This time last weekend I was enjoying the company of 400 of my closest friends (and I do mean that literally) at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference. Among them was today's guest D.B. Tait.
In another life Tait is probably better known as erotic romance writer, Keziah HIll, but, like me, she is turning to a life of crime or at least, romantic suspense! Born and bred in Sydney Australia, DB Tait is a life long lover of books in all forms but crime fiction in particular. She worked for many years in the criminal justice system before deciding a tree change was need, so decamped to the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. Now she writes and works part time in the community sector. Her first full length novel, Cold Deception, was published by Momentum, the digital first line of Pan Macmillan in March 2015. Her next novel Desperate Deception will be published in October 2015.
With her background in the criminal justice system, she is ideally placed to write crime fiction. Can't wait to read this one!
Crime
and Punishment for Beginners
When writing a contemporary romantic
suspense novel, world building is as important as it is for historical novels
or science fiction. My second full length novel to be released in October 2015,
Desperate Deception, is set in the
Blue Mountains where I live and deals with themes relating to imprisonment and
crime.
I worked for quite a number of years in the
New South Wales prison system so I thought in writing this book, and the
previous book in the series, Cold
Deception, that I had already in my mind what I needed to bring the stories
to life. I would just need to ransack my memories.
But memory is faulty. Parole details,
sentencing details, what someone who has been arrested and denied bail might
experience in the van on the way to jail, were all aspects of my story I had to
re-remember and fact check. I’m lucky that I have contacts in the prison system
still (no, not that kind of contact!) so some things were easier than others to
get right.
I also have a couple of handy criminal
lawyer friends who can ensure the legal details are correct.
But I needed to get the feel of a criminal
court trial. I’m not sure if this falls into the category of a Fun Friday Fact,
(since it’s a bit depressing) but an online resource that is useful for getting
the flavour of a criminal court in NSW and how a Judge summarises a whole
criminal case at the point of sentencing, is the Case Law site (previously
Lawlink) https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au
Here you can find Judges’ sentencing comments on a range of legal matters.
These sentencing comments are often bleak and terrifying in their ordinariness
- dry accounts of often awful and pathetic crimes.
They are a gold mine for a crime writer,
fascinating in their detail of both the law and the circumstances of the crime.
But has I read them, I feel like a voyeur into the lives, not only of the
perpetrators, but of the destroyed victims, both living and dead. Some Judges,
amid the dry discourse of case law, express poignant sympathy and regret for
those left living, providing a glimpse of humanity in what is frequently a
monolithic and cruel legal system.
These small shards of light in sentencing
comments are the moments when my crime writer mind expands with possibilities
for stories. I wonder about the victims, the perpetrators and what happened
that brought them so disastrously together. What was going on in their minds
and in the minds of those tasked with bringing the perpetrators to justice? Showing
that, bring it to life, is the essence of a good crime story.
ABOUT COLD DECEPTION
Secrets, lies, deception. That’s
what it takes to stay alive.
At 20, Julia Taylor went to
prison for murdering a man who deserved it. Ten years later, she’s ready to put
the past behind her and get on with her life. But someone won’t let her.
Someone will do anything to drive Julia away, including murder.
As the body count rises, Julia is
forced to accept the help of Dylan Andrews, a cop with dark secrets of his own.
Unfortunately help has a cost. Dylan is digging into Julia’s past, uncovering
secrets she is desperate to keep.
Julia must keep Dylan at a distance, or else risk her own safety, and
the safety of everyone she loves …
Read an Excerpt from Cold Deception
Dylan Andrews led the struggling woman away
from the Council building, across the square and to the wisteria covered picnic
area. Grey and bare, the twisting vine hung down in a dense veil, providing
minimal cover from prying eyes. Luckily few people were around on this freezing
morning.
“What’re you doing? Let me go!”
Through her struggles Dylan could see she was
still gasping for breath and shaking. The dark circles under her eyes stood out
in stark relief against the complete whiteness of her skin.
