In her debut novel, Her Father’s Daughter, author Patricia Dunn skillfully weaves together domestic suspense, a desperate police investigation, a love affair and a serial killer on the loose. Dunn’s latest novel makes for a raw, edgy and hard-hitting hero’s journey into a family’s twisted secrets, perfect for fans of Oyinkan Braithwaite and Karen Dionne.
In the following Q&A, Dunn pulls back the curtains on her background and inspiration for the novel.
Tell us about the central conflict in Her Father’s Daughter?
At the heart of the story is a father-daughter relationship. Essentially, a widower and loving father has raised his daughter alone since her mother died three days after she was born. The father and the daughter are both struggling with how to let go. When it comes time to let his daughter finally go off to college, he has trouble letting go. The daughter who runs their family exterminating company is worried that her father may not be okay on his own. A universal situation that many parents can relate to. What makes this father/daughter relationship SPECIAL is that the father is a serial killer. In fact, he hasn’t killed since his daughter was born, but now, well, here we go again….
What inspired you to write this book?
The summer I turned twelve was the summer later known as the “Summer of Sam.” It was 47 years ago, when David Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam, killed my friend’s cousin and her boyfriend around the corner from my apartment. Women with long dark hair were cutting and dying their hair to not fit what was believed to be his target victim. Let’s just say, the summer David Berkowitz, aka the Son of Sam, terrorized my neighborhood was the summer I went through puberty.
What point of view is the story told from and why did you take this unique approach?
The story is told from dual points of view. In five acts the father tells his story, or rather the story of how he met and fell in love with Linda’s mother, and reveals many shocking secrets. The present action of the novel is told from the daughter’s point of view, as she sets out to find her missing father and prove his innocence. I wasn’t sure what I was writing when I started this book. All I knew was when I went to my room to write I was channeling the voice of this serial killer. Soon into Covid, my own father passed away, and I started to relate to a daughter who has lost a father, and in the case of Linda she struggles with the disappearance of her father and of the man she knew to be kind and gentle. For the record, I don’t think my father was a serial killer, but he was kind and gentle and one hell of an exterminator.
Is the main character, Linda Donovan, based on anyone in real life?
I think Linda’s emotional experience came from me. Otherwise, she is more of a composite of many people real and imagined.
Who are your favorite authors and have you drawn any inspiration from them?
I have so many favorite authors, including the members of my writing group that is going on its twenty-year anniversary. In fact, Marcia Bradley, Kate Brandt, Jimin Han and I all have books out this year. And Deborah Laufer who has an extensive body of work, has had additional plays produced and published this year.
Then there are thriller writers Oyinkan Braithwaite, Hank Ryan Phillips, Gabino Iglesias and Tessa Wegert, well, they all inspired me on my less-than-confident writing days, although they intimidated as well. How could I ever do what they do? The one fictional character that I have admired for decades is Thomas Harris’s Hannibal Lecter. Harris gets us to root for this man who eats people for dinner. Okay, so many wouldn’t say they root for him, but I have, at times. I wanted to write a character who, to say the least, is complicated but also a paradox. On one, or many, side(s) you have this loving and caring father, and on the other side, many side(s), you have someone who kills for what he believes furthers his craft as an actor.
Her Father’s Daughter is available on Amazon and anywhere else books are sold.