Goodreads asked Laraine Stephens:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Laraine Stephens I have always been interested in History and visited the battlefields of The Somme in 2004, where my grandfather fought during the Great War. Consequently, the effects of war, particularly shell shock and the loss of life, have interested me.

I also work as a volunteer guide at The Old Melbourne Gaol (Jail). In the cells are exhibited death masks of some of the 133 men and women who were executed there, including the infamous bushranger, Ned Kelly.

I found it fascinating that death masks were at one stage linked to the pseudo-science of phrenology, widely popularised in the 1800s, which claimed that a person’s character was determined by the shape, or contours, of the skull.

Family history and The Old Melbourne Gaol have certainly influenced my writing. Without it, 'The Death Mask Murders' would not exist.

flag