Cobra, Crimes and inspiration

I blogged before about Cobra by South African crime writer Deon Meyer, back in 2016 when I was reading it. I love all his books, but this one is one of the best I read. I say this for a number of reasons, which I might blog about one day, but suffice to say that one of these reasons was the character of professional pickpocket Tyrone Kleeibooi (more about him here and here). And it struck me recently than both the novel and Tyrone were an inspiration to my own writing project, which features a pickpocket (more about her here). There are substantial differences between Tyrone and her, and between the plots they get involved in, but I think I came up with her in a writing workshop (I am still doing them in spite of one bad experience) because since I read about Tyrone Kleeibooi, I have wanted to write about a well-intended small-time criminal, particularly a pickpocket. I don't think I can beat Meyer, not just yet anyway, but it's funny to see that I subconsciously about what I like to read.