By Robin Bradley

In almost every novel, there are characters who exist to fill a particular need. And when they’ve met that need, they vanish. But sometimes, there are those who, despite authors’ best intentions, hang around for a long time. Here are a few of my favorites who appeared in the first Spectrum novel, The Peacock Contract.

You’ll meet Sasha’s partner Kisho. He arrived, did his job, and left. But we fell in love with him because he made Sasha so happy. And he gave Sasha a book about folding origami to help him relax and de-stress. While Kisho himself didn’t stay in the story for long, his legacy to Sasha lived on. Sasha folded thousands of origami cranes and taught others, like Remy and Sarah, the art of those intricate folds. We’ve just finished drafting a chapter in the fifth Spectrum novel. And that folded paper has appeared again, in a most surprising form. Welcome back, Kisho.

Lydia McKay is another character who was just going to show up briefly, as the young dressmaker who designed flamenco dresses for Mari, and then she’d vanish. But instead, she hung around and became part of the Spectrum family. She became a central character who had some wild adventures in The Pear Orchard. As we wrote more books, she, Gia, and Frannie became close friends. (Yes, I’m dropping names here to tease you to read those books—of course.) And in addition to her dressmaking skills, it turned out that Lydia was quite an artist as well, particularly skilled in large-scale art. The mural she and Gia painted is still visible on the side of the barn in our fifth Spectrum novel.

Edgar, darling Edgar Spring. We needed a way to tell our readers about the “off-stage” murders that had taken place. So he became a reporter for The Raleigh Weekly News, where he broke the story that there might, just might, be a serial killer out there who targeted red-headed women. But after Edgar found a girlfriend, the two of them kept popping up in other books as well. Jody likes to call him tenacious; I call him persistent. We both find him absolutely charming.

Charlotte French is an English professor who made her appearance quite late in The Peacock Contract. She and Tracey were supposed to have a humorous conversation in the bar late one evening aboard a Spectrum riverboat. But Charlotte kind of grew on us. And at risk of sharing a spoiler here, she has hung around a lot longer than we expected. Her evolving role throughout the Spectrum novels has surprised even us.

Finally, David Michel, the ultimate throw-away character. (My apologies, another spoiler alert here.) He was never meant to appear as more than a reference made by Raul one evening. Instead, he strode into Raul’s life and changed it forever. I have to confess, David became one of my very favorites.

Let me share this short excerpt where you finally get to meet David and appreciate his sense of humor:

When she was ready, Gia walked to the dining room, her shining dark brown hair spilling down her back, wearing slim black pants, a black silk shell, her favorite emerald green shawl and high, strappy black heels. She saw Raul already standing there with a tall, blond man. She paused before they saw her, nodded her head in appreciation and said to herself, “Mm-mm-mm, they are quite the couple.”

As she smiled and walked toward them, Raul saw her and opened his arms, wrapping her in a big hug, giving her a kiss on the cheek. He was so excited as he introduced David.

David took Gia’s face in his hands and looked into her eyes. “Darling, I’m so glad to finally meet you. Raul and I are grateful to you and Mari for making this trip happen,” and he kissed her warmly on both cheeks.

Gia’s eyes opened wide for a second, “Oh yum! You’re exactly like I thought you would be,” she said, and she smiled her approval at Raul.

Gia slipped her arms through theirs. “Let’s make an entrance, boys.” They all laughed, stood their tallest and strode into the dining room, a matched set, all three dressed in black, all three almost the same height—David, five feet eleven and a half inches, Raul, six feet, and Gia also reached six feet in her new, four-inch heels.

Passengers already seated at their tables turned to admire the trio as they made their grand entrance.

Raul pulled out Gia’s chair and seated her, and he whispered in her ear, “My, what a presence you’ve developed over the last year.” After they sat down and got settled, he looked at Gia and said, “Remember that very first hospital fundraiser we went to? I was holding your hand, and you were shaking like a leaf. Now just look at you!” They smiled at one another.

Gia looked at the local French cuisine on the menu and then ordered pâté and steak with frites and a little salad to accompany it and a Tarte Normande aux Pommes for dessert. Raul and David laughed at her, “Where are you going to put all that food?”

Gia replied, “It all looks so good. I have to try everything! And the dessert is healthy—it’s full of apples.”

“And cream and calvados,” said Raul, laughter twinkling in his eyes as he looked at her affectionately.

And then after dinner:

They walked up the curved staircase. The automatic door opened with a swoosh, and Raul went off to find a place for them by the window while Gia and David went to the bar. David picked up the drinks menu, and Sasha came over, smiled at Gia and asked, “I heard you liked the Bordeaux this afternoon. Did it go well with dinner, too?”

“Yes, it was lovely. In fact, I’ll have another glass, please.”

Gia introduced David to him, and Sasha said, “In addition to the drinks in that menu, I make custom drinks.”

A wicked gleam came into David’s eye, and he grinned. “Can you make a rainbow drink for me and my partner?”

Gia playfully punched David on the shoulder and said, “You really like pushing Raul out of his comfort zone, don’t you?”

“Moi, darling?” said David, feigning innocence. “Moi?” and then he grinned at her and nodded vigorously.

With an inscrutable look on his face, Sasha said, “I’ll bring your order right over.” As he turned around to make the drinks, Gia noticed his shoulders shaking as he laughed to himself.

He approached the table with Gia’s wine and two glasses filled with an elaborate cocktail, layered with a rainbow of colors, and set the glasses in front of them and handed each of them a crane. Raul looked at his drink and then his partner, raised his eyebrows and, shaking his head, said, “David, David, David.”

Gia said, “Raul, this is Sasha. He is truly a master bartender,” and broke out laughing. David and Sasha—and eventually, even Raul—joined in.

Both men tasted the drinks and together said, “Delicious.”

Gia turned the crane between her fingers. “I read that origami cranes grant happiness and eternal good luck. Are you making them for someone?”

“For my partner,” Sasha smiled. “Do you need anything else?”

Until the next snippet, happy reading!