Q&A Forum - June/July 2015

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You mentioned in your book that the Hilda Mansell character was based on an actual criminal case in the 1960’s where a husband was found dead while being bound and gagged in his wife’s bathroom with her (deposit) found in his mouth and cigarette burns on his body. I was not aware of that and I’ve just started doing my own research on this. I found two cases, one in the 70’s and one in the 80’s, one in New Jersey and one in California, that were similar to the one you described but I couldn’t find the details. In both instances the wife was set free because the authorities determined the accidental death to be the result of consensual kinky sex between a wife and her husband but I could not find any details of what the kinky sex involved.

If either one of these cases is the one you referred to then you have it backwards. Instead of the author being influenced by the criminal case, if you look at the timeline, both criminal cases that were dismissed might have been the result of the book because they occurred after the book was published.