Author Kerryn Mayne on inspiration for Joy Moody is Out of Time

I recall my reaction to being told we were pregnant with identical twins all too well. It was something along the lines of, “This is great for committing crime.” The sonographer, rightly so, looked at me as if he was doing an ultrasound on Tony Soprano.

I tried to reassure him, “I write crime”, but I fear the horse had bolted by that point and, besides, my mind was a whirl with possibilities. Not to mention logistics. Plus there was the incredible, overwhelming joy of it all, too.

One can never say they planned to have identical twins, but we were okay with it, we’d roll with it. Sure it would double our current quota of kids (from two to four), we’d need to get a Kia Carnival (certainly no status symbol, but it’s a bloody good car as it happens) and life was bound to be chaos; but so what? Let them outnumber us, a two to one ratio of children to parents. It was, I assure you, the uppermost limit of children. Hats off to anyone who hits number five, six or more. But this lady knows (usually) when to call it a day.

I dived into research about what this would mean to us and what I could do to make sure this pregnancy ran as smoothly as possible. Having twins comes with many risks, especially for old mums like me (at 39, I was considered “advanced maternal age”, not entirely flattering but kinder than a number of things I’ve been called over the years, to be honest).

We were having identical twins, specifically, in our case, monochorionic, diamniotic (MCDA) twins, which is one egg, one placenta, but two amniotic sacs. This is preferable to monochorionic, monoamniotic (MCMA) twins, who are squeezed into the very same sac together. The equivalent, I presume, of a studio apartment in Manhattan, shared with your best friend. A tight squeeze, not to mention a flurry of extra risks.

The more I learned about the greatness and magic of having twins, the more I discovered about how shit could go south. Ugh. Twin-twin transfusion (where one twin gets greedy), placenta problems, preeclampsia, diabetes, preterm labour … on the list went. Almost all of these things were completely outside my control. I found it was much better to focus on the future for these babies, the one that would allow them to get away with Ocean’s Eleven-style heists. Because I’m a crime writer, not because I’m Tony Soprano, honestly.

Jewellery was stolen in this daring heist and no one was ever charged. As a police officer, I was angered; as a writer I was intrigued.

KERRYN MAYNE

This subject was a bounty filled basket of goodies for fiction writers and I considered myself on the path to becoming a subject-matter expert. In Germany in 2009, one – or maybe two – men escaped prosecution after being involved in a jewellery theft. DNA was extracted from a discarded glove at the crime scene. It led to brothers, identified only as Hassan and Abbas. But, plot twist, they were identical twins; they are genetically the same person. DNA – the great crime solver – was unable to pinpoint a suspect, beyond it being one of the brothers. Neither confessed, CCTV was useless – not only because the criminals were masked, but because only a mother could tell them apart (and, to be honest, sometimes I can’t tell my twins apart). Five million euros of jewellery was stolen in this daring heist and no one was ever charged. As a police officer, I was angered; as a writer I was intrigued, amazed and inspired.

In 1904, infamous English poachers, the Fox twins, were some of the first people to be prosecuted using fingerprint technology. Fingerprints, even of identical twins, are different. They are formed in utero and not a genetic trait, therefore every set is unique. And in 1904 DNA was a long away from being a crime-solving revolution.