Can your setting be a character?

 While I was a panelist at a mystery convention, the moderator asked the panelists if their settings were ever characters. It was an interesting question and really made me think about the settings I've chosen. For the Doug Fletcher series, each book is set in a different US National Park Service property (national park, national monument, national seashore, etc.) and the setting is an essential element in the book, and also in the plot.

Anchor murder is set in Voyageurs National Park, on the Minnesota/Ontario border. The nearest town is Internation Falls, Minnesota. It's an incredible location and it offered so many intriguing aspects that impact the plot. 

Even before the investigators get to the park, they experience the first true north country natives, the mosquitoes. Yes, they even get inside of the plane when the door is opened. My son's friend is a commercial pilot. He said International Falls is literally the only airport he's ever flown to where they have a 30-minute ground stop after the cabin door is closed so the pilot and co-pilot can swat mosquitoes in the cockpit to prevent take-off distractions.

The book opens with the announcement that a disembodied foot had been found at the bottom of Rainy Lake. Although it's apparent the foot has been there a long time, it's now officially a murder and the clock is not ticking when it's turned over to my investigators, Doug and Jill Fletcher. To examine and search the site, the team scuba dives on the site where the discovery was made. Imagine being in a wet suit that covers your body with the exception of the area around your wrists and scuba mask. When you hit the nearly freezing water, it feels like icy pins are prickling your exposed skin. As the cold seeps through the neoprene wetsuit, your muscles stiffen, and it becomes difficult to grasp with your numb fingers. Yeah. That really happens on a 30-minute dive in icy water. Hmm, how might that affect the plot?

Abutting the Canadian border adds another aspect to the setting because there are a host of cross-border issues to consider from fishermen straying across the border, to smuggling, to illegal aliens, and more.

I get into the "northern Minnesota resort experience" and talk about renting cabins and staying at lodges. There are fishermen, fishing guides, resort owners, and cabin owners, each with their own set of issues and possible murder motives.

The plot was suggested by Osten Berg, a retired law enforcement officer, who bought me a cup of coffee before giving me pages of plot to weave into a narrative. He's forgiven me for chopping up his suggestions while making his actual northern Minnesota missing person case into a piece of fiction.

Check it out on my publisher's website after the January 1, 2026 release.

Dean Hovey - Books We Love Publishing Inc.

Or at your favorite bookstore or Amazon.