Goodreads asked Tarn Richardson:

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

Tarn Richardson It was 2012 and I had just come back from France where I had been visiting the trenches with my father and brother in law on the trail of two great uncles who fought out there, one who came back and one who did not. It was an incredible trip, really moving and inspirational and I just felt I had to write about the experience.

So, when I got home from France I started planning this grand epic of World War One, sort of like Game of Thrones meets Band of Brothers. Which no one really wants. And pretty soon I had got myself tied into knots and wasn't making much progress. Then one night I was sitting down and reading Artemis Fowl to my youngest son Will and he stopped me and said that it was 'boring'. "Boring?!" I exclaimed. "This is one of the greatest books ever written for kids!" But he wasn't having any of it. So I went off to find something else, and got the same reaction. So I asked him what he would write a book about and he immediately replied, "World War One and werewolves" and a light came on in my head and after that I was off and running!

In an early draft, the main character Tacit was a Russian Major. But then I rewrote the entire thing with the Inquisition and he re-appeared as an Inquisitor. I've read that writers of songs say that some of their best ideas just come to them out of the blue, like gifts from heaven. Tacit was like that. He just came to me. I really liked the ideal of someone who was a hero but fundamentally flawed.

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