Did This Book Inspire Real-Life Murder?

A Florida man confessed to killing his mother in the same fashion as a recently published novel describes: by beating her, cutting her open, and removing her inner organs. And the author of the novel admits that he based his main character partially on his friend, Beau Bruneau, 29—the man now accused of murdering his mother on Oct. 30. "It was too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence," Patrick Quéré tells the Miami Herald. "It took me a while to really believe it."

The book, published in July, only sold a few dozen copies and has since been removed from circulation. Quéré says he and Bruneau discussed the plot of Grognard, a story about a man who grows up on the wrong side of the tracks, can't make anything of his life, and ultimately goes mad. Quéré and Bruneau, who considered themselves outsiders, knew each other since middle school and were together in 2001 when Bruneau tried to commit suicide. "Like Beau," says Quéré, "my character was a loner who drove everyone away from him.''
(More murder stories.)