Shadow Plotting and 3rd Person for Secondary Characters.

I would suggest that if the character is there all along but doesn't become significant until near the end, then you might bring her into the story through some foreshadowing or even brief appearances if warranted by the occasion, but if she doesn't really do anything or is not part of any scene per se until her late arrival, then that would be the place to introduce her. Develop no character before her time so to speak. Just my opinion. Take care. Vern

My only concern about writing using different POV's is the voice--I am myself  struggling with this issue in the novel I'm writing now. If the voices aren't different, then the value added is little. Okay, you gain something because, for example, you narrate a scene from the POV of the only character present. Hadn't you do it that way, the reader wouldn't have learnt about that particular scene. That said, the voices must be different lest the POV-character personality be lost. If the different POVs "sound" similar, the final taste is not that the story was narrated from the perspective of different characters, but that it's the same author "faking" the different characters. While that is actually the case, it must seem it's otherwise.

Kiss,

Gacela

What about Nick Carroway in The Great Gatsby? If the story had been told through Jay Gatsby, we'd have a completely different story: access to his mind, his viewpoint, his goals. By choosing to tell the story through Nick, Fitzgerald adds a great deal of suspense.

I think it's important to consider what effect a POV character will have on the tale, rather than deciding that all stories (or particular scenes) must be told through the viewpoint of the one who has the most to lose. Think about who has the most to lose, sure. But consider how the scene might be either strengthened or weakened depending on who experiences it for the reader. Distance is not always a bad thing.

Yeah, suspense and mystery is part of my consideration for having the 3rd character at the end of the story.  There were odd occurrences that made the characters stop and wonder, and the reader too.  Might end that too soon.  Right before the final chapter, it creates, presently, an 'ohhhh.' as well as "Who the heck is she?"  I might lose that if it's put through the story.

When it comes to this character, until there is a chapter where she plays a major role, that is all that is happening in regard to her--foreshadowing and brief appearances.  There are scenes that, after she is introduced, are altered in one's perception of them.  The true development of her character is in a later book in the series, and the way I'm envisaging it now, we will only know her in this book by a false name she gives herself.  Why I spoke of 'shadow plotting,' is she does quite a bit of off scene stuff, but until the first chapter where she "stars," so to speak (as viewed by a m/c's POV who has played a major role), it is only in brief cameos.  Puzzles for the reader.  That sort of thing.  Right now, I'm leaning toward taking the new chapters, making them into a revised, and elongated, set of chapters at the end that will create the puzzle that will then come back in the 2nd book. 

That decision alone makes me glad I asked this question.

Agreed! I find it easier to consider why something doesn't work than why it does. It's often pretty obvious when it doesn't work: clumpy writing & such. When it does work, I find it's often because the author is so talented the strategy remains beneath the surface. For me, it takes a bit more digging to find it.

(I like what you say about "the storyteller's" point of view. Yes!)