Depth of Deception

Ten Things You Didn't Know About 'Depth of Deception (A Titanic Murder Mystery)'

If you've been following along the Virtual Book Tour, you may have read that 'Depth of Deception' was originally inspired by a tabloid headline or that the first draft was originally written as an entry in the International 3 Day Novel Contest. But here are ten things you may not know about 'Depth of Deception'.

1. I chose to set Depth of Deception in 1982 because there needed to be some Titanic survivors who would remember who was on the ill-fated ship. Also, I needed it to be in a time when DNA was not commonly known. It had been discovered by 1982 but not used for identification until 1987. At that time, computers and mobile phones were not very powerful, rare and very expensive, thus not available to the average consumer. The newest communication gadget in 1982 was the fax machine. This allowed the characters to remain unaware of certain things for longer periods of time.

2. There are many twists and surprises as the mystery unravels. However, one of the twists was so sudden that I didn't see it coming. I was typing away and suddenly... I killed off a character. In my notes, they were supposed to live to the end. Now they were dead. Of course, the easiest thing to do would be to backspace and delete that last sentence. But I couldn't. I stared at it. It made sense. It was essential. It threw doubt onto who was good and who was bad. I had to take a break and sort out the consequences of that twist.

3. In the novel, the century-old unsolved murder is based on a historic case, where an innocent man was convicted of committing the crime and spent years in prison until Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author and creator of Sherlock Holmes, came to his aid and helped prove his innocence. I had this historical fact in an early draft of the novel, but most people who read it found it difficult to believe. Everyone seemed to feel it was too contrived to have the writer of the greatest detective coming to the aid of an innocent man. Even though it really happened... no one believed it.

4. Although the main plotline is a work of fiction, the surrounding events of 1982 are accurate including the British-Argentine War, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II traveling to Canada with a stopover in New York and the Great Blizzard that hit so hard, President Reagan called in the National Guard to dig people out.

5. In Depth of Deception (published as an e-book on March 23, 2012) a wealthy tycoon is building a Titanic II, a replica of the original with state of the art technology to prevent any repeated tragedy. A month later, on April 30, 2012, Australian tycoon Clive Palmer announced his plans to build a Titanic II. His press release is almost identical, word-for-word, to what one character says in Depth of Deception.

6. The character of Commander Pamela Toughill was never supposed to appear in the novel. Early on I mention that our protagonist Callum Toughill was divorced only to establish that he had no significant other in his private life. When he hit rock bottom and didn't know who to trust, he turned to his ex-wife, which not only made for an interesting development but she soon became one of my favourite characters.

7. Gallium bullets would actually work as described in the novel and would be virtually untraceable. However, as mentioned in the novel, the expense would not make it very cost effective.

8. In 1982, there was bar code scanning technology developed by the military. Likewise, the ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) was a global network of computers connected together for the sharing of science, medical and defense information — the predecessor of the Internet.

9. When coming up with names for the main characters, I thought it out carefully so that there was either some significance with the meaning of their name or connection with Titanic lore. However, for incidental characters where only a first name was needed, I posted on my Facebook page, "I'm looking for first names to insert in my novel."  I took the first ones that replied to my post.

10. The name Father Landon is an homage to the late Michael Landon, best known from TV's Highway to Heaven and Little House on the Prairie.

One of the characters in Depth of Deception is an homage to James Cameron's Titanic. Can you find it? I'll send the first five correct respondents an autographed e-book copy of Depth of Deception. Contact me via www.DepthofDeception.com and happy reading!

Alexander Galant

Author of Depth of Deception (A Titanic Murder Mystery)

www.depthofdeception.com

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007O3IKTY
Print: http://www.amazon.com/Depth-Deception-Titanic-Murder-Mystery/dp/0987983512/

(Also available from Kobo, iBooks & e-reader)

Alexander Galant was the historical researcher for the novel 'Dracula the Un-Dead', which was on the New York Times Best Sellers list in October 2009. Alexander also co-wrote the screenplay adaptation that was optioned briefly by Jan de Bont and adapted the novel into a dramatic stage reading for the Toronto book launch of Dracula the Un-Dead, which brought out the highest turnout for any event on the book tour.
Alexander has also written and directed several short films including "The Jigsaw Puzzle", which won the Festival Buzz Award (most talked-about film) in the New York Independent Film Festival; "First Light", Winner Bronze Remi Award for Fantasy Horror at the WorldFest Houston, USA, Special Commendation Award at the Festival of Fantastic Films, UK, and Best Technical Achievement from the International Festival of Cinema and Technology; "The Missing Piece", Winner Silver Remi Award for Suspense Thriller at the WorldFest Houston, USA; and co-wrote and directed "Star Wars: Blasted Behavior", a finalist in the Atom Films/LucasFilm Star Wars Fan Movie Challenge (George Lucas was one of the judges), which also won the Best Foreign Sci-Fi Film Award at the New York International Film Festival and continues to make the festival circuit this year.
Alexander's love of historical details can also be seen in some of the stage productions he has directed, such as the silent film era of "Singin' in the Rain" (Act-Co Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement in Live Theatre), a 50-year span in "Love Letters" and the World War II Amsterdam annex for "The Diary of Anne Frank".