Sure, writers are often instructed to "murder our darlings," but Owen was such a darling! He was never the star of my "librarian on the run" series for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, but he was a featured player. Six foot-two or -three, tawny hair, eyes variously described as the color of the sky over Huntington Beach, the color of faded denim, the cerulean blue of new hydrangeas, the - well, you get the idea. He even wore the sleeves of his crisp cotton shirts rolled up to show muscled forearms, and gentlemen, in case you're not aware, that's a look we ladies love. And Owen wasn't just good to look at - he was good inside! He resisted the charms of his WITSEC charge, Lori, for eight years, despite her relentless flirting and sometimes cringe-worthy pleading for a kiss - or more - to take the edge off the loneliness of nights on the run. Owen gave up his beloved job and went rogue in an effort to free Lori from her servitude toward the Feds. He even left her a good hunk of dough in his will - after taking care of his parents, of course.
But Owen had to die, and I'm the one who killed him.
Oh, I teased for a bit. Lori first meets Owen - and experiences his kindness and courtesy - in one of the few "librarian" stories not originally published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, "Perfumes of Arabia." He's a nice guy, but Lori - known to us then as "Juliet" - is still smarting from betrayal by her one-time fiancé, cartel boss Mateo Andres. In the next few stories, Owen is mentioned, but only peripherally. Lori - now known as "Cam" - is busy making a fool of herself over the handsome and happily married Detective Antonio Morales in "No Legacy So Rich," and Owen is standing by to pick up the pieces when Lori then falls into the arms of a murdering lawyer in "A Heaven or a Hell." Throughout the series, Lori sometimes references the time Owen saved her by strangling a paid killer with his bare hands. We also know he gave her an expensive folding knife because she hates guns, despite having aced her lessons from Detective Morales. Owen doesn't play a major part in every story, but the bond between the two is growing. In "It's Not Even Past," Lori blows her cover and explodes the tidy life she's constructed for herself. Owen whisks her out of town, but not before Lori puts both her mother and Detective Morales' family in jeopardy, causes her dog to be murdered, and loses everything she has - job, friendships, apartment - once again. Lori really has no one left to lean on but Owen, who will share a beer with her and hint at "maybe someday," but who would never dream of taking advantage of the marshal/witness power differential.
Lori's next adventures take place in a beach town in South Carolina. Owen is very much a part of "Sonia Sutton's" lonely life, but at the end of "Into the Silent Land," he tells her he is being reassigned, and at the end of "A New Weariness," she learns that he is dead.
Or is he?
When I turned the story in to my editor at EQMM, she told me it was the best one yet, and then she exclaimed, "but Owen's not really dead…is he?"
Hmmm. I gave her a sphinx-like smile and hoped she didn't realize that I didn't actually know, myself.
Since the reader had not actually seen Owen die, but had only heard about it third-hand, the possibilities were endless. Indeed, in "Not With Hibiscus, but With Blood," Lori, now living as Dana Kane, is surfing a little and drinking a lot on the Hawaiian island of Maui. She comes to believe that Owen is very much alive…
He's not. He's dead, although it takes some pretty brutal dialogue to convince her.
I hated to do it, but it was necessary. Owen represented safety and security for Lori; though she's very bright and pretty damned courageous, Owen was always there to bail her out in an emergency. He snatched her out of harm's way more than a few times. But as Lori's character developed and became ever more cynical, streetwise, and resourceful, the safety net represented by Owen began to hold her back. If the reader - and Lori herself - could trust that Owen was always there in the shadows keeping a watchful eye on her, how could she truly evolve into the fully-realized character I'd imagined? I didn't want Lori to end up answering phones at Owen's private detective agency or folding his laundry in the basement of a suburban ranch house. 
Lori's next adventures, "Where Speaking Fails" and "Traveller from an Antique Land," take place back in L.A. Speaking is the final story in the collection, and the second that did not first appear in Ellery Queen. Lori is no longer in witness protection but still in hiding from her past. She hits bottom and begins to recover with the help of her friends. No love, no romance…but wait. In the next installment, coming sometime in 2026, Lori discovers that Owen had a younger brother…and he's missing. Stay tuned!
***
Anna Scotti has recently been a finalist for the Derringer, Thriller, Claymore, and EQ Readers Choice Awards, as well as for the Macavity (for Schrödinger, Cat in 2023). Stories from Scotti's "librarian on the run" series for Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine have been recorded for Rabia Chaudry's The Mystery Hour podcast and have been selected for Best Mystery Stories of the Year three times (Mysterious Press 2022, 2024, 2025). In June, Down & Out Books will release all of the "librarian" stories as a collection entitled "It's Not Even Past."
Scotti also writes young adult fiction, literary fiction, and poetry. Her work can be found in journals ranging from The New Yorker to Lunch Ticket, Nimrod, and Chautauqua. Learn more at annakscotti.com
I really enjoy the Librarian on The Run mysteries. And anyone who lives with two Pekingese is a hero in my book (no pun intended.) So temperamental.
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