I have been reading articles in newspapers around the world over the last few weeks revealing that the brave investigative journalist who inspired my creation of Olivia Wolfe in Devour, Marie Colvin, was in fact deliberately targeted by the Syrian regime and that her family believes they are responsible for Colvin’s death. One particular story in The Daily Beast drew my attention. This news saddens me terribly, but it doesn’t surprise me, given that Colvin continued to bravely report about the murder and atrocities in Syria despite the danger, and in so doing, would have been a thorn in the side of such brutal people. Reading Paul Wood’s article for The Daily Beast and an extract from the fax the Colvin family is citing as evidence is well worth doing.

As Wood says in the article:

‘The Colvin family have no doubt that this was an assassination, ordered by the highest levels of the Syrian regime. One of those who organized the attack – the Shabiha commander in Homs — was given a reward by the Assad family, it’s claimed, a black luxury saloon car. The Syrian government will probably refuse to contest the Colvin family’s lawsuit – and if so the court will not get the chance to examine its claims. The murder of journalists is just one war crime among many the regime stands accused of – this lawsuit is a reminder of that as some argue to rehabilitate President Assad, the alternative to ISIS.’