Background Information

What inspired it?

The book started life as a short story, The Sophomore Killings and after reading it, my younger brother, Phil threw it back in my face and said words to the effect of, "this should be a novel not a short story, I want to read more of it." It was one of the few times we were both in agreement and so I set to doing the rewrite. I discovered early on that my murderer was in fact an intriguing character and decided to turn him to the light side and brought in a new character who became my murderer. I won't mention names!
I think the primary influences were films such as The Silence of the Lambs, Seven and The Bone Collector along with movies like 28 Days. I wanted something that had the darkness of a serial killer novel but not a book that dragged the reader into a pit of despair and self loathing. It follows then that Lisa had to be a strong willed character who was able to meet the Slasher head on and yet she had to have a certain vulnerability. We all hide behind masks as we grow older. The masks may even change depending on the situations in which we find ourselves and so Lisa was born.
Luke came about as a result of me, the writer wanting to get close to Lisa. She held herself aloof from me and yet using the character of Luke I was able to get close enough to touch her in ways she hadn't been touched before. He has a boyish innocence but is also a little naive when it comes to Lisa and indeed affairs of the heart. He acts as a useful counterpoint to Lisa and Jack. He believes strongly in what he is doing and with the arrogance of youth also thinks he can change the world although just lately he has discovered he isn't as invulnerable as he first thought.
Jack had to become part of the story, his dark humour helps to spice the book up a little, he has secrets he wouldn't even tell a priest, even if he was getting his toenails pulled out. In a sense he is almost evil. Scarred by life and his addiction to hard drugs and fast living Jack reminds me of many people I met over the years who could have been better people if they had let someone close and in that respect I think there is a little of Jack in all of us.
It's hard to say what motivated me to write The Boston Slasher, I had been a fan of American cop shows. I felt at the time that there weren't enough genuine female heroes out there and I've always been a sucker for a book or movie/tv series that has a strong female lead. The internal monologue by the way was something that came out of the blue when I had writer's block I think, it seemed to work and allowed me to get inside Lisa's head and she hates someone being in her head.
I could have chosen an Australian city instead as I was living in Melbourne when it was originally written. But Boston was chosen using cutting edge scientific technology. You take a map of the USA, hang it on the wall and picking up a pin, you close your eyes tightly and stab the map. The nearest big city to your mark becomes the setting for your book! As you can see, I was sort of aiming for New York but the barking of the dog distracted me.
Umm, sorry Boston but that's the way the cookie crumbles.
Lisa is an important character to me. I know what she'd wear and if she'd wear a white mini skirt. She might wear a white mini but only if it was one of those high brow functions and even then she'd be constantly pulling it down to show less leg. And as Lisa doesn't really do high brow functions the chances of her wearing a white mini are minimal.
I think my primary reason for writing The Boston Slasher however is the same one that has motivated writers from Tolkien and CS Lewis through to the present day.
No one writes the books we want to read so we have to write them ourselves!
Hope you enjoy the book.
Alastair


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BACKGROUND HISTORY

What inspired it?