she needs the kind of lift to the spirits he provides as she goes up against some of the most dangerous criminals in the city.

If you’d like to read a bit more about Oliver Harmon—more than you’ll actually even find in the book, you can find the story here.

She Knew Too Much will be published February 15, and is available for preorder on Amazon now. Enjoy them both!