Mystery Research is Murderous

Polish author Krystian Bala has received a 25 year jail term in his country for murder - that seemed to have inspired the writer's latest novel. Even the brief accounts in the BBC story of the 7-year-old murder sound grizzly:

The body of Dariusz Janiszewski, the young, well-liked owner of a small advertising agency, was spotted by fishermen seven years ago on the banks of the River Oder, near the Polish city of Wroclaw.

He had been tortured, starved and tied up in a way that made it impossible to swim.

Apparently, Bala's novel, recently published, uses similar details that he claims were from news account of the time - but that doesn't explain his having called the victim on the last day he was seen, nor the prosecution's assertion that he was jealous of Mr Janiszewski for having an alleged affair with Bala's estranged wife. There obviously is such a thing as over-researching a book.