A Portland, Oregon romance novelist who once published an essay called "How to Murder Your Husband" was arrested on September 5 on charges of murdering her husband with a gun, reports the Washington Post.
Nancy Crampton Brophy is the author of several romance and suspense novels. Her series "Wrong Never Felt So Right" includes the book "The Wrong Cop" — it tells the story of a woman who fantasizes about killing her crooked police officer husband. Brophy’s author bio states that her “stories are about pretty men and strong women, about families that don’t always work and about the joy of finding love and the difficulty of making it stay.”
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In 2011, Brophy posted the aforementioned prophetic essay on the blog “See Jane Publish." It listed five motives and the kinds of weapons a romance novelist could choose from if she wanted to write about a character killing her spouse.
In the 700 word essay, since removed from the site, she explained that, "As a romantic suspense writer, I spend a lot of time thinking about murder and, consequently, about police procedure...After all, if the murder is supposed to set me free, I certainly don't want to spend any time in jail.”
Brophy’s husband Daniel was gunned down on June 2 at the Oregon Culinary Institute where he worked as a chef. The next day, Brophy published an emotional Facebook post asking friends to withhold condolence phone calls because she was “overwhelmed.” She asked friends and family to, “please save phone calls for a few days until I can function.”
Brophy’s arrest earlier this month for Daniel’s murder came as a shock to family and friends. She has not entered a plea and the Washington Post reports that “a judge took the unusual step of sealing a probable cause affidavit in Crampton Brophy’s case at prosecutors’ request.”
On her author website, Brophy wrote about her husband of 27 years saying, “Like all marriages, we’ve had our ups and downs, more good times than bad.”