Hester Prynne didn’t have Instagram or Twitter for her world to spread the word about her scandal — still, she was forced to wear that scarlet A right on the front of her frock. I always imagine the snippy 17th-century Bostonians whispering behind their hands, lasciviously spreading the gossip about what certainly must’ve happened between her and whoever it was. It’s easy to have a guilty fascination with scandal, whether it stems from the unworthy reactions that “at least it’s not me,” or that the person “deserves” it, or simply curiosity about someone else’s mistakes.
But scandals also pull the lids off secrets, don’t they? Can you believe it? We ask each other. I never saw that coming. What a shocker. And don’t tell anyone, we are admonished, and, for some personally gauged amount of time, we don’t. Happily, for crime fiction authors at least, it is impossible to keep a secret. And scandals are delicious fodder for fiction.
In my One Wrong Word, crisis management expert Arden Ward is forced to manage a crisis of her own — a scandal — when she is falsely accused of having an affair with a powerful client. It’s potentially career-ending and life-ruining, and Arden knows that all too well. And now she has to fight back. But how do you fight against whispers?
You already know that book came from my personal experience, when I was falsely accused — at age 19 — of the same thing. Luckily, the ridiculous rumor was quickly snuffed out, and forgotten. That is, by everyone but me.
And later, when it came back to life in fiction, I realized how intensely festering and destructive rumors can be.
At least I got to have my revenge on the page.
Other authors too, have taken scandals, not only from their imaginations, but from real life. Do you join me in admiration for any of these?
The Two Mrs. Grenvilles by Dominick Dunne
In his singularly witty and dishy voice, Dunne gives us a haughtily judgmental and consistently gasp-worthy fictionalized account of the 1955 Woodward scandal, where parvenu showgirl Ann — in real life — wooed and won her way to the heights of New York society. There’s lots of social climbing, and jewelry and brocade and flower arrangements and throwing of crystal, but the pivotal event is Ann Grenville — exactly like the real Ann Woodward — fatally shooting her husband. It was an accident, she says, and authorities agree to believe her. Everyone else in her hoity-toity world decides she got away with it. I was given this book on my 36th birthday, and the inscription from a dear friend: “this is proof positive that a good old fashioned murder scam pays off for everyone — even the writers.”
Answered Prayers/La Cote Basque by Truman Capote
Because all the world is connected, in The Two Mrs. Grenvilles (above), one of the main characters is a writer called Basil Plant. And Basil Plant is supposedly the name given to the character who was, in real life, Truman Capote. Capote himself had his life ruined by a scandal — a scandal of his own creation — in his lurid and revealing novel Answered Prayers. It, too, uses the Woodward “murder” as fodder, as well as the indiscretions of a whole galaxy of New York society. It ruined Capote, and, stranger than fiction, Ann Woodward died by suicide shortly before the book was published.
The Wife, The Maid and the Mistress by Ariel Lawhon
What really happened to Judge Crater after he got into that cab in 1930? He simply — vanished. Ariel Lawhon takes some fascinating real-life characters, adds a terrific cast of fictional ones, and does a brilliant job of coming up with an answer. Of course Lawhon’s fictional cop is foiled by the women is Judge Crater’s life — the wife, the maid, and the mistress — as the story takes us to jazz clubs and speakeasies and ritzy apartments, all sultry women and gangstery men. Have a martini when you read this.
The Trial of Mrs. Rhinelander by Denny. S. Bryce
I cannot wait to read this brand new novel by a captivating story-teller. Inspired by a real-life scandal that was shocking even for the tumultuous Roaring Twenties, it’s about a young Black journalist, a secret interracial marriage among the New York elite (Alice Beatrice Jones and Leonard ‘Kip’ Rhinelander), and the sensational divorce case that ignited an explosive battle over race and class — bringing together three very different women fighting for justice, legitimacy, and the futures they risked everything to shape. Ooh. Headlines, the Harlem Renaissance, and tabloid headlines. My faves.
Broadway Butterfly by Sara DiVello
DiVello’s passionate devotion to the story of 20’s-era reporter Julia Harpman, who relentlessly investigated the murder of showgirl Dot King, shines through in this riveting and thought-provoking true crime. It’s Gatsby meets Ragtime — completely entertaining, with its jazz babies and gigolos, high-society galas and gritty newsrooms, tough cops and fast-talking criminals. Impeccably (and impressively) researched and ingeniously written, it’s as cinematic and riveting as a classic film.
The Bellamy Trial by Frances Noyes Hart
In 1922, the crime of the century was a particularly scandalous murder case in Somerset, New Jersey. In the “Hall-Mills” murders, an episcopal minister and an attractive member of his church choir — each of whom were married to others — were found shot dead under a crab apple tree, their bodies suggestively positioned in death, and torn-up love letters placed beneath their corpses. Reportedly, only the Lindbergh case booted Hall-Mills from the headlines. Frances Noyes Hart, daughter of a newspaperman, took the bones of the scandal and, with a wry and witty style echoing F. Scott Fitzgerald’s, wove her own mystery about east coast infidelity and notoriety, calling it The Bellamy Trial. It’s anachronistic, sure, but in an endearing way, and I love this book.
Blood and Money. Heartburn. Anatomy of A Scandal. And oh, the wonderful An Inconvenient Wife by Karen E. Olson! She takes the six wives of Henry VIII — and moves the whole Tudor story to contemporary Connecticut. Genius.
Because the very definition of scandal is the same as the definition of a good story: Something unexpected and interesting happens. And we cannot wait to hear about it.
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