Hi folks,
I'm a horror novelist writing my first thriller. It's about a father whose son is assaulted, and dies shortly thereafter. The story follows the father, who works with police to locate the perp. He has a private battle with his conscience when he figures out who the perp is before the cops do, and considers killing him.
My novel concerns a very sensitive subject, and that is, child abuse. I have taken great care to not have any sort of description of the violence; only that it happened, as reported in an autopsy. But the perp is involved in a criminal ring that does this sort of thing, and eventually, the protagonist will have a conversation with some of the offenders while they are in prison.
There will be no descriptions whatsoever regarding their crimes, but the mere fact that these characters exist in my story is of some concern to me. While many thrillers/whodunnits deal with murderers and rapists, I can't think of any off the top of my head that involve dangerous pedophiles. Is this a no-fly zone? Is it too taboo to even write a story?
And lastly, what are the do's and do not's of this subject? I am careful not to cast the perps in any positive light whatsoever, careful not to draw any kind of moral ambiguity in what they do. I recall David Bell's novel Cemetery Girl being heavily criticized because the author did not give virtually any attention to his character's wellbeing and recovery after she survived an assault. Instead, the entire novel is focused on revenge. I don't think this applies to my book because my character (who is assaulted) does not survive, and therefore the father's prime motivation to move on is through either bringing justice to the perps or enacting his own personal revenge. In the end, he realizes that he is focusing too much on the perps and not enough on commemorating his son's life, remembering the lessons he learned from his son, etc.
Does this sound passable or am I going to step in deep shit for writing this topic?
I'm a horror novelist writing my first thriller. It's about a father whose son is assaulted, and dies shortly thereafter. The story follows the father, who works with police to locate the perp. He has a private battle with his conscience when he figures out who the perp is before the cops do, and considers killing him.
My novel concerns a very sensitive subject, and that is, child abuse. I have taken great care to not have any sort of description of the violence; only that it happened, as reported in an autopsy. But the perp is involved in a criminal ring that does this sort of thing, and eventually, the protagonist will have a conversation with some of the offenders while they are in prison.
There will be no descriptions whatsoever regarding their crimes, but the mere fact that these characters exist in my story is of some concern to me. While many thrillers/whodunnits deal with murderers and rapists, I can't think of any off the top of my head that involve dangerous pedophiles. Is this a no-fly zone? Is it too taboo to even write a story?
And lastly, what are the do's and do not's of this subject? I am careful not to cast the perps in any positive light whatsoever, careful not to draw any kind of moral ambiguity in what they do. I recall David Bell's novel Cemetery Girl being heavily criticized because the author did not give virtually any attention to his character's wellbeing and recovery after she survived an assault. Instead, the entire novel is focused on revenge. I don't think this applies to my book because my character (who is assaulted) does not survive, and therefore the father's prime motivation to move on is through either bringing justice to the perps or enacting his own personal revenge. In the end, he realizes that he is focusing too much on the perps and not enough on commemorating his son's life, remembering the lessons he learned from his son, etc.
Does this sound passable or am I going to step in deep shit for writing this topic?
Sage advice, thank you!
