I've got a problem with my plot - can you help?

Mark Dawson said:

I have a sticky problem with my plot and I'd be grateful for any tips on how I can un-stick it.

My WIP is a novel which is tentatively called The Imposter. Without going into reams of details, it is set in London in the aftermath of WW2. The eponymous anti-hero is a fantasist who, in order to save his skin from the consequences of a confidence trick gone wrong, adopted the identity of a victim of The Blitz before enlisting in the army so that he could remove himself from London. When he comes back, he has embroidered his war record with a citations for bravery (unearned) and made friends with the scion of a local criminal family. The two become close and our hero - through all manner of nefarious goings on - slowly assumes a position of power within the family.

I suppose the short pitch is that it's The Talented Mr Ripley meets The Godfather.

Now - the problem. I need the hero to be uncovered as a fake by one of the subsidiary characters, who then begins to blackmail him. The question I am struggling with is how does the subsidiary character do that? Most of the ideas I have had so far rely on contrivance or coincidence (seeing the hero with someone and then forcing the truth from them, etc). I could have him break into the hero's property where he could find items - fake passports, etc - that might incriminate him, but it's difficult to work out his motivation for doing that.

Any clever suggestions would be very welcome.

Cheers,

Mark
Mark

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You don't make it clear what nationality the character is. What army did he "enlist" in? When did he "enlist"? (During WWII both in US and the UK, the entire male population of the right age group with few exceptions were either drafted or conscripted and a healthy male of the right age who wasn't in the army at the least raised eyebrows unless he was in certain excluded occupations or had an obvious disability. In WWII, it wasn't a matter of choosing to enlist.) How did he adopt this other persons identity? What was the background of the other person? It could have been as simple as running into someone who KNEW the other person; it wouldn't necessarily be difficult.

But you really do need to get the history right. There are a lot of readers who know enough about WWII to catch it if you have it wrong.

HA - thanks. That's an interesting angle.

JR - Thanks, too. I'm pretty good on the history - lots of research, and my previous novel was based in the same period. I haven't gone into too much detail here for fear of a very long post indeed, but some additional information will help. My characters are all British and you are right to pick up my use of enlist - conscripted would be a better choice of words in the circumstances. (You're also right about the scale of conscription but there were plenty of scams to avoid it; for example, crooked doctors were paid to provide spurious medical reasons that prevented men from being conscripted. There were also a reasonably number of conscientious objectors, often marked with white feathers by those who frowned on their politics. But that doesn't apply to my characters.)

The hero assumes the identity of a man of similar age who has been buried and killed by a Luftwaffe bomb. The wheels are oiled by a crooked coroner, who effectively swaps them around: the dead man's identity is assumed and the hero "dies" in the rubble. Once the body is cremated and the papers doctored it would have been difficult to unravel. There are several examples of this happening, not surprising given the chaos of the early days of the Blitz. I suppose it's possible that he could be unmasked by an unfortunate meeting with someone who knew the dead man but that's still a big coincidence in a city of London's size, and I'm trying hard to avoid coincidences as far as I can. Might be that I can't.

(A good point about being careful with the facts - my first novel, The Black Mile, had a lot of detail of the Metropolitan Police in the 40s. I got most of it right, apparently, but was brought up on a couple of points by a policeman who had served in the Met at the time. The peril of setting your historical fiction within living memory...)

Mark Dawson said:

HA - thanks. That's an interesting angle.

JR - Thanks, too. I'm pretty good on the history - lots of research, and my previous novel was based in the same period. I haven't gone into too much detail here for fear of a very long post indeed, but some additional information will help. My characters are all British and you are right to pick up my use of enlist - conscripted would be a better choice of words in the circumstances. (You're also right about the scale of conscription but there were plenty of scams to avoid it; for example, crooked doctors were paid to provide spurious medical reasons that prevented men from being conscripted. There were also a reasonably number of conscientious objectors, often marked with white feathers by those who frowned on their politics. But that doesn't apply to my characters.)

The hero assumes the identity of a man of similar age who has been buried and killed by a Luftwaffe bomb. The wheels are oiled by a crooked coroner, who effectively swaps them around: the dead man's identity is assumed and the hero "dies" in the rubble. Once the body is cremated and the papers doctored it would have been difficult to unravel. There are several examples of this happening, not surprising given the chaos of the early days of the Blitz. I suppose it's possible that he could be unmasked by an unfortunate meeting with someone who knew the dead man but that's still a big coincidence in a city of London's size, and I'm trying hard to avoid coincidences as far as I can. Might be that I can't.

(A good point about being careful with the facts - my first novel, The Black Mile, had a lot of detail of the Metropolitan Police in the 40s. I got most of it right, apparently, but was brought up on a couple of points by a policeman who had served in the Met at the time. The peril of setting your historical fiction within living memory...)

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Of course, you're right that there were scams to avoid conscription. With the extensive damage in major British cities, that kind of swap would not be unlikely or unbelievable. You're right of course that it might seem like a coincidence that he runs into someone who knew the real person, but there was constant movement in Britain of the period. It might surprise me more if he NEVER ran into someone who knew the real person.

As an example of how that might work, if you have ever read Mary Renault's (absolutely excellent) WWII novel The Charioteer, the way Laurie and Ralph are re-united is not in the least unlikely. When Laurie is invited to a party, someone lists people who can give him a ride back to his station. He recognizes a name, and the plot begins to unfold. (For Americans: In the UK, Laurie is sometimes a nickname for Laurence by the way)

It wouldn't have to be seeing each other in the street.

You might put your character in a 'snug' in one of the older pubs.  A snug is/was a private room for drinking and meetings.  It usually had a window up pretty high so someone could overhear your character without being seen.  You might want to do a little research on the pubs of London.  I've been to several that have little rooms or little hiding places that were used long ago for a woman to have a drink away from home (not allowed when some pubs were designed) or for a customer to have some privacy.  You sometimes see a little hole in a wall and find out there is a little room back there and the hole is a pass-through.

Your character might say something, or confess to a dying loved one, or brag to a member of the 'family'

Virtually all crime is solved not by genius, but by someone unable to keep their mouth shut.

Sheila