I actually had two other ideas before this, but this grew more quickly since it came from a plot rather than a world or characters.
Working Title: The Piper
Genre: Suspense/Mystery, perhaps
Protagonist: Monica, a woman in her twenties with light, brown hair she ties up and a serious face. She's rather small in stature and has an official occupation of seamstress, but she moonlights as a detective for those who hear of her. She's quite kind and susceptible to crying over terrible things that happen, but she can put on a more stoic bearing and usually does when it comes to her detective work. She was adopted by her parents, of whom only her father survives.
Other Main Characters: Natalie, Monica's coworker and sometime assistant. She has dark, curly hair and green eyes. She's easily startled but can handle quite a bit of pressure.
Antagonist: "The Piper," a serial killer in his late thirties. While his hairstyle and clothing change often, he always has a generally freckled complexion and a winning smile. He's manically intelligent and either acts sweet or cunning (or occasionally both, in an odd way).
Setting: A chain of small towns and larger ones in a well-off country. The time period couldn't quite be classified as medieval, but it's certainly before the modern-day. I'm still undecided as to whether this should be an alternate universe or some period in our world's history. At any rate, adoption isn't heavily regulated.
Plot: Monica pursues The Piper and struggles to subdue him before he can adopt the next child he plans to kill.
Point of View: Likely third-person, limited to Monica, although first-person wouldn't be out of the question.
This seems like a terrifically intriguing idea! I love the spin on the Pied Piper story, and having the story set in a historical time period, when detective work would definitely be more difficult (no chemical analysis, fingerprinting, mugshots, etc.) heightens the suspense. I'm not sure you need to set it in an AU; I think it would work fine if you just set it in a historical-ish time period but didn't give a specific year or setting to it. You might want to change the names if you're making it old-fashioned, though, as Monica and Natalie are both fairely modern-sounding names. Having Monica be adopted herself lends a nice angle to it - she's fighting to protect children just like her. Due to the time period, Monica shouldn't belong to any official police/detective agency, but just do these things by herself, like Nancy Drew (which is probably what you meant, anyway).
ReplyDeleteBoth of the names go back to the fourth century or so, but if they don't sound right, I can change them. It was a spur of the moment naming, so I wouldn't object.
DeleteYeah, she's definitely on her own (with Natalie's help, of course).