Settings, settings, settings – Dresden

Dresden by night along the River Elbe       Photo by Kolossos, CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Character and plot are the elements that drive a story for me, but neither can work properly without interaction with the setting in each scene. It can be weather, time of day, city, village, mountains, muddy road, traffic jam, buildings, farmland, beach, airport, caves, mountains – anything we face in our normal lives as humans. Sometimes in our writing, we stretch the description; other times, it stays mundane.

Double Stakes takes place in Poitou in rural western France, and in the cities of Berlin and Dresden in eastern Germany; two places that couldn’t be more contrasted! I live in Poitou, so the expansive countryside and stone buildings (and sunny weather!) are familiar to me. Berlin has been a favourite city of mine over many years. I set a fair bit of the action in AURELIA in a reimagined version there.

But Dresden and its area? I didn’t know much apart from the bombing of the city in the Second World War, its occupation by the Soviet Union for decades and a vague knowledge of its rich heritage as a royal residence for the Electors and Kings of Saxony and its cultural, architectural and artistic splendour. The city was known as the Jewel Box due its Baroque and Rococo city centre. Much of it has been reconstructed in its original form and a rather wonderful form it is.

Dresden Hauptbahnhof Henry Mühlpfordt CC BY 2.5

Dresden main railway station  Henry Mühlpfordt  CC BY 2.5 (Wikipedia)

Some of it is more functional but maintains a sense of grandeur such the main train station. Built in 1898 to replace a smaller station from 1848, it was unique as an ‘island’ between the tracks and as a terminal station on two different levels. A thorough refurbishment and modernisation after German reunification started in 2006. The building is now notable for its train-sheds, which are roofed with Teflon-coated glass fibre membranes – very 21st century! Mel in Double Stakes is forever going through this station, but finds the solid stone sometimes interferes with her urgent calls back to the EIRS office in Brussels!

Another famous building is the Frauenkirche or Church of Our Lady. The earliest structure was founded as a Catholic church then replaced in the 18th century by a larger Baroque purpose-built Lutheran building in 1726.

To make a statement, the Protestant citizens of Dresden included a copy of the Augsburg Confession, the primary confession of faith of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, in the foundation stone. The completed church featured one of the largest domes in Europe.

Destroyed by bombing in the Second World War, the church was left in a ruined state for nearly half a century as a war memorial by East German leaders.

After German reunification in the 1990s, it was decided to rebuild the church, starting in 1994. It was reconsecrated on 30 October 2005, pointedly, the day before Protestant Reformation Day on 31 October.

The surrounding Neumarkt square with  many Baroque period buildings was also reconstructed at the same time.

In Double Stakes, Mel goes inside the Frauenkirche for a covert meeting with a German Federal Police detective. They  use the covered gallery whose windows are slightly angled so the two of them can’t be seen.

Frauen Kirche interior     Photo: Gryffindor   CC BY 3.0

And I couldn’t resist a scene on the Bastei Bridge, a spectacular visitor attraction for over 200 years and still going strong! The Bastei itself is a rock formation rising 194 metres (636 ft) above the River Elbe southeast of Dresden; the highest bit reaches 305 metres (1,000 ft) above sea level. They form the major landmark of the Saxon Switzerland National Park, named for its resemblance to the country of Switzerland. They’re also part of a climbing and hiking area that extends over the borders into the Czech Republic – a perfect fit for fitness enthusiast Mel to stretch her legs!

Photo:  A.Savin – Own work (via Wikipedia) by Free Art Licence

The current sandstone bridge spanning the rocks – die Basteibrücke – replaced an earlier wooden structure in 1851. There are two ways of getting up there from Rathen, the spa town by the Elbe – the winding (reasonable) way or the very steep way. Mel takes one look at the steep path and opts for the other one. As it’s a major plot point in Double Stakes, I’m not going to say what happens there. 😉

I would love to go there in person one day, but for my novel, I used the very helpful Google Maps and was able to walk through the magnificent old quarter of Dresden, walk along the River Elbe and delight in the terrific view from the Bastei Bridge.

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers –  INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO,  AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO  and RETALIO,  and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories.  Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA,  Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.

Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. As a result, you’ll be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

Excerpt from Double Stakes

The first few pages…

The ringtone echoed through the trees around the lake.

Mel grabbed her phone.

‘Des Pittones. Bonjour.’

‘Mel! Mel!’

‘Mum?’ Mel turned over and pulled herself up on her elbows. Her fair hair, damp from swimming, fell both sides of her face. Her name again, shouted this time with more urgency.

‘Help!’ Her mother was sobbing now. Then the line cut.

Beside her, Jeff McCracken stirred, blinking hard. The light and stifling heat from the August sun were intense, even in the shade under the leaves.

‘What? What’s the matter?’ he muttered and shook his head to clear it.

‘I don’t know, but it was my mother. She sounds agitated and my mother doesn’t get agitated.’ She stood up, grabbed her clothes and pulled on shorts, T-shirt and trainers. The next second, she was running up the bank. McCracken followed, only a step behind her. After racing half a kilometre along tracks between the swaying branches of the beech trees, they emerged onto the open parkland leading up to the chateau. Once at the back door of the ancient building, Mel leant forward to catch her breath.

‘Right, let’s get in there and see what’s upset your mum.’ McCracken twisted the iron ring handle to the right and shoved the heavy wooden door open. Across the hard paved vestibule strewn with boots and edged with a dozen coats hanging on one side, they pushed through the kitchen into the hallway.

‘Mum?’ Mel glanced left and right but chose right leading to the back of the building. Her mother would be in her beloved conservatory. She was, but standing in a sea of broken glass and torn plant foliage. In one hand, she held a round black ball. In the other, shaking violently, her phone. A crumpled sheet of paper lay on the floor by her foot. Her usually immaculate blonde hair was unravelling from its chignon. Her face was twisted in terror.

Mel stopped on the threshold. She glanced upwards. A large hole in the conservatory roof. Fragments of glass dangled from metal struts. Every pane still in place formed a ripple effect from the hole.

‘We’re here, Mum. Everything’s going to be okay,’ Mel said slowly, then jerked to the side as she dodged a falling splinter of glass.

‘Are you okay to stay put for a mo’, Susan?’ McCracken said at Mel’s side.

 Mel’s mother nodded, but her eyes were wide with shock. She blinked hard, but a tear ran down her face.

‘I’ll get a broom and get you out of there, Mum,’ Mel said in a soothing voice and disappeared.

McCracken pulled out his phone and took some quick photos, then a video.

Mel rushed back with a long-handled brush and a paper bag, one of Susan’s acid-free herb drying bags. McCracken nodded and Mel began to push shards back to make a path for her mother. When she reached her, Mel held out the paper bag with her hand cupped under it.

‘Drop the ball and piece of paper into the bag first, Mum.’

Susan stared at her daughter. Mel smiled back, hoping to reassure her mother.

‘Come on, Mum. Then we can have a nice cup of tea and you can tell us all about it.’

Susan stretched out her trembling hand and dropped the ball into the bag. Mel stiffened her wrist as she took the weight of the ball – it was incredibly heavy. She smiled at mother and nodded to the paper on the floor. Susan crouched down, picked up the paper and dropped it in. Mel folded the edges of the bag over and held it backwards to McCracken. She took her mother’s slim figure in her arms and hugged her tightly.

‘It’s okay, Mum. It’s over.’ She took Susan’s hand. ‘Let’s get you away from here.’ Holding tight to her mother’s hand, Mel moved their clasped hands to the back of her own waist. ‘Walk on the clear bit of floor right behind me.’

‘Hang on for one second,’ McCracken said. ‘Where did the ball actually hit the ground?’

Susan pointed to the centre of the carpet of glass covering the conservatory floor. ‘Just there, Jeff, under the hole.’

‘Okay, love. Thanks. You go and have a sit down with Mel. I’m going to check something.’

Mel shot him a look. He shook his head at her, then looked up, flicked his black hair out of his eyes and studied the wrecked roof. Mel took her mother’s arm and led her to the kitchen and put the kettle on. After a few minutes, McCracken joined them. Susan was sitting at the long wooden kitchen table, hunched over her mug of tea. Mel drew McCracken aside.

