I'm very pleased to welcome author Rachel Abbott to the blog today!
Rachel is the author of four novels, her new book is called Stranger Child, and she is here to tell us about the kind of research that goes into her writing.
I've read and reviewed two of Rachel's novels so far, Only the Innocent and The Back Road, and enjoyed them both very much (click the titles to read my reviews).
A thrilling
line of research
by Rachel Abbott
One of the aspects of writing that I have
always thoroughly enjoyed is the research. My husband has said frequently that
a police raid must be imminent as I scour the Internet to discover methods of
killing people, and learn about money laundering, drug distribution and people
trafficking. Fortunately I can prove – through my books – that it really has all been in the line of research.
I don’t know how writers managed before the
Internet came along. I know there is much you can do in libraries, but when you
are researching a thriller it’s hard to know where in any respectable library
you might find out how to manufacture liquid nicotine, and where best to inject
it to cause death.
When I sit down with an idea for a book, I
usually start with a ‘what if?’ question. ‘What if a woman had no choice but to
murder a man?’; ‘What if a man is so obsessed with his wife that he has to…’
(I’m not going to finish that sentence – it gives the game away in one of my
books.)
From that initial question, I start to develop
the plot. What has happened to these people to bring them to where they are
now? As the ideas develop, I start to build character profiles and a timeline
of events.
Even these first steps, which I believe are
crucial to forming a picture in readers’ minds, require research. When I
develop a character profile, I have an idea of what a character might look
like. But that’s not enough. I want an actual
picture so I don’t lose sight of them. I scour web images, looking for anybody
– a star, a model or just somebody’s mum – that fits the bill. That image is
pasted into the character profile, and I find other items to add to their
portfolio – where they live, what clothes they wear, what they like to drink,
and so on.
The timeline creates its own research list. In
Stranger Child, Tom – the main
detective in all my books – is reminiscing about his youth with older brother,
Jack. I check the timeline to confirm when they were both born. What music
would they have been listening to in their teens? I trawl through the charts
for that year, and decide which brother would have liked which tracks.
All of this is valuable research, but for Stranger Child I had to go one step
further – although I actually bottled it when it came to one part of the investigation.
But I’ll come to that shortly.
In Stranger
Child one character has to go into a safe deposit vault buried deep under
the streets of Manchester in the middle of the night – with no light other than
a head torch. For me, this would be a terrifying experience, but to make it as
realistic as possible I needed to know how it might feel. So I phoned up a
company (they wish to remain anonymous) and asked if I could have a tour.
Of course, I went during the day when the
lights were on and it was full of people. But I stood in the centre of the room
and tried to imagine I was there on my own, and it was pitch black. As it’s
underground, there would be no ambient light, and the sounds from outside would
be muffled.
There’s a viewing room where people take their
boxes to add or remove items, and I imagined how it would feel to know that
somebody might be hiding in there, waiting for me. I had to make others feel how
I knew I would have felt, with an authenticity that couldn’t have been achieved
without a site visit.
And now for the bit where I have to admit to
being a wimp! Stranger Child references
the Dark Web. For those who may not know much about the Dark Web it’s part of
the Deep Web (an area of the internet that cannot be found through search
engines). There are several reasons why websites and other content might
legitimately not want to be accessed via search engines, but the Dark Web is the
part of the Deep Web associated with the buying and selling of anything from
guns and drugs to credit card details. Some use the terms Deep and Dark
interchangeably, but my research suggests that there is a subtle difference. Neither,
though, is readily accessible.
This was a vital part of my story, so I
researched how to penetrate the Dark Web. It must be possible, or there would
be no market for the illegal goods sold there! And I managed it. I actually know how to get into the Dark Web. But the
truth is, I didn’t have the guts to try it.
Given the amount of attention being given to
cyber crime by Europol and other agencies, for the first time since I started
writing I was actually afraid of completing my research by visiting any of the
sites. What if I stumbled across some seriously illegal activities? What if,
entirely by mistake, I bought a gun, or found I had inadvertently bought a
stack of bitcoin?
So unlike my quest for creating the realism of
the vault, I relied on the fact that I knew a lot about the dark web without,
thankfully, ever having visited it. And I assumed most of my readers would know
no more than me.
Research for Stranger Child was fascinating, but with each book, I seem to have
to delve deeper into dark worlds. So if you hear I’ve been arrested, it was all
in the interests of authentic research.
About 'Stranger Child'
One Dark Secret. One act of revenge.
When Emma Joseph met her husband David, he was a man shattered by grief. His first wife had been killed outright when her car veered off the road. Just as tragically, their six-year-old daughter mysteriously vanished from the scene of the accident.
Now, six years later, Emma believes the painful years are behind them. She and David have built a new life together and have a beautiful baby son, Ollie.
Then a stranger walks into their lives, and their world tilts on its axis.
Emma’s life no longer feels secure. Does she know what really happened all those years ago? And why does she feel so frightened for herself and for her baby?
When a desperate Emma reaches out to her old friend DCI Tom Douglas for help, she puts all their lives in jeopardy. Before long, a web of deceit is revealed that shocks both Emma and Tom to the core.
They say you should never trust a stranger. Maybe they’re right.
About Rachel
Rachel Abbott was born just outside Manchester, England. She spent most of her working life as the Managing Director of an interactive media company, developing software and websites for the education market. The sale of that business enabled her to take early retirement and fulfil one of her lifelong ambitions - to buy and restore a property in Italy.
But even in Italy the winters can be cold and wet, and so Rachel decided to fill those dismal days by fulfilling another ambition - writing a psychological thriller! ONLY THE INNOCENT, her first novel, was more successful than she could ever have imagined, and it enabled her to change her life yet again, and become a full time writer. Her third novel, SLEEP TIGHT, was released on 24th February 2014 and was her third number one. Stranger Child, Rachel's latest book, was released on 24th February 2015.
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