If, like me, you watched Simon Toyne’s incredible series Written in Blood on CBS Reality last
year, you’ll have discovered that some of the most successful crime novels are
based on real life crimes. I thought the series handled the true crimes very
sensitively – without resorting to sensationalism or gratuitous detail – but I
still felt waves of horror as crimes I’d only ever read about were brought to
life in vivid technicolour detail. The victims weren’t names printed in a
newspaper or faded photographs. They were living, breathing people, until their
lives were so cruelly snatched away.
When I began writing psychological thrillers back in 2011
it didn’t occur to me that authors in my genre might use true crime as a
starting point for a story. My early books were based on my own fears – that an
abusive ex could return and ruin my happiness, a friend could turn against me
or my child might disappear. It wasn’t until my fourth book The Escape that an idea was sparked by a
news story. Like a lot of Bristol residents I follow Avon and Somerset
Constabulary’s Facebook page and one update caught my eye. A woman had gone on
the run with her child instead of taking him to court to hand over custody to
the father. The child was in danger, the police intimated, and members of the
public should ring them if they saw the woman. It wasn’t a particularly unusual
story but what sparked my interest were the comments beneath the post. The
woman wasn’t a danger to her child, her family claimed. She loved him and was
just trying to keep him safe. The story, and the comments, were a starting
point for a psychological thriller about a woman who offers a lift to a
stranger then watches helplessly as she is painted as a bad mother and her life
begins to unravel.
All though the original real life story made the national
news eventually I’d be surprised if anyone other than me (and the family in
question) remember it. The news story I based my current novel The Fear on, however, is definitely one
that will remain in the public’s consciousness for a long time. Without giving too much away about my book I
knew from the beginning that I wanted to write about a dangerous situation
where the woman takes control. Initially I thought the book would be about a
female character who confronts the man she believed murdered her sister
eighteen years ago. It was an ‘ok’ idea but not hugely original. A second idea
struck. What if the man she confronted was the teacher she was involved with as
a teenager? In 2012 I, like the majority of the British public, was gripped by
the news that teacher Jeremy Forrest had run away with his fifteen year pupil
‘Gemma’. The CCTV stills of them walking hand in hand around the ferry to
France were splashed all over the newspapers. As a nation we were gripped by
the story but, after Forrest was caught and sentenced, interest faded. But not
mine. I couldn’t stop thinking about how that situation would impact on the
rest of Gemma’s life. Would she struggle to form relationships with
I knew I had to approach the issue of child grooming sensitively.
I didn’t want my male antagonist to be a two dimensional bad guy. Neither did I
want my reader to blame my female protagonist for what happened. I did a lot of
research into the types of children male predators groom – vulnerable children
mostly, with emotional or mental health issues, often from broken homes. I
considered why my teenaged protagonist might find herself attracted to an older
man. A father figure perhaps? Someone with power or who gave her the attention
she lacked from home? I also drew on my own school days, remembering the way
some of my classmates developed crushes on male teachers. How they’d preen
themselves before class and act coquettish and fey. And on the depth of my own
– sometimes obsessive - feelings towards one of my male classmates. I held the
snapshot of Jeremy Forrest and Gemma holding hands on the ferry in my mind and
imagined what might have happened after they arrived in France. Then I took a
mental leap and made the story bigger, darker and more terrifying. But I was
careful not to be gratuitous or vulgar, closing the door quickly on some of the
more disturbing scenes.
The secret, if there is one, to adapting a true crime
story sensitively, is to hold the victim of the crime in the back of your mind
as you write. That murder victim or groomed child was someone’s daughter, son,
father, sister, mother or friend. Don’t use a real tragedy for titillation or
shock effect. Writers write to try and understand the world, and the people
around them but some true crimes makes no sense. They are brutal, unforgiveable
and heart-breaking. We may never know why the murderer, child killer, rapist or
paedophile did what they did but, by using them as the basis for fiction, we
can at least try.
The Fear by C L Taylor published by Avon is out now.
Sometimes your first love won’t let you go… When Lou Wandsworth ran away to France with
her teacher Mike Hughes, she thought he was the love of her life. But Mike
wasn’t what he seemed and he left her life in pieces. Now 32, Lou discovers that he is involved
with teenager Chloe Meadows. Determined to make sure history doesn’t repeat
itself, she returns home to confront him for the damage he’s caused. But Mike is a predator of the worst kind, and
as Lou tries to bring him to justice, it’s clear that she could once again
become his prey…
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