Love can manifest itself in many ways. The opposite of love is, well actually it could be argued that the opposite of love is apathy. But hate is a strong emotion that serves mysteries well.
Wickeds, hate is defined as, “feel intense or passionate dislike for (someone)”. Hate can be a powerful motivation for the crime in our books. It can also define character motivations in interesting ways. Have you used blinding hate in any of your books?
Edith//Maddie: We often set up the victim in a book as someone who is hated by several people, so they will have a Very Good Reason to commit murder. The intense dislike can be for different reasons – because people feel robbed or victimized or shunned. There are a couple of people who hated the victim in Four Leaf Cleaver.
Liz: I’ve used extreme hatred in a couple of my books. In Murder Most Finicky, the killer definitely felt slighted by the victim, and that it had a devastating effect on their life. And in Custom Baked Murder, the victim’s careless focus on money, power and status definitely caused some people to hate her.
Jessie: I am not sure that I have used blinding hate so much as fear as a murder motive in my novels. I think I incline towards characters striving to preserve something like a reputation, their liberty, or their loved one’s esteem more than being motivated by hate.
Julie: Edith, I agree with the need for a Very Good Reason. I’ve found in my books there are reasons for many people to dislike the victim intensely. (We weren’t allowed to use the word hate as a child. We disliked things/people intensely instead.) Those reasons become clearer as the novel progresses.
Readers, do you like it when the victim is clearly someone everyone loves to hate? Writers, is your victim usually someone everyone hates, or a chosen few?