I recently read a mystery novel, The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman. It is a good book that touches on several issues that will be at play in my upcoming novel, Zen Men Tell No Tales. Without giving anything away in the main storyline, this mystery has a significant subplot involving one of the main characters, Elizabeth, and her spouse, Stephen, who is losing his memory to early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Elizabeth is grieving the slow, steady loss of the man she has loved for decades, and Stephen is sending letters to himself so he will remember what is happening and encourage his future self to do something about it before it’s too late. This is a sad and terrifying story arc that haunts the main storyline about a single murder, where all the suspects keep killing each other until only one is left, making the detective’s job easier.
Osman uses this situation in ways that are both tragic and funny. There are moments when Stephen forgets who Elizabeth is, but then he hits on her as if he has fallen in love with her for the first time. Other times, his memory is flawless, and he reveals an aspect of Elizabeth’s character that makes others in the room fear, trust, and admire her all at once. Throughout these moments of humor and pathos, the reader is painfully aware that this is a one-way street headed towards a painful end. In one of Stephen’s lucid moments, he tells Elizabeth that he is aware of his fate and wants to end things on his own terms. He doesn’t want his death to drag on and make Elizabeth suffer more.
What will Elizabeth do? If she does nothing, Stephen will forget the plan, and the moments of lucidity will get further and further apart until they never happen again. Or else she helps the man she loves do the thing he has chosen to do that will be the end of him. And if she follows through on that plan, can she be sure that at the time of his death, he is still lucid enough to know what’s going on? Or will he slip underneath the memory bar and wonder why this strange woman is trying to kill him? It’s a very interesting case. There is much to think about here. I won’t tell you which way she goes. You have to buy the book and read it.
I thought about this book tonight, because I am planning my own character’s thoughts about suicide in relation to his own situation of murder and memory. Memory is such a plastic thing. It makes heroes of us all, lest we forget we can also be murderers and forget where we buried the bodies.
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