Some important events in the novel take place in Cornwall, a county I love. I was there a couple of years ago, and I fell in love with everything I saw.
The house where Lizzie lives is in Wandsworth, London. The London Borough of Wandsworth is a London borough in England, and forms part of Inner London. Actually, she lives close to the prison.
In this novel, I learnt the term ‘pseudocide’. A faked death, also called a pseudocide, is a case in which an individual leaves evidence to suggest that they are dead to mislead others. This is done for a variety of reasons, such as to fraudulently collect insurance money or to avoid capture by law enforcement for some other crime. People who fake their own deaths sometimes do so by pretend drownings, because it provides a plausible reason for the absence of a body.
Lizzie mentions several people who faked their deaths. The John Darwin disappearance case was an investigation into the faked death of the British former teacher and prison officer John Darwin. Darwin turned up alive in December 2007, five years after he was believed to have died in a canoeing accident. John Darwin was arrested and charged with fraud. His wife, Anne, was also arrested and charged for helping Darwin to collect his life insurance of £25,000.
John Thomson Stonehouse (28 July 1925 – 14 April 1988) was a British Labour and Co-operative Party politician and junior minister under Harold Wilson. Stonehouse is perhaps best remembered for his unsuccessful attempt at faking his own death in 1974. More than twenty years after his death, it was publicly revealed that he had been an agent for the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic military intelligence. Stonehouse maintained the pretence of normality until he faked his death on 20 November 1974, leaving a pile of clothes on a Miami beach. It appeared that he had gone swimming, and had been drowned or possibly killed by a shark. He was presumed dead, and obituaries were published despite the fact that no body had been found. In reality, he was en route to Australia, hoping to set up a new life with his mistress and secretary, Sheila Buckley. Using false names, Stonehouse set about transferring large sums of money between banks as a further means of covering his tracks. Under the name of Clive Mildoon he deposited $21,500 in cash at the Bank of New Zealand. Stonehouse spent a while in Copenhagen with Sheila Buckley, but later returned to Australia, unaware that he was now under surveillance. The police initially suspected him of being Lord Lucan, who had disappeared two weeks before Stonehouse following the murder of his children’s nanny, Sandra Rivett. Investigators noted that the suspect was reading British newspapers that also included stories attacking the “recently deceased” John Stonehouse. They contacted Scotland Yard, requesting pictures of both Lucan and Stonehouse.
Timothy Dexter (January 22, 1747 – October 23, 1806) was an American businessman noted for his writing and eccentricity. In one notable episode, Dexter faked his own death to see how people would react. About 3,000 people attended Dexter’s mock wake. Dexter did not see his wife cry, and after he revealed the hoax, he caned her for not grieving his death sufficiently.
Dorothy Johnson, an American woman who allegedly faked her death in the September 11 attacks in order to collect on insurance claims allegedly filed by her daughter, Twila McKee. Johnson and McKee were charged in 2003 with insurance fraud.
In the book Zack gets sickly jealous of Lizzie’s colleagues. One of them is Angus, who is referred to as an NQT, which is a Newly Qualified Teacher. Newly qualified teacher (NQT) is a category of teacher in the United Kingdom. Newly qualified teachers are those who have gained Qualified Teacher Status but have not yet completed the statutory twelve-month programme known as the “induction for newly qualified teachers”. Qualified teachers are not permitted to work permanently in state-maintained schools unless they have completed or are completing the induction for newly qualified teachers. They are, however, permitted to perform supply work in state-maintained schools for the first five years after gaining Qualified Teacher Status.
To find out more about Zack, Lizzie goes to the Isle of Wight. She disembarks on Ryde. Ryde is an English seaside town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight.
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