Between The Pages with NV Peacock: Writing inspired by The Golden State Killer

The dark and devious mind of N V Peacock has already fascinated readers with her brilliant thriller, The Brother. Writing from her home in Northamptonshire, Nicky uses her degree in creative writing and love of True Crime to create a twisted blend of graphic gore and stomach-knotting tension building. We decided to go between the pages with her to see where the inspiration for such terrifying fiction comes from, and how she manages to get inside the head of a fictional killer.

The Golden State Killer case inspired this book - what details exactly led to this?

I’m an avid true crime fan and had heard a lot about the Golden State Killer (GSK) case in the US. He had perpetrated decades of rape and murder, yet never been identified. Not uncommon, unfortunately, but investigators and crime writers alike had tried everything to solve this case, but to no avail. It wasn’t until the rather dishy Paul Holes, along with the much-missed Michelle McNamara, came along and really got stuck into the files that movement started to be made. They enlisted the help of a genealogist and, by utilizing a large commercial DNA ancestry company in the US, tracked relatives of the killer. It took time, but eventually they identified a suspect whose DNA was collected and tested against the crime scene evidence – it matched! The killer, although in his 70s, was finally brought to justice; and not just for the Golden State Killer cases, but for many others too. It was a turning point in how we can approach cold cases. Since then, forensic genealogy has not just caught killers and rapists, but also given back identities to Jane and John Does, who long ago had their names robbed from them along with their lives.

The GSK trial happened during the pandemic, and he is now serving a much deserved life sentence. Around the same time, my older brother had sent away his DNA to an ancestry website here in the UK. With my ‘what if’ writer’s brain in full gear, I started to wonder what we might discover lurking in our family tree. I remember saying that, ‘with our luck we’ll probably discover we are related to Jack the Ripper!’ After those words left my mouth, the plot for The Brother began to form, and then like all my books, took on a life of its own.

I certainly wasn’t the first fiction book to tackle forensic genealogy, but with us not practicing it here in the UK (not sure why!) it suddenly made my plot more twisted and clandestine – it’s one thing to be told by law enforcement that you are related to an active serial killer, but to find out then have the police unable/ unwilling to act on this information is another matter in entirely. What would you do? Would you put your life on the line and investigate on your own? Or would you hide your head in the sand and hope that the brother across the table from you at the next family gathering is not who science is telling you he is?

This book is one of Hera’s most gruesome. What was the hardest scene to write? 

The hardest part by far was writing the Cat Hall attacks; especially as they were inspired in part by a nightmare that I’d had myself. A few years ago I was looking to move house and visited a new estate on the edge of town. It was deserted save for a few builders and, although looked nice, in the dark and with no-one living there yet it appeared eerie and a surprisingly easy place to commit any number of crimes. That night, I awoke in a cold sweat having dreamt that someone had kidnapped me and kept in one of the new houses against my will. Maybe it was brought on by the shock of seeing the house prices, or perhaps it was just my dark mind at work, but either way, it was scary. Not being one to waste a good nightmare, I wrote it up as a short story and forgot about it until I started work on The Brother. I needed my protagonist to have had an awful incident in her past that she, and others, partly blame her for, so I adapted my nightmare into hers. When my lovely agent read it, she told me to go darker on it, much darker. Not one who needs to be asked twice to do this, I did, and the full Cat Hall incident was born. Harrowing, hard and haunting, it raises the questions that an ordeal like this naturally would… Why did I survive? Can I ever get past this? Did I do the right thing?

What was it like writing from the perspective of a killer? How did you prepare for this? 

Murderers think differently to the rest of us, so it was difficult at times to write these chapters. I’ve always been fascinated by killers, especially serials, and have watched many documentaries, read psychology books and listened to far too many true crime podcasts, but my mind doesn’t work the same way as someone with no regard for another’s life – fortunately, few do. So I had to find common ground with him, and as I do with all my characters, gift him part of my own personality to do that. I am competitive, just like him. And a bit of a perfectionist (when it comes to myself) I then imbued him with a code that made him slightly more palatable for me to write, and hopefully just palatable enough for readers to have his parts as guilty pleasures in the book to both look forward to reading, but fear, too. Once I had all this down, it was hard to stop wring his chapters!

I actually think the hardest part was writing from a man’s POV. Something I’ve rarely done in the past. I’m very fortunate to have good men in my life, so have met no one who would think like the brother. It was difficult to get the balance right. Men, in general, tend to be hard wired to protect and provide. To me, it’s how those traits are corrupted through life’s journey and overtaken by violence and selfishness that can create bad people; not to forget biological abnormalities – especially those diagnosed as psychopaths. With this in mind, it’s necessary to point out that not every psychopath is a killer and not every killer is a psychopath.

Since genealogy plays a huge role in this fictional case, are there any other real-life cases you think could be helped with this technology and information? 

ALL OF THEM!

Every unsolved case where there is DNA could be helped with this investigative method. I’m stunned that such a revolutionary new crime fighting technique is being ignored by our own country while openly working for another. Yes, there are still some sticky wickets with privacy and data protection, but these unknown criminals have broken an even bigger law by hurting another person – in my opinion, any and every method at our modern disposal should be employed to track them down and take them off our streets to ensure they do not hurt anyone else ever again. From my research, and talking to ex police, I know that familial DNA can be tracked through a national database, but that is only covering a small percentage of the population of people convicted of crimes. Imagine the cases that this could aid if our police force were allowed to work with commercial ancestry companies. And not just catch those responsible for heinous acts, but also give closure to families of the missing and names back to forgotten victims.

I would point out here that, in terms of legal questions and taking these cases to court, I’m not a barrister or solicitor, so there might be issues when it comes to criminal trials, however for unidentified bodies it would seem a bit of a no brainer, who wouldn’t tick that box on a DNA kit to ensure they could be tracked down in case the worst happens to them or someone they love?

Do you have ideas for future crime novels? What can readers look forward to?

Definitely! I’m currently working on several books, however the next one to hit shelves Feb 2024 is The 13th Girl with Hera. This one has everything dear to my heart in—true crime documentaries, mental health, a gruesome serial killer, and a little dash of the paranormal. Told from the POV of a woman trying to get her life back after spending years in a mental health facility, the book explores what it would be like for her to stumble into the path of a dangerous serial killer intent on causing the most damage, and creating the most infamy for his dark deeds. If she finds out who it is, who would believe her? Would you?

Thank you for spending this time with me. Don’t forget to pick up a copy of The Brother and do please remember to leave reviews – we authors appreciate every one we receive.