The Inspiration for The Scam by Evie Hunter

The Inspiration for The Scam by Evie Hunter

As a writer, I am frequently asked where I get asked my inspiration from. I explain that I never waste an experience. Apart from anything else, it saves on research.

And that is how my latest Evie Hunter novel, The Scam, came about. When you’ve been married to the same man for 35 years and he’s snatched away from you, you soon discover that the changes in the dating scene during the intervening period are a tad daunting. Dating sites hadn’t been invited all those years ago and so, brace yourselves, people had no alternative other than to meet one another in the real world.

Dating online is how it’s done now, apparently. Okay. How hard can it be? There are sites dedicated to older people. Put up a few pics, tell a bit about yourself, stand back and wait for men to contact you. I’m street wise. No one will manipulate me.

Or so I thought.

Yes, the contacts came and I naively assumed that, like me, they’d told the truth about themselves. Friends tried to warn me. I was still grieving, it was too soon, I would be scammed.

And I was!

Fortunately, I realised before I was in too deep, took the loss, put it down to experience and cut off all connection with the guy in question. But let me tell you this; he was so convincing. I still can’t believe that I fell for his hype, but then again, these people are professionals. I’m told they can detect someone like me at fifty paces with the wind in the wrong direction and once they sink their claws in, they turn the emotional screw and are utterly ruthless. Think Tindler Swindler and you will get a better picture.

So that’s how The Scam came about. The Scam is dedicated to all of you who’ve fallen for the lies of smooth-talking parasites. Although the protagonists don’t actually meet on a dating site, the principle’s the same. I can’t get my revenge on the guy who scammed me but perhaps my heroine can do it for me, albeit vicariously. As a writer it is, of course, also within my power to sentence the bad guy a slow and painful death.

Ah the power of the pen!