A Regency Serial Killer

When I started writing Captive Hearts in 2005 I had it in my head I wanted to try something different in my book than the Regency Romances I had read.  Most of the Regencies I'd read at that period were light fare. Drawing room dramas with romantic conflicts that though entertaining were not dark. I wanted to write a DARK Regency.With touches of humor here and there.

I wracked my brain for several days trying to figure out what kind of story line I could do that would satisfy my suspenseful craving. And decided I needed a serial killer.

I had just read several books on Jack the Ripper. One of the best I've read to date is titled THE COMPLETE JACK THE RIPPER CASEBOOK BY DONALD RUMBLELOW Rumblelow is a retired Scotland Yard Detective and I was fascinated by his book. It goes into depth how the lower class lived during that period, what London was like, and of course the murders there in White chapel. (It is not available on kindle but is in print and well worth the read.)

Though the Jack the Ripper killings happened in the Victorian Era instead of the Regency I thought--what if I create the first Regency serial killer. Thus Jamie was born. 

Jamie loves to love the ladies---to death. And he has a propensity for being very brutal about it.
His mother was a prostitute.  She was thrown out of her parent's home when she became pregnant and had to take up the profession to feed herself and her child. Then took to drink to assuage the pain of her circumstances.

Jamie is a product of that environment and already has a brutal attitude toward women,  but what encourages his addiction is his father's influence. Garret Drake comes into his life when he's twenty. Jamie's mother has long since died and he has lived on the street for most of his life and done whatever he had to do to survive. But Jamie has something special that helps him feed his dark cravings. He has charm and has inherited his father's handsome bearing and intense green eyes.

Drake is the man who got Jamie's mother pregnant, then disappeared. And he does have moments of regret about that. But instead of taking Jamie off the streets, and attempting to control him, Drake encourages his son's brutality and attempts to use it to his benefit. He is both revolted and fascinated by Jamie. Instead of writing the scenes in which Jamie is at his worst or his best, which ever your perspective may be, I wrote them from Drake's point of view.Which added a small interesting twist to the whole relationship, or at least I think so.

How would a real father feel about watching his son murder? But we're not talking about a normal father, but one who has climbed the social ladder as a business man and been accepted into some of societies most powerful people's homes. He has his finger in several businesses ventures tied to the upper class, but he wants MORE. He craves the excitement of the underworld his son lives in and he wants to harness it for his own advantage.

But Jamie is still his son. And in his own dark twisted way, Drake does care about him.

It will be up to you, the reader, to tell me if I did their relationship justice. And which of them is the worst or the best villain--amongst all the other villains in the book. And there are several. 

I hope you'll give Captive Hearts a try so you can tell me.

Read On,
Teresa Reasor