When Reality Is Too Strange To Make It Into Your Novel ‹ CrimeReads

I call this Red-Lining Reality, because these are things editors put a red line through; readers won%u2019t find them believable. My family travelled to Italy a few years back. We were going anyway, but this conveniently provided me with information for the story I had in mind for my fourth book, Cecilian Vespers, about the murder of a renowned theologian. Some of the clues related to the lives of long-dead saints, including Saint Philomena. I'd never heard of her till I began my research.