Hunting down the friends and relatives of a traitor

[bunn]

Anyone any thoughts on who's job this might be in 197AD??

Say the friend / relative has vanished from his usual haunts and is living quietly, but is not actually going into exile outside the Empire.  Would anyone come looking for him?

Comments

[bghost.livejournal.com]

Oh, definitely. I've killed sympathetic villains before, and it's always interesting to give the hero something to feel bad about. I had a hero who had to kill someone who had been conspiring to murder him, and destroy his deep cover in the Mob - caused him trauma for the whole rest of the book, because he had considered him a friend. Go, kill your villain! Make your readers weep for him. Scar your hero. Sounds really good.