Why Teachers Who Hate Students is a Turning Point for the Funderburke & Kaiming Series

Why Teachers Who Hate Students is a Turning Point for the Funderburke & Kaiming Series

 

When I wrote Teachers Who Hate Students, I wanted it to mark a change in the series.  The narratives would get darker (perhaps even darker would be a better way to describe them). The stakes, both professional and emotional, would get higher.  And the Kaiming home, which I had portrayed as an oasis in a sea of turbulence, is now under fire and no longer safe.

 

One way I wanted to symbolize this was through a change in Funderburke’s appearance.  His new, longer hairstyle wasn’t just a whim– it was the physical embodiment of the fact that as the narrative progresses, Funderburke gets more and more disgusted by institutionalized corruption and public indifference, so the less conventional hairstyle, clashing with the traditionalist standards of his workplace, Cuthbertson Hall, is meant as a symbol of how he’s rebelling against what he sees as entrenched evils.

 

I think that mystery writers should be sparing about when they give their fictional detectives personal connections to the cases they investigate.  Ghosting My Friend, the first book in the series and an origin story for Funderburke, had a deep personal connection for Funderburke.  When I first started plotting Teachers Who Hate Students, Funderburke didn’t really have an emotional stake in the case, and indeed, he doesn’t start the novel with any emotional or personal involvement.  It builds as the novel progresses, and he builds a bond with Blaze, the half-sister he’s never met.  I had mulled over the creation of Blaze ever since Ghosting My Friend, and she very nearly had a cameo appearance in that book, but I held back, and after referencing her in Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, and reworking and refining her character.  The Blaze in the book is radically redeveloped from my original conception for her.

 

I didn’t plan for Blaze to meet the fate she does in the final novel (no spoilers– note how I didn’t say whether her “fate” is happy, sad, tragic, or something else unexpected– you’ll have to read the book to see).  My initial plan for her was either to be shipped off to another boarding school halfway across the country, or to be arrested and sent to juvenile detention.  But as I wrote, the relationship between Funderburke and Blaze took a turn I hadn’t expected.  Their interactions were constantly adopting tones and their conversations revealed details I hadn’t included in my outlines.  So I had to completely rework the ending and the character arcs.  And if I may self-evaluate my work, the actual ending is much better than the one I had initially planned.

 

Once again, here’s the book blurb for Teachers Who Hate Students:

 

Is Funderburke’s fourteen-year-old half-sister Blaze an arsonist? Blaze has been kicked out of three schools, and all of her teachers say she’s a troubled, angry, potentially dangerous girl. So when multiple cars are set aflame in the school parking lot, and a witness identifies Blaze as the culprit, the authorities are poised to toss Blaze into an institution for disturbed children. Funderburke is inclined to think the worst about the half-sibling he’s never met, but when their mother begs him to take the case, he and his girlfriend/investigative partner Nerissa Kaiming start digging, and quickly discover a mountain of secrets that influential people hoped would stay buried forever. As scandals are revealed and bodies pile up, Funderburke and Nerissa try to clear Blaze’s name despite the efforts of some powerful enemies. Unfortunately, this case may not just wreck their careers… it could destroy the Kaiming family.

 

 

 

–Chris Chan

 

 

Chris Chan’s fourth Funderburke & Kaiming novel, Teachers Who Hate Students, was published on October 13^th!  His history of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, Absolute Justice, was published on March 10^th!   His flash fiction collection 156 Homicides will be published soon! His book Sherlock Poems retells the entire Sherlock Holmes Canon in verse.  He is also the author of the CWA Dagger Long Listed The Autistic Sleuth, written with the professional guidance of his mother Dr. Patricia Meyer Chan, and he has also written the Agatha, Macavity, and Anthony-nominated book on the Columbo killers, Some of My Best Friends Are Murderers! He is the author of the Funderburke and Kaiming novels Ghosting My Friend and She Ruined Our Lives and Well-Behaved Children Seldom Make History, released by Level Best Books.  He is also the author of the comedic novels Sherlock’s Secretary and Nessie’s Nemesis, published by MX Publishing, as was his anthology Of Course He Pushed Him and Other Sherlock Holmes Stories Volumes 1 & 2.  His Agatha-nominated book Murder Most Grotesque: The Comedic Crime Fiction of Joyce Porter was published by Level Best Books.  His first non-fiction book, Sherlock & Irene: The Secret Truth Behind “A Scandal in Bohemia” is available for sale at Amazon.com and the MX Publishing website, as well as at Book Depository (with free worldwide shipping there).  It is also available in a Kindle edition.