Why Rafael had to confront his past in Paris Noir: Deadly Obsession
Rafael… a complicated, layered man. Modeled in part after my former professor, the recollections I held of him helped shape the character of Rafael Walker-Smith. When we first encounter Rafael in Deadly College Murders, he has only just reentered his goddaughter’s life. Fiercely protective where Hannah is concerned, she represents his greatest vulnerability—his Achilles’ heel. If anything were to befall her, he knows he could never forgive himself. The first two books in the series, Deadly College Murders and Deadly Vows: Echoes of College Crimes, focused on Hannah, with Rafael playing an important and emotionally charged role throughout, albeit not always.
In writing the third book in the series, I wanted it to focus squarely on Rafael and how his dark past comes back to haunt him. The sins of the godfather return to threaten everything he has built in Paris Noir: Deadly Obsession. He is a man doing his utmost to protect his beloved goddaughter, and an archnemesis must upend the hero’s life — in this case, Rafael faces Donovan, a man from his past who resurfaces to terrorize him and to target the one person Rafael cares for most: Hannah. Donovan cheated the criminal justice system and was corrupt from the start; when Rafael exposed him to his superiors, Donovan vowed revenge and bided his time. Hannah, meanwhile, is Rafael’s precious gem.
It is Rafael’s hidden history and his determination to keep Donovan from finding her that ultimately strain the bond between godfather and goddaughter. Ironically, at the start of the third book Rafael insists Hannah must always tell him the truth, warning that secrecy can be more damaging than honesty — all while he conceals his own darkest secrets to keep her safe. Our pasts shape who we are, and Rafael is no exception. Near the end of the book he discovers what Hannah has been hiding since the aftermath of Deadly College Murders and during the events between Deadly Vows: Echoes of College Crimes. When he confronts her, she reveals that he lied about his identity to protect her, and that she, too, lied to protect herself. How the ending of Paris Noir: Deadly Obsession alters Rafael and Hannah’s lives — and whether they can finally bring Donovan down — becomes the story’s central, tense resolution.
