Welcome to the author commentary for Spectral Advocate, the fourth book in the DSA series. I love giving background info on my books, so if there is ever anything you want covered, please don’t hesitate to reach out. SPOILER WARNING is in effect, as I will be discussing what happens in the book.
Let the author commentary begin!
The opening sequence
I’m going to be honest right now. Looking back through Spectral Advocate over the last few days, I did not remember the opening chapter. AT ALL. It actually surprised me that it was there. I always thought the story opened with the scream from Abigail Winslow’s apartment. There’s a reason for that:
That was how the book started in the original draft.
Ben’s childhood, his fear of ghosts, did not exist in that original rendition of the story. Even most of the second chapter didn’t, as the scream was the initial line in the book, and everything ran from there.
So where did the flashback scene come from and why keep it?
If you’ve read the book, you are no doubt aware of the role Ben’s father plays in the background. The big reveal at the end, where Cal Cooper has been seeing Ben’s father this whole time repeating the same phrase of “I’m sorry” over and over again doesn’t get the impact it deserves without the opening sequence.
Symmetry gets thrown around a lot when putting together a novel. Circling back to the beginning definitely strengthens a narrative on a thematic level. That was the reason behind the childhood flashback. Not only would it introduce Ben’s fear of ghosts, something he would have to face in the climax of the novel, but it also played on the dynamic between Ben and his father.
Kenneth Riley has been a figure mentioned briefly previously. This was a chance to build on that, and also foreshadow the revelations to come in Dark Impulses. Even Ben’s conversation with Cal in Chapter Sixteen doesn’t play the same without the flashback at the start of the novel, so that was why it came about and why it stayed.
“I’m sorry.”
I love this moment. It’s nice and ambiguous, leaving the reader to draw their own conclusions about what Kenneth is apologizing for. What has he done to his son that he now haunts him with nothing but regret?
The answers might be in Dark Impulses, or is there something more to it? I’m not saying anything on that front. You’ll have to wait and see.
The better opening
This is something I’ve been thinking about since revisiting the book for this commentary. Overall, I think the original opening focusing strictly on the scream and the situation was probably stronger. Could the flashback have been included somewhere else? Maybe while Ben is waiting for his coffee across from his apartment?
These are the kinds of questions that keep me up at night. I could second guess myself to death over every detail included, or erased, or revised, from the books, but then nothing would ever get published.
The flashback served a purpose and set the tone of the novel. That held its own importance, and I’m glad to have it in the book.
