This post was originally meant to appear on another blog, but I missed the deadline - who knew the combination of day job, small children, and ADHD could make deadlines tricky? 👀
Father's Day can be a day of celebration, but also a day of mourning. The influence of fathers, both present and absent, leaves a mark. With the protagonists of The Amy Lane Mysteries, their dads are an integral part of their story.
For Jason, a streetwise ex-con looking for redemption, family is of the highest importance. His father died when he was young, leaving him as the man of the house. He listens to his father's favourite Eighties hits, wears the band T-shirts, and continues his love of motorcycles.
In Binary Witness, the first novel in the series, he tries to grapple with the spectre of his father in his life:
Would his father be proud of him, the cleaner in pink? The working man. For the past year, Jason had been glad his dad wasn’t around to see the state he was in. But now he craved that approval and he was never going to get it, would never know for certain what his dad wanted for him.
Amy Lane, agoraphobic hacker, doesn't talk about her parents. She likes to keep all of her difficult past hidden, even from those closest to her. Struggling with her mental health from a young age, she realises that she will never meet her parents' expectations and retreats into the safe space of her bedroom.
Her parents leave her and her sister in the care of her ailing grandmother while they travel the world. Amy can't help but think that they're trying to escape their disappointment of a daughter.
When their grandmother dies, she uses her nascent hacking skills to steal five million pounds from their bank account:
She left them just enough for the plane ticket home, but they never came. From their transactions, she gathered they camped out in the Middle East until Daddy’s next paycheck or the insurance company coughed up. After that, it hurt to watch anymore and she stopped obsessing over their pennies and moved on to building her and Lizzie a new life.
When we finally meet Amy's father, in Terror 404, we learn a great deal more about how his influence shaped her - and how she can move on from it.
Both Jason and Amy's fathers formed their sense of justice and purpose, in admiration and in opposition. It's acknowledging their pasts and stepping outside their fathers' shadows that allows them to thrive.
You can find The Amy Lane Mysteries where all good books are sold.