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DAY 2 GIVEAWAY! The weirdest things I’ve discovered researching a book
One of the many things I love about writing books is that I get to find out about all kinds of weird and wonderful things – and call it work! If a stranger looked at my browser history I dread to think what they’d make of me. I bet (hope) that not many people have researched taxidermy and tried to discover how best to preserve a pair of lips. At the other end of the extreme, discovering the meaning of flowers was fascinating, like learning a new language. Once, it was commonly used, and almost everyone would have known that daffodils meant unrequited love, mistletoe said ‘kiss me’, or wood sorrel represented maternal tenderness. It’s a very genteel language that was great fun to subvert to more sinister use in Flowers For The Dead.
From the language of the past, I was rocketed into the here and now when I discovered it’s possible to turn a mobile phone or any other device with voice recognition software or a microphone into a ‘bug’. That includes televisions that you ‘speak’ to, many laptops and tablets, smartphones etc.
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Sounds like science fiction? It isn’t – and recordings gathered this way have been used successfully in courts of law. Back in 2006, the FBI were trying to gather evidence on a crime family but couldn’t get close enough to them to bug them the traditional way. Instead, they used the family’s devices against them in order to gather recorded evidence, then successfully prosecute in court. These days anyone can do it by buying the right software on the internet. The programme will allow someone to eavesdrop on phone calls, get details on text messages, remotely control the phone using SMS, track the location of the phone with GPS and log the phone’s activities. It will also allow them to use the phone as a listening device and hear what is happening in the surrounding area. Scary stuff!
But probably the most bizarre and tragic thing I’ve come across was while researching for my latest book, HER LAST SECRET. One of the characters suffers from a problem with sleepwalking, and while looking into it, I stumbled across homicidal somnambulism – people who have killed while asleep. I could barely believe it was real, surely it was just a convenient excuse used by murderers desperate to get away with it?
Digging further, I discovered that while that defence hasn’t been used successfully often, there are a handful of cases where the killer has been found not culpable for their actions because they were sleeping.
In 2005, Jules Lowe, 32, of Manchester, made history when he became the first person to be acquitted of murder by virtue of sleepwalking. In October 2003, Jules had come home after a heavy drinking session and fallen asleep. Not long after, he kicked and punched his father, Edward Lowe, 83, to death. Jules had often suffered bouts of sleepwalking, and the London Sleep Centre ran tests and a series of sleep studies on Jules before the trial which proved he suffered from a tendency to experience automatism in his sleep. This supported Jules’s claim that he had no recollection of carrying out the murder of his father, and he was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity. If you want to know more about the case, click here.
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Another example happened in 1987. Ken Parks got into his car and drove to his in-laws’ house 15 miles away, where he bludgeoned his mother-in-law to death with a tyre iron and choked his father-in-law until he passed out. Parks then got into his car again and drove to the police station and confessed…and then he woke up. He was found not guilty of murder – a judgement that was upheld on appeal by the Supreme Court of Canada. To read more about the case, click here.
These real life cases are absolutely tragic, but do serve to show that the old adage ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ is spot on – and it’s why I find research for my novels endlessly fascinating.
GIVEAWAY! How to enter
From 19 November until 30 November inclusive, my posts on this blog will contain a festive reference. Find it, and then either comment on the post or email InvisibleAuthor@outlook.com Every person who answers correctly will be entered into a prize draw. The competition closes on Thursday 7 December. The winners will be chosen at random and announced on Friday 8 December.
So, can you find today’s Christmas reference in this post? Let me know!
What am I giving away?
ONE lucky winner will receive a SIGNED COPY of Her Last Secret and some chocolate to indulge in while reading.
THREE lucky winners will receive a SIGNED COPY of The Darkest Lies and some chocolate to indulge in while reading.
ONE lucky winner will receive a SIGNED COPY of Flowers For The Dead and some chocolate to indulge in while reading.
TWO lucky winners will receive an audio book of Her Last Secret and some chocolate to indulge in while listening.
ONE very lucky winner will have a CHARACTER NAMED AFTER THEM in my next book. *
WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
As well as this competition, check out Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and my website for more ways to enter over the next 12 days. You can enter as many times as you want!
* Please note that the character will have your name but will not be based in any way upon you or any person living or dead. They may be a good person or a bad person – they could even be a killer. So be prepared! The part they play may be large or small. Entry into the competition is taken as agreement to these conditions. Thank you.
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