‘And?’ she said in a low voice. She didn’t for the world want to upset her mother further.

‘A bit odd. Obviously, that ball caused the hole. It’s blooming heavy.’

‘Thrown from a distance away and landed on the conservatory roof by accident perhaps. Kids or sports?’

‘Who’s here to do that? Your dad owns all the land for miles around. It’s fields with no buildings apart from the odd barn. There’s no sports ground anywhere near except your tennis court. And nobody’s playing there – everybody’s at work. The kids are at school. I thought it could be some local toerags having a laugh.’ He flexed his fingers to move the bag now sitting in the palm of his hand a few millimetres. ‘Mind you, you’d have to have the muscles of one of those TV gladiators to throw this thing that far up. I mean, the roof must be about four people high, so seven to eight metres from the ground.’

‘That makes it deliberate. We’ll have to check the trajectory. At least we’ll find out where it was fired from.’

‘No need. I found a dent in the conservatory floor right under the hole. It had cracked one of the tiles.’

‘So it must have been dropped from directly overhead. Dieu. If Mum had been standing on that spot, she’d… she’d have been hit direct.’ Mel grasped the base of her neck. Cold crept under skin. Her mother could have been lying there, her head crushed in.

—————

Now available from  Kobo    B&N Nook    Apple (except Europe)   Amazon   Paperback

—————

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers –  INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO,  AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO  and RETALIO,  and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories.  Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA,  Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.

Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. As a result, you’ll be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.

Why I wrote Double Stakes

Double Stakes is the third book in the Mélisende ‘Doubles’ series and has the most difficult one to write. Thrillers are my thing, both as a reader and a writer. Mel and Jeff are characters I love to share with you as I do the whole des Pittones clan, the enigmatic EIRS director Patrick Stevenson and colleague Andreas (still recovering from his broken leg). Secondary characters like Defne Yılmaz, Becker and Gagnier are welcome newcomers.

Living in France, I can easily research French systems and customs; I am reasonably familiar with those across the frontier in Germany due to time spent there when younger and an ability to research in original German. But I’ve loved researching trains, shops, food, clothes, weapons and places – a real plus part of writing.

The most trying aspect and sometimes most fascinating one – in a horrifying way – has been researching the unpleasant far and extreme right political movements, particularly those in Germany which is a country I love. Political passion based on hatred and which leads to prejudice, abuse and violence based on ‘othering’ unknown people so they become objects and stereotypes instead of fellow human beings is abhorrent. The 1930s should give us a grim reminder of where that leads.

We’re not going to like everybody we meet or read about. We may not like or approve of other people’s beliefs or behaviour. We’re all different, thank goodness. After trying to understand, then concluding it isn’t for us, the response is to walk away. It is not to take to online abuse or attacking people on the streets. Nor is it right to whip up otherwise decent people’s uncertainties by manipulating those concerns and fears in pursuit of power.

A novel should entertain, hopefully inform and without being boring, educate. Double Stakes is a crime thriller with twists and turns, clues, discoveries and problems all running along at a reasonable pace, plus a touch of romance. But underneath, if you would like to find it, is a message that we should be aware of the dangers to our democracy.

Mel and Jeff pursue their investigation against this sombre background. Each character has to confront their own feelings when faced with such complex issues. But they retain their sense of humour and their shared determination to solve the case, although it turns out to be far from simple.

————-

Available from  Kobo    B&N Nook    Apple    Amazon  and as a paperback

————-

Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers –  INCEPTIO, CARINA (novella), PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO,  AURELIA, NEXUS (novella), INSURRECTIO  and RETALIO,  and ROMA NOVA EXTRA, a collection of short stories.  Audiobooks are available for four of the series. Double Identity, a contemporary conspiracy, starts a new series of thrillers. JULIA PRIMA,  Roma Nova story set in the late 4th century, starts the Foundation stories. The sequel, EXSILIUM, is now out.

Download ‘Welcome to Alison Morton’s Thriller Worlds’, a FREE eBook, as a thank you gift when you sign up to Alison’s monthly email update. As a result, you’ll be among the first to know about news and book progress before everybody else, and take part in giveaways.