When Alyssa was first introduced to the Russian rookie covered in biker tattoos, she could only roll her eyes. Thayer waltzed into her life with his charming charisma, unmistakable accent and flirtatious ways much in the same way he made his own place in the series.
When I first created Thayer, it was under the premise he was going to be a temporary character; to be in the story until Alyssa’s former partner, Dwayne, returned from his undercover mission. But in defeating my expectations, readers fell in love with him. He comes in as an underdog, the underestimated rookie. Even Alyssa fails to take him seriously, but he is stubborn about proving himself as an agent, that he isn’t just a tech analyst. That he can stand beside the best of the best.
But he rose up from adversity when he crashed and lost everything. Little to nothing is known of Thayer in “Belladonna”, since the story focuses on Alyssa’s psychological problems with the case. Since pieces of Thayer’s story don’t come out until “Beyond Dark 2”, let’s focus on what inspired his character in the first book.
I wanted a personality that opposed Alyssa, both to create a bit of conflict and add someone who would display empathy she cannot and use that empathy to understand her, instead of walking away like previous partners have. Thayer was meant to show that she doesn’t experience empathy, and to show her struggle with that in wanting to relate to others, yearning for connection. From this, emerged an endearing, funny, little brother type character who even grows on Alyssa with time despite her constant exasperation with his antics. He often provides the much-needed comic relief between the dark periods.
My beta reader once asked me “Why is Thayer
there??” and I can definitely see how that question comes into play. He seems to randomly placed. But he isn’t. There is a story there. “Belladonna” simply wasn’t the time to make him front and centre. Since he wasn’t supposed to remain in the series, much of his story didn’t get told in “Belladonna” – so stay tuned for more in the coming books.
The exploration of toxic masculinity and breaking free of that is going to be one the themes woven into his character arc throughout the series. Thayer is in a stage of self-discovery and exploration of a new world around him. He doesn’t always feel like he fits in with his new life, hence the cover of humour and charisma. Beneath that, he is sharp, observant and begins seeing beyond Alyssa’s mask when no one else does despite remaining quiet about it. And, well, Alyssa hates someone being able to see her, so accustomed to feeling invisible. When her first instinct is to push Thayer away, he stands his ground; a glimpse into what is under his light-hearted demeanour.
Given that Thayer remained pretty secondary throughout “Belladonna”, this installment of the blog series shall be a short one. However, as I did with Alyssa, here is the Spotify playlist I created for Thayer!
And as always, buy the book here!
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