Readers find sociopaths in novels compelling for many reasons, not least of which is that they are exciting to read about. After all, they’re usually unpredictable, never boring, and often quite humorous.
Probably the best example is Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley, a novel that spawned an entire series about a sociopath underdog who literally gets away with murder. And more than once. While we may not exactly root for Tom Ripley evading justice, we are fascinated by his own rationalizations, his thought process, and his clever escapes. In the end, we’re almost complicit as silent witnesses to his crimes.
I needed at least one good villain for my Hawker novels and I felt that creating one who was a sociopath, possibly even a psychopath, could provide some great scope for writing a character with depth by allowing readers to see his world as he sees it. I needed a deeply flawed character with a crystalline, cold self-belief in the rightness of his own actions where every human interaction comes down to cost vs. benefit. And thus, Gaston Dieudonné was born.
Dieudonné is a chameleon who impersonates the high-born to help insinuate himself into the right circles to obtain what he feels is rightly his: fame and fortune. Charming, handsome, and utterly ruthless, he can be a valiant companion when it suits but equally can commit murder with a cold efficiency if he deems it necessary for his own survival. Those who stumble on Dieudonné’s secrets find themselves coming to a sudden and violent demise.
Writing the character became a balancing act. Too evil would render him completely unsympathetic to readers (even stereotypical) while making him too likeable and loyal would call into question his role as nemesis. Instead, I’ve crafted him as darkly humorous, acerbic, and with a worldly wisdom born of survival in hostile lands. His character takes self-interest to the extreme but he can also be swayed by his infatuations, making him sometimes very unpredictable in spite of himself. Does romance play a role? Dieudonné will sleep with both men and women but is he just asexual, someone who cannot experience love but uses it as a means to an end? I’ll let the reader decide.
Rather than becoming a character who is an outright villain, descending on my protagonists in a moment of crisis, Dieudonné ended up being an integral character and one of the companions in Hawker’s forlorn company on his mission to Venice. Will Dieudonné be the serpent in their midst or an unlikely saviour when they are most in need?
Hawker and King’s Jewel is out now and available at online retailers and bookshops.
