For author Carol Moreira, writing has never been a conscious decision but a calling she had little choice but to answer. “I’ve always been a writer, just as many people begin life singing or kicking a ball and stay with it,” she shares via email with Celtic Life International from her home in Nova Scotia. “Sometimes I don’t like being a writer – it can be lonely and discouraging, but it is innate. It is how I cope with life, understand it, and communicate with others.”

That blend of self-awareness and persistence reflects some of the compelling themes in Moreira’s latest literary effort, The Pet Sit. A psychological mystery set both in the seaport of Portsmouth, U.K. and the streets of San Francisco, the new narrative explores themes of trauma, secrecy, and ultimately redemption through two women whose paths cross in unexpected ways.

Inspiration for the book came from the author’s real-life experiences with pet-sitting, an endeavor she undertook with her husband, Peter Moreira, author of The Haight Mystery Series. “We work at home, and it can get lonely, so we signed up as pet-sitters,” she explains. “The novel was inspired by a particularly strange house in which there was little privacy. It evoked thoughts of a woman who thinks she has escaped her past, but, of course, she is wrong.”

In the novel, Moreira’s central character returns to her native Portsmouth from America to confront the demons of her former life in the U.K.

“My character Marion was abused as a youngster. Now in her forties, she has fought all her life to become free of her past and live a normal existence. She now lives in the U.S. and is married to a man who doesn’t even know she is British. She has come home to Portsmouth to lay her past to rest but finds that it is not done with her yet.”

Marion eventually meets Paula Moore, a disgraced detective who balances the main character’s vulnerability with gritty defiance. “As a counterweight to Marion, I created Paula Moore, a bisexual detective, who has just been thrown out of her marriage and the police force for attacking a criminal who kicked her police dog. Marion is timid and lacks confidence. Paula is attractive to men and women and is confident in her sexuality, which she uses to her advantage.”

For Moreira, layering her characters and plot with depth and ingenuity is at the core of her craft.

“I like originality and twists and turns in all my novels. I also like it when place and history are properly evoked…”

And, for Moreira, place is never just about scenery.

“Portsmouth also evoked the past in me as I grew up in the British military, and the city is bursting with maritime history.”

But she wanted a second setting to reveal the protagonists’ inner conflicts. “San Francisco seems such a gorgeous, sad city to me. It reflects a lot about my characters’ internal struggles as they get older and find life wondrous yet also deeply painful.”

Capturing and balancing out that depth is key to Moreira’s work on the novel.

“Marion remains deeply traumatized in middle age. It was a struggle to reflect her trauma realistically, and to use a lot of introspection, but make her sympathetic and keep the plot moving along.”

The dynamic between Marion and Paula drives the novel’s themes of gender bias, injustice, and thwarted power. Ultimately, Moreira hopes readers “identify with the two women and their unlikely friendship and ultimate solidarity.”

Although The Pet Sit delves deeply into psychology and trauma, Moreira sticks to the conventions of the mystery form.

“We all love a good puzzle,” she says, adding that she may have another mystery in mind for her female sleuth, Paula Moore, as a sequel in the future. “I am currently juggling another two projects: a novel for teens and a fantasy for adults. Sometimes I find it helps to mix things up.”

Mixing things up shapes The Pet Sit itself, which is more than merely a tale of suspense. It’s a study on identity, trust, and how what unfolds beneath the surface can play out in real life. “We are all fascinated by the dark side of human nature,” notes the author.

Moreira herself continues to fascinate readers, mostly women, of all ages. “This book has themes of abuse and injustice, of powerful men getting away with too much, but women fighting back. It is quite a contemporary story.”

www.carol-moreira.com
@carolmoreirawriter