Keywords

This denotes moments where characters appoint themselves to punish a crime (real or imagined). BR

Any payoff to law enforcement or other institution to circumvent the strictures of the law. In The Reivers Lucius Priest refers to this as "blackmail" (112). This is meant ironically. JB

When someone communicates by means of something other than words (written or spoken); for example, the envelope full of money Boyd wants Ike to give his mistress, or the verbena that Drusilla leaves on Bayard's pillow.

For references to items in newspapers that aren't exactly news articles - "agony advice columns," for instance (in "Miss Zilpha Gant"), or obituaries, or similar items. JBP

To capture when an animal "talks" - for example, when the narrator of "Race at Morning" says the lead dog Eagle "said, 'There he goes'" when he saw the deer. Here the narrator translates the dog's baying into words, but that isn't necessary with this term. It's for when communication occurs between species, probably always between an animal and a person. SR

I created this term in response to the local legend of Melisandre Backus Harriss that Chick inherits in "Knight's Gambit."--LW

I'm thinking of the times when someone enters a community who is unknown and the collective community has suspicions about this character. A clear example would be Lena Grove. (jj)