Student Writes Mystery Novel

By Stacey Axler

Psychology major Contessa Carper recently wrote and published a murder-mystery novel titled “Sole Survivor.”

The plot of “Sole Survivor” details protagonist Katherine’s discovery of her birth mother she never knew and the simultaneous finding of information related to the death of her birth father. The novel has developed during the past five years from a short story Carper wrote entitled “Coldest Degree.”

“It originally was a short story I wrote back in 2006. I had this image in my head of a young girl running for her life through the woods and being shot at. Just when she thought she was safe, she got grabbed from behind and abducted. The rest of the story came out of that,” Carper said.

While being a full-time student, Carper wrote a large part of her novel on notebooks in between classes and studies.  She perfected the story-line and detail outside of class in her free time.

A sequel to “Sole Survivor” titled “Fatal Target” will be released this fall.  Carper also hopes to write about her character Katherine in many other novels and stories.

“The first book length draft was finished in 2007. It took about two months to write, another two of intense edits, and a lot of time to sit. I wrote five other novels in the meantime and countless short novels and fan fictions,” Carper said.

Carper hopes to write more stories and her main goal is to one day work for the FBI or in the government.

“It’s kind of a weird sense of relief that [the novel] is finally out there for people to enjoy. At the same time, I know that in a few years I’ll probably have an urge to change and alter [the novel] as my skills improve, but I’m okay with that. I’m proud to have to published,” Carper said.