Modern true crime writers are like buzzards searching the terrain in search of a body. When they find one they swarm on it to devour. The main impetus for this is financial gain, using the tragedies of others to accomplish this. Looking for corpses is a good tool to use when you lack the creative imagination to write from within yourself and jumping aboard a current trend makes good sense.
Whether this is a good or bad approach to writing is an open question as one must find their own means for paying bills and eating. Some families want their stories to be told, either in remembrance of their lost family member, or as a way of using this harsh lesson to inform, alert, and instill caution in those that may find themselves facing a similar situation.
These crime writers become an expert, so to speak, in the particular case that they are investigating for their book. They want to be placed on the best sellers list and launder themselves in the publicity and notoriety that comes with this attainment. Leaping on dead bones gives them a sense of accomplishment. The higher profile the crime, the more they wade into it, and usually because they have not the slightest interest in the victim, but because they know to skim the blood from the body before it gets warm.
Television true crime stories are currently popular and this popularity has prompted many vultures to come out of their nests to cash in on this trend. Like vampires, they go for the juggler draining adversity for every drop that they can get out of it. They puff themselves up as being experts in every aspect of the case. They glide the fumes of a decaying body with visions of a paycheck placed into their hands. They use the hurt and sorrow of family members to add that emotional element to their book. Rarely are they of any help to law enforcement in solving the case.
This is not a knock on these people because everyone has to live and eat. And as it is said, you are what you eat, and if you choose to eat the dead, then you are a cannibal with putrefied blood dripping from your teeth. But your book has been published, so what do you care about this as you hover morgue’s in search of your next writing inspiration.
