Inspiration Behind DANGER TO OTHERS
I always thought I would become a therapist, helping people like me—late bloomers with difficult relationships. Instead, I spent my career working with people experiencing serious mental illness. I have a knack for forming relationships with young men whose voices tell them to assault, old women kicked out of nursing homes, and overwhelmed youth who stripe their arms with razor blades. I never explored what led me there until I became a writer.
When I hit a snag in writing my second mystery, Danger to Others, I realized I needed a subplot. That weekend the Seattle Times ran a story about Washington’s Northern State Hospital, a mental institution that closed in 1973. My main character, Grace Vaccaro, is a mental health evaluator who determines when someone will be committed for psychiatric treatment. This was the idea I needed—I saved the article for inspiration before I realized just how meaningful the topic was—my father’s mother had died in Ohio’s Massillon State Hospital before I was born.
Mental illness was not something families talked about in the 1950s, my father never did. I first learned about my grandmother when I packed up my rusty Ford Galaxy to move west for a new adventure after college. Before I left, I visited all the relatives to say goodbye. At my Great Aunt Daisy’s house, she pecked me on the cheek, then held on. “There’s something you should know. Your father’s mother died in a mental institution. She had a brain tumor.” I drove away without asking questions. Maybe I was too intoxicated with the future. Maybe I sensed that my aunt had already said more than was allowed. She protected the family from what was then considered shame. Years later, I asked Dad about his mother’s time at Massillon State. “It isn’t true,” he said. “Your grandmother died in a sanitarium.” The word conjured an image of a mountain lodge where TB patients in deck chairs wrapped themselves in blankets. The tightness in his voice told me to let it drop. I was also protecting him.
Now I find it odd how rarely I thought of my grandmother. Research for my book changed that. My curiosity became an obsession after a visit to the now-defunct Northern State at the foot of the North Cascade Mountains. At the old dairy farm where psychiatric patients raised their own food, I passed sagging outbuildings and a barn door flapping in the wind. Spray-painted letters dripped down the wall of the abandoned slaughterhouse–You Are Among the Forgotten. Sadly, it was true.
To find out more about my grandmother, I revisited a different aunt’s diaries. She wrote Mrs. Crites to Mass Hosp for insulin shock treatment. The funeral was two weeks later. I had obviously read this years before, even underlined the words, again it slipped my mind. I didn’t want my grandmother to remain forgotten. I would weave her story into mine. By this time my father had died so my search could no longer hurt him.
I sent a fifteen dollar check to the state of Ohio, and a week later, I received a photocopy of my grandmother’s death certificate. Helen Crites did die at Massillon State Hospital, but instead of a brain tumor, a heart attack was the cause of death. Her psychiatric diagnosis, in today’s terms, was a depression that began after the age of 40 accompanied by hallucinations, delusions or paranoia. My father’s mother had died at the age of 49. She hadn’t always been ill.
As I built my subplot, I filled in the blanks by watching movies: The Snake Pit, A Beautiful Mind. I researched her diagnosis and the standard care in the 1950. I learned that the insulin shock therapy she received was soon abandoned because of how physically hard it was on patients. Even now, medical understanding of mental illness is slim. The change in my father’s mother came quickly. Real sympathy for his silence began to grow.
My sister and I made lists of what we knew about Helen: she played ragtime piano, she posed with my mother in matching sundresses they’d sewn. She was fun. We collected photos and a baby ring that had been cut from her finger when it no longer fit.
In Danger to Others, Grace sets out to prove a young psychiatric patient innocent of murder, but it’s more than a mystery. It’s a multi-generational story. Grace had a troublesome relationship with her own mother, her grown daughter would be moving away soon. The subplot inspired by my grandmother brought all those stories together.
Some details I used are true, but many are fiction. With Helen as the inspiration for the history of mental illness in my character’s family, the story came alive for me in a way I never could have predicted. In fiction, my sleuth found people to answer her questions. Answers don’t exist in my life, but resolving my protagonist’s questions somehow satisfied me too. This is the magic of fiction.
My writing journey led me to learn about my grandmother. Did her history lead to my career in mental health? I can’t say for sure, but my writing has assured that she is not forgotten. I made a shrine to her on the corner of my desk and Danger to Others is dedicated to Helen Crites.
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BIO: Martha Crites is the author of Grave Disturbance and Danger to Others, the second in her Grace Vaccaro series. Martha worked in mental health for many years. She lives in Seattle, Washington. When she isn’t writing, you will find her on the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
DANGER TO OTHERS
Late October in the Pacific Northwest foothills brings more than a change of season. Psychiatric evaluator Grace Vaccaro is on edge. A field evaluation gone wrong leads to a shooting, Grace’s mother has died and ghosts from her family past are everywhere.
When Laurel, a young psychiatric patient, says she killed her therapist, Grace suspects it’s a delusion and sets out to prove her innocent. Then Laurel escapes from a locked unit and suspicions abound. Her parents have secrets too. Laurel is reuniting with her father, a recovering heroin addict. Just how much does he oppose mental health treatment and why? Laurel’s mother doesn’t trust him. The mother may have a disturbing past of her own-someone is following her.
Grace’s work partner disappears next. Is it related to the case? Grace’s search leads to the Seattle music scene, an abandoned mental hospital in the North Cascades and a group of cloistered nuns on a remote island. Whenever Grace believes she’s identified the killer, new information points to someone else. As Grace digs deeper, she must face both the hope and inadequacies of medical treatment of mental health in the last sixty years.
A moving and well-plotted mystery, enriched by Martha’s experience working in mental health and her deep love of the Pacific Northwest. So much more than “entertaining”—but it is that too!
Alice Boatwright
Danger To Others is socially relevant, compelling, and ultimately hopeful.
Jeanne Matthews
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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips
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