Goodreads asked Jay Richards:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Jay Richards I got the idea for Silhouette of Virtue: A Novel from real life events involving a series of sexual assaults tinged with a racist motivation. This was back in the 70s. I was very peripheral to a group of campus intellectuals, mainly sparing with philosophical ideas and writings, and the conflicts that developed due to the perceived need to take sides after a member of this group was accused of involvement sparked my interest. The idea for the novel was to turn up the volume on this chunk of reality. I made the protagonist a African American philosophy professor instead of centering a character based on any one of the grad students who were actually involved. I linked Watergate themes and conspiracies of various types in the plot (which were nowhere in the real situation) and I added a concern about spirituality and encounter with mystery.

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