Depth of Despair (22 page)

All authors approach writing a book differently. Some think up the whole plot before they set a word down. Others sit in front of either a blank screen or sheet of paper. If I had to say which of those is closer to my approach I'd say the latter.
Depth of Despair
is a fair example of what I mean. I started with only the idea of an angler fishing a skull from a tarn. I even had a stretch of water in mind. But that was all. The rest of the plot was organic, if you'll pardon the pun.

At the beginning of every work of fiction there's a disclaimer about the characters and events being purely fictitious. Well, that's certainly true of the characters in
Depth of Despair.
Unfortunately, the incidents described are based on fact. Okay, so they didn't happen in Yorkshire; or at least I hope not.

When I was researching
Depth of Despair
I was horrified to find that every one of the crimes perpetrated by the villains in the book was mirrored by events in real life. In fact, I shrank from portraying worse deeds. Everything is there for anyone to read: the trafficking, the prostitution and the organ removals.

When Zena quotes statistics regarding the scale of human
trafficking
, those figures came from official reports. When she cites individual cases, they are from real life.

I wish it were otherwise. If that had been so, this book would never have been written. I would have willingly paid that price for the events not to have happened. But they did, and once I'd learned it, I was compelled to continue. If you think that was easy, think again. Whilst I was writing some of the more harrowing passages, particularly those relating to the ordeal of the victims, I found myself unable to sleep. Nash's nightmare about being attacked by scythe wielding surgeons stems from a nightmare I endured.

Bill Kitson
2009