TRUE crime writer Caroline Stevenson is Rosewood’s version of Angela Lansbury’s character in ‘Murder She Wrote’.
In the television series, the main character was Jessica Fletcher, a writer who wrote about crime and ‘who dunnits’.
Caroline does the same but thankfully these crimes don’t happen while she’s there.
While they’re true crime, the murders are historic and that’s the way she likes it.
She said the buffer of time absorbs some of the emotion from horrific events.
But she is mindful that murderers and victims have families and writings in print could open doors some prefer remained shut.
Her first book was ‘Horse Tracks & Stirrup Irons: Death Comes to Ebenezer’.
Set in 1926, it was long enough time for the emotion to have steadied, or so she thought.
“I didn’t expect someone born in 1926 to still be around when I wrote the first book,” she said.
“I like the distance that historical crimes give me because that usually means direct family members have passed on.
“We did a really big launch in Rosewood and I had family members of both the murderer and the victim there.
“I was told the child of the murderer was a bit upset.
“The murderer’s wife was pregnant when he was sent to jail and that baby was still alive at the time of the book launch.
“He was upset and made it known he didn’t want the book to go ahead.
“His family came to the launch and took a hard copy of my book for him to read.
“I’ve not heard from him since and gather he was okay because I hadn’t sensationalised anything.”
Because Caroline’s writings are non fiction, a lot of time is spent researching and trawling through archival websites.
The Rosewood murder is packaged in her true crime series ‘Murder Trails’ which was published by Jack Sim.
She has spent 17 years researching and writing books.
Accuracy is important to her because truth is a defence and sensationalising murder is tacky.
Her book ‘The Tainted Cross: The Oxley & Gatton Murders Unveiled’ was about the murder of a teenager in a paddock.
The story follows two crime scenes fundamentally entwined over a 125 year period.
That book was the only time she’d had negative feedback.
“A gentleman ran up to my publisher and said ‘how did she know that, she wasn’t there,” she said.
“The publisher told him to read a few pages more and they’d see it was the witness testimony at the time.
“She said ‘if you still have problems at the end of the book, we’ll talk’.
“We haven’t heard from him since.”
As well as true crime series, Caroline has ghost written for others and worked on other literacy projects.
Her passion for uncovering the truth and putting it in print has won her a legion of fans locally and abroad.
