Image courtesy St. Martin’s Press
Marti Trailor is a mother of three, struggling to keep her marriage from crumbling, striving to get back into the field of social work after stay-at-home mom life, and is on trial — for murder. The progression from mother and wife to homicide suspect is the focus of “Best Intentions,” a new novel from Charlottesville-based author Erika Raskin.
“Best Intentions” is a murder mystery, but it explores issues of class and racial discrimination, holes in the health care system and various hospital policies, and the struggles of balancing domestic life and a career.
The author delves into realistic scenarios. “I think it’s a character-driven novel so I started writing the characters, but I just wove in things that I saw and things that concern me,” Raskin says.
Author Erika Raskin (Photo by Eden Raskin Jenkins)
Set in Richmond, local readers may notice some familiar settings, including the James River, Church Hill and Monument Avenue. In one of many nods to real-life racial tension, Marti references the controversy of adding the Arthur Ashe monument to the historic avenue largely dotted with Confederate figures. Raskin says, “We lived in Richmond during the struggle to keep the civil rights icon off of the street dedicated to the Confederacy. It was ugly and sad, ranging from basic tone deafness about the importance of symbolism, to a deep commitment to a segregated Monument Avenue.”
Race- and class-based tensions are seen in Marti’s struggle to help Tonya Maines, a pregnant young African-American woman who lives in poverty and is receiving insufficient medical care in a system that has all but written her off. Contending with long wait times for doctors’ appointments, unhospitable hospital workers, and less-than adequate medical facilities, Marti is trying to do what’s best for Tonya within the restrictions placed upon her as a hospital social worker.
As the wife of a doctor with a child who suffers from a chronic illness requiring many in-patient stays, Raskin says she’s seen a lot of things that surprised her, ranging from treatment to how overworked the doctors are. “I saw a lot of things that weren’t just social class-related, but bad hospital policy-related.”
As a whole, “Best Intentions” is thrilling, but the compelling characters facing very real and very current issues take the reader on a thought-provoking journey full of twists and turns. “I hope that [this novel] shines a light on some issues and it makes people ask questions,” Raskin says.
“Best Intentions” (St. Martin’s Press) is available Aug. 15.