“Sit down,” he ordered. “You’re having a panic
attack. Just sit there and breathe.”
She collapsed on a bench and leaned against the
stone picnic table.
“I’ll be alright in a minute,” she said in a
small voice.
He stared down at her, irritated with himself
and his reaction to her. Everything he knew about Julia Taylor indicated she
wasn’t the run of the mill ex-crim, yet his hackles rose when he was around
her. He knew he wouldn’t have to keep an eye on her like most crims first out
of jail. She wasn’t a user and murderers had a low recidivism rate. Many people
thought her crime was justified and there was certainly no doubt the pedophile
priest was no loss to the world.
That was the problem. She didn’t have the right
to make that decision. No one did except a court of law. Sure, she’d been young
and foolish, but he’d seen first hand what out of control vigilantism did. Some
nights the vision of Dale Rowe’s dismembered limbs still visited him ….
Her breathing returned to normal and some
colour appeared in her face. No doubt about it, the Taylor women were stunners.
Blossom was a carbon copy of her mother, but the woman in front of him was
equally compelling. Instead of dark and petite like the other women in her
family, Julia was taller with round curves, pale skin and chocolate-honeycomb
hair. She pulled off her woollen beanie and strands of gold flashed in the
filtered winter sun. Looking into her eyes he could get lost in all that riot
of colour. What were they? Green, hazel, brown? Large eyes filled with pain and
something else. Something he didn’t want to think too much about.
Yearning. That’s what it was.
Not surprising, he supposed. You don’t spend
ten years in jail without yearning for freedom. But wanting was a double edged
sword, as he knew only too well. What you wanted wasn’t always good for you.
He sat in on the bench opposite her, aware his
size intimidated her. That was okay in some situations but not in the midst of
a panic attack. He watched her scrub her hands over her face and push back her
mane of hair. Pulling her scarf free from around her neck she took in a deep
breath and let it out.
The skin of her neck was creamy and pale. He
couldn’t help following that track of smoothness down toward her buttoned
shirt. It was a little too tight and the first button pulled, stretching to
open.
He gave himself a good mental slap. Of all the
women in the world to lust after, this was not the one. Apart from the fact she
was just out of jail; was suffering from a bad transition to the real world and
he might have to arrest her sister at some stage, there was something about her
he knew was dangerous. Not dangerous for others, just for him. Under that tough
persona he could see she was too vulnerable, too lost.
“Do you want me to get you some water?” he
said.
She shook her head.
“How often does it happen?”
She finally met his eyes and he saw wariness
had replaced yearning. Good. She needed to be on guard.
“Just when I come across a crowd of people in
an enclosed space. I thought I was over it. I guess I’m not.”
“You had one yesterday when I bought Blossom
home. There wasn’t a crowd there.”
Hard bitterness leached into her eyes.
“I wasn’t expecting to see a cop on my doorstep
so soon after getting out. You reminded me of someone.” She wounded the scarf
back around her neck and stood up. “Thanks for saving me,” she said with a wry
smile. “It’s a first for me.”
“Being saved?”
“Being saved by a cop.” She crammed her beanie
back on her head as the wind pricked up. “I’m okay now. Time for another go.
This time I’m prepared.” She turned toward the Council Chambers.
When she was half way across the square he
called after her.
“Who do I remind you of?”
She stopped and turned back toward him.
“The cop who punched me in the gut then pushed
me into a filthy police cell the night I was arrested. He didn’t rape me. He’d
done that already to the woman in the cell next to me. I was lucky, wasn’t I?”
She shrugged. “He went on to big and better things, though. Quite a business
man in more ways than one.”
She lifted
her hand and saluted him then went on her way. A chill, colder than the icy
wind, settled into his bones as he watched her go.
Links to your favourite digital bookshop where
you can buy Cold Deception are here http://momentumbooks.com.au/books/cold-deception/
You can also pre order Desperate Deception here http://momentumbooks.com.au/books/desperate-deception-dark-mountain-2/
and Twitter https://twitter.com/DBTait
