How true can crime fiction be?

Real events often inspire writers, but incorporating real-life trauma into entertainment requires very delicate handling

On the afternoon of 12 July 2007, Sergei Yatzenko set off on a motorcycle from his home in Taromskoye, a small village in south-central Ukraine. His mutilated body was discovered by relatives four days later. Yatzenko was a victim of Viktor Soyenko and Igor Suprunyuck, who became known as the "Dnepropetrovsk maniacs": two 19-year-olds who tortured and murdered 21 people in the space of a month, striking at random and without apparent motive. The killers took numerous photographs and videos of their crimes, and in December 2008, footage of Sergei Yatzenko's murder leaked onto the internet.

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