In a letter dated February 6, 1998, Ivan shared his opinion about Neil Mercer’s book, Fate, Inside the Backpacker Murders Investigation :
“I had a bit of a read of that book by Neil Mercer, Fate, Inside the Backpacker Murders Investigation, a series of thumbnail-type stories and quite obvious where the information came from. I note he tried to portray it as an account of truth and what took place and does his best to put across things as if they were fact.
It is a cheap-type first-effort book, pricey $19.95. A lot of things (all) are against me but he has to keep faith with the police. There are lots of double-type things in it generally, all to make me look like an idiot.
I would need the same amount of pages to reply to it and show the absolute uncertainty of his “essay”.”
