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10.
AOTW: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was tired of writing stories featuring Sherlock Holmes, so he sent Holmes and Moriarity, locked in a deadly embrace, over a waterfall. The umbrage of his readers was so overwhelming that Doyle, after a decent interval, brought Holmes back. If you were going to dispose of your recurring character, how would you do it? And how would you bring them back if you had a change of heart?
Ian Rankin: I have this mapped out. In the final scene of the final Rebus book, Rebus and his nemesis Cafferty are struggling on a bridge in Edinburgh. The bridge stands over a ravine at the foot of which is a river. They fall into the river and are washed away... If I need to bring Rebus back, he finds himself washed ashore at the coastline a few miles north of the city.
George Pelecanos: The same way they brought Bobby Ewing back on Dallas. It was all a dream.
Nevada Barr: Because of the lesson of Doyle's killing of Holmes I think I'd leave the back door open just in case. I would have Anna walk into the wilderness, bent on losing herself and/or her life. Then, if I had to bring her back, she could be found living in a cave ala the Japanese soldiers who did not know the war was over and were found 20 years later still living in hostile exile.
Ridley Pearson: Well, the question requires a specific device: that is, "killing off" a character without killing him/her. I'm not sure I'd ever do that (bring him back). I have wanted for several years now to get a novel in the safe deposit box that had Boldt either retiring or expiring --- to have it in there in case I did either of the above prematurely. And yet… I'm glad Travis never dies, never quits. I don't intend to either!
Carolyn Hart: Ah, writing the last book in a series... I think Annie and Max will always, in my mind and heart, be young and happy on their sea island. I would write the last Death on Demand book as if there would be another. As for Henrie O, she might find a sea side villa and... Nope. I can't do it. Not even in fun. I'll write them as long as readers read them.
Robert B. Parker: In Doyle's case I think it was not so much the umbrage of his readers as his inability to sell other stuff. I would not kill off a continuing protagonist, and if I did, I would not bring him or her back (though one could always write prequels like Fenimore Cooper)
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