How True Crime Podcasts Inspired my Dual Timeline Mystery

March 10, 2023 | By Women Writers Women Books | 1 Reply More

How true crime podcasts inspired my dual timeline mystery The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell

In December 2022, Chris Dawson, a former PE teacher and rugby league star was sentenced to 24 years in prison by the New South Wales Supreme Court in Australia for the murder of his wife decades earlier. Although Lynette’s body has never been found, The Teacher’s Pet podcast shone a light on Chris Dawson’s sordid affair with a pupil from the school where he worked, the obsession with her that followed, and the disappearance of his wife. Release of the podcast hosted by Hedley Thomas in 2018 finally persuaded the police to reinvestigate the case and charges were brought.

I became hooked on true crime podcasts in early 2020. At that time, I was living in a remote town in the north west of Uganda and volunteering at a nearby refugee settlement. The power supply was very unreliable and cuts happened most evenings at eight o’clock. With no light to read by, I was often in bed and under my mosquito net around the same time.

The nights were long and hot so I spent many hours listening to the podcasts I’d downloaded at a local hotel. I developed a fascination for crime stories from around the world but it was the series podcasts that allowed me to tune into the twists and turns that created crucial listening. It occurred to me I could learn something from the way podcasts were put together that could inform the plotting of my own fictional writing.

Prior to leaving for Uganda, I had established a regular writing routine which meant getting up early to focus on a writing project before the working day started. I hoped to continue this routine while living overseas but the demands of volunteering on the settlement and the inconsistent electricity supply put an end to that ambition.

Power in the town kicked in for about 40 minutes at seven in the morning, and at that time there was always a rush to prepare for the day ahead where I worked with colleagues to improve the social and emotional well-being of refugee families fleeing conflict in South Sudan. It was challenging and rewarding work which left little headspace for creativity. Instead, I became absorbed in the refugee stories I collected as part of my work, and the podcasts I listened to each evening. With a wealth of material stored away, I was empowered to write again following repatriation to my home in Dorset, UK due to Covid-19.

Bubbling at the back of my mind was a novel which used a podcast as a mechanism to investigate an unsolved crime. I read a couple of books which had used this device including Sadie by Courtney Summers and decided to give it a try. The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell is a dual timeline mystery which will be published by Bloodhound Books in July 2023. It’s the story of a journalist who is made redundant and rediscovers her purpose by developing a true crime podcast into the 1979 disappearance of a sixteen-year-old girl from a school they both attended. The shambolic police investigation came to nothing but rumours continue to circulate in the West Country town. Early podcast episodes draw large audiences and when an unexpected source comes forward, vitriolic accusations against a teacher gain momentum.

The many and varied podcasts I’ve listened to have acted as research in creating my entirely fictional text. Gems of detail, serendipitous findings and interviewing techniques have added colour and texture to the story. The real-life motivation to commit crimes has caused me to reflect on what drives my characters. Podcasts detailing cases in the seventies and eighties have helped me to reimagine the norms of the time and give voice to my protagonist. The setting, the characters and the plot are all very different from the events in The Teacher’s Pet and may be seen as a counterpoint to the crime Chris Dawson committed. To find out more, you’ll have to wait until publication of The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell in July 2023. In the meantime, you might like to listen to a few true crime podcasts. If so, I recommend the following:

Finding Cleo is hosted by CBC’s Connie Walker. She follows a search for a young Cree girl who was taken by child welfare workers in the 1970s as part of a programme of adoption into white families across North America.

Sweet Bobby is a podcast series from Tortoise which investigates a case of catfishing, where a person assumes a fake social media identity to lure a woman into an online relationship.

Fake Heiress from the BBC documents the highpoints and pitfalls of Anna Delvey’s daring attempt to con New York society into believing she is about to inherit millions.

Paradise from the BBC gets to the truth of missing couple Peta and Chris who left home in 1978 to travel the world but came to an untimely end off the coast of Guatemala.

The Teacher’s Trial is created by journalist Hedley Thomas of The Australian and follows the earlier series The Teacher’s Pet by reporting on events at Chris Dawson’s trial.

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Novelist, poet and scriptwriter, Gail Aldwin has been writing for over a decade. Her first two coming-of-age novels where shortlisted in the Dorchester Literary Festival Writing Prize 2020 and 2022. Gail was awarded a creative writing PhD in 2018 and still laughs whenever she’s called Doctor Gail. She has appeared at Bridport Literary Festival, Stockholm Writers Festival and the Mani Lit Fest in Greece. Her dual timeline mystery The Secret Life of Carolyn Russell will be published by Bloodhound Books in July 2023. When at home, Gail writes by a window overlooking water meadows in Dorset.