"Crimes of Passion," by Michael Guillebeau, in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, August 2014.So, when is a stereotype okay in writing? I don't mean an offensive racial or whatever stereotype, I mean a character who is so perfectly a type that you know what they are going to do before they do.
I guess, as usual, the answer is: it's okay when it works.
Guillebeau's story is full of characters like this. Within a few pages you can predict, not precisely what will happen, but who will end up with the dirty end of the stick and who will walk away clean as artisan soap.
Josh is a poor boy who lives in the Florida panhandle. "Poor" is the keyword because his family's shack is between two mansions, where his best friends live. Those over-privileged, entitled friends, Waylon and the just-blooming Melody, are the main cliches in the story.
As it begins, the three of them find a dead body in the water. Waylon finds a stack of money in the man's coat and promptly takes it. Josh -- the thoughtful member of the three -- has to decide whether to go along with this or tell the truth. And everything that follows is as inevitable as a Greek tragedy, writ small.
Apparently Guillebeau has a novel about the same character, Josh Somebody. Might be worth a look-see.
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