Sometimes Evil Drives A Minivan

The title comes from a Desperate Housewives episode, a program that has exemplified to great effect the idea that evil doesn’t just come in the form of dictators, suicide bombers, corrupt governments, or disasters, but rather, that evil subsists among the ordinary and the mundane. It’s an every day occurrence and it walks among us, in the suburbs and the cities, as our co-workers, friends, neighbors, and even as our own family members. Those same universal themes are at the crux of my novel, Shades of Darkness, Shades of Grace.

An episode titled, “That’s Good, That’s Bad” perfectly captures this theme as nearly everyone on Wisteria Lane is confronted with acts of malice that force decisions, just as the Pierson family debates how to deal with a former family member’s brutal and continuous assault in Shades of Darkness. Ultimately, everyone makes choices of how to approach the evil within their lives, and none are without consequence.

For the Desperate Housewives, Lynette and Bree make the most difficult choices. When Lynette Scavo catches her boss, Nina, in an amorous embrace with a fellow co-worker, she tries to use the...