to think this couple in the guardian are strange and this was not an appropriate subject for a book?

I don’t disagree about the dreadful clunkathon of style, or the likely demographic of the target readership, but I think there’s a key difference when a quick google gets you media coverage of the detail of the inquest that corroborates the story.

(Whereas when I read The Salt Path years ago. I thought the vague and sketched-in backstory of blamelessly losing their house was odd enough to poke around on the internet to see if there was anything more illuminating publicly available via media court reporting etc. Only to discover that not only was there no mention of any such court case, but ‘Raynor Winn’ had no online existence at all before her book contract.)

EDIT: That’s actually a bit too identifying, so I’ll leave it.

It was very much giving The Salt Path vibes to me

I had the same thought. Lending huge amounts of money to strangers seemed very odd. Maybe the book explains in more depth.

I think the parallels are more in the cringe writing style and the demographic it appeals to, a white obviously affluent (or formerly as presented in TSP) middle class middle aged couple wronged who apparently lap up such niche pity porn without question or care for quality or dramatic license (obviously TSP was and out lie after lie) if the protagonists are relatable as ‘one of our sort’.

I think if Cassie had been shooting crossbow bolts through my windows, I’d probably think my feelings about that were at least as important as Cassie’s mother’s.

The couple have been through hell. Why would they be thinking about someone they haven’t even met?

It sounds like she was in a violent, abusive relationship with a dangerous man that eventually led to her own death. Someone wrote upthread she had chronic pain due to a motorcycle accident. In the author's own description, she was always chatty and pleasant whereas he came across as odd.

They’re writing about it for the same reason you read that long article and why you’re posting here in fascination about it all.

Why did Francis and Cassie Collins do it - the campaign of intimidation ?
What a strange couple.
I’d love a psychiatrist’s perspective.

Nothing wrong with that, either. Otherwise someone else says ‘I heard about that — might make a good series’ and the next thing the couple know, their lives are the inspiration for an ITV stalker drama and not a penny better off.

It’s just that standard, ghostwriter ‘unfortunate events’ house style, I think, and then summarised for newspaper publication.

I feel their ultimate goal is to get the book optioned for the movie or TV drama. That's where the real money comes from for many authors. The quality of the writing doesn't matter (or even if it was entirely written by a human) since they're just selling the rights to the story.

I agree the writing style is jarring but good luck to them if they want to make some money out of it. They certainly don’t owe the departed inveterate nutters any sensitivity.

I’d be writing the book to try and get my £25000 back, and so they should….

But unlike The Salt Path, which was a tissue of lies, there’s a large amount of evidence for the events of this book, from the police investigation, 999 calls, evidence marshalled for the trial, and inquest into the Collinses’ deaths.

Can’t imagine living with that sense of helplessness and terror.

I don’t know why anyone would find it strange to tell the story.

Yes. Very much Salt Path vibes.
And an odd choice for the guardian to give 2 whole pages to.

I don’t think that’s how it works.

But isnt it up to them the victims to decide for themselves? no one has to buy it or read it so why is it anyone elses business?

Or they were cheated of getting their experience into the public record during the trial because Collins pleaded guilty at the last minute in exchange for a lesser sentence, so they’re taking the opportunity, like many other people, to write a standard, ghost-written ‘Here’s an awful thing that happened to us’ memoir. Unlikely to be particularly well+written or to sell in large quantities, but the publisher clearly thinks it’s worth a punt, possibly post-Baby Reindeer.

Fine not to personally like it, but bear in mind they were also defrauded out of £25k, so of they can get some of that back from a book good for them.

He should just ask the police to sell the Harley Davidson belonging to his dead neighbour that was allegedly bought with his money.

I work within the AI sphere and would bet a substantial amount that it was written with AI. The descriptive details, the sentence structure, the metaphors that are a little bit off. All the tells are there.
I read it yesterday and immediately noticed it. My first thought was that it was possibly another Saltpath.
But it's clearly not fabricated as the court case and investigation appears to have happened and are documented.
I suspect they used AI to either help put the book together or to try rewrite their story to a professional standard.
As others have said, giving that much money to people you don't really know is really odd behaviour. All in all, a curious article.

To process it? To tell their story? 🙄

You're suspicious of anyone who 'lives in the arse-end of nowhere'?

Why?

Think they lent closer to £25,000, after being ‘groomed’ into friendship. Happens often enough.

Since the police reports (for all the targeted harassment etc) are all verifiable I don’t think it can be too far from the truth.

If anything they seem quite naive.