My favorite crime fiction author, Robert Crais, has a theme. It might take a few (or maybe many) books to catch on but eventually you realize that whatever crime or mystery his PI is investigating, he actually writes about the same thing every time:
A father who abandoned his child(ren) and a mother who stepped in to do it all herself, who has a great if sometimes suppressed or hidden strength.
A while into becoming a fan or maybe what could be called a scholar of his work, I moved on from reading just his novels and into reading his interviews and the like.
In one of them, he described a conflict in the house that led to him leaving for the evening. I don't remember why, but I remember the feeling that it reflected poorly on his father.
In others he talks about how important his mother is to him. How much she shaped his life, her love and support, the way he treasures the things she loved. He never misses celebrating Mother's Day.
He doesn't talk about his dad very much. And if he does post them—maybe I've just forgotten—his Father's Day posts just don't measure up.
Even his main characters are based around this. The lead detective, Elvis Cole. His father unknown, absent since before he was born, raised by a mother who loved him but was ultimately incapable of raising him on her own.
Elvis' partner, Joe Pike. Raised by a physically abusive father who would have killed his wife and Joe one day, except Pike became strong and threatened his father's life, earning his freedom.
It just feels so, so clear to me that Crais loves his mother and honors her so much. That he writes about mothers who are determined to love and protect their children and who are helped in that by Elvis Cole.
All writing is a power fantasy.
Sometimes it's the power to help your mother.
