Paulson brings PTSD to the forefront in new novel
Joanne Paulson’s newest novel might be classified as something of a “romantic crime thriller,” but that doesn’t mean it can’t also address a pressing problem in modern society.
Paulson’s book Fire Lake is the third in her mystery series that follows the romance between Saskatoon police officer Adam and reporter Grace as they investigate a murder at a northern Saskatchewan lake. Paulson said one of the core themes of Fire Lake is about coping with post-traumatic stress disorder, and how the public perceives it.
“PTSD is a mental health issue that’s very close to my heart, so it was important to me to dive into it a little bit more,” she said. “PTSD is the theme, for the crime solver and for the victims.”
The main thrust of the book came from a personal experience from Paulson’s childhood. When she was younger and visited the lake with her family, her father pointed at a shack across the water, which he said was inhabited by a Second World War veteran dealing with “shellshock” — now commonly referred to as PTSD.
She only met the man in person once, when he came to their beach to share fish that he’d caught. But as Paulson tells the story, she was mesmerized by the veteran.
Some time after that, the shack across the lake burned down. To this day, she has no idea what happened to the man who lived by a lake out in the middle of nowhere — left alone with his demons.
“It’s that lore of your childhood. Sometimes it’s hard to let it go,” she said. “I was fascinated by him — how could you live by yourself in a forest? — and it still blows my mind.”
The theme of dealing with PTSD has already been hinted at in Paulson’s novels. One of the main characters in her book series — the police officer Adam — struggles with the aftermath of being shot on the job. Paulson also introduces a figure based on that veteran she met as a kid, pushing her main characters to confront issues surrounding veterans and PTSD quite directly.
Writing the novels takes a long time, Paulson said — and she’s predicting this will end up being a five-book series, since she’s already deep into the sequel of Fire Lake. That time increases when writing a mystery novel and having to carefully lay out clues — and when she has to weave a deeper and more serious theme into the narrative, she said.
As Paulson puts it, she wants each of her books to touch on something real as they take readers on a thrill ride. For her, Fire Lake can absolutely do both.
“It’s important to me to emphasize that the books are not too heavy to read, but also address issues from my point of view,” she said. “Writing fiction allows you to say things you couldn’t otherwise say.”