The Black Hand, vol. 17
Student helps police crack 58yo case
People often ask me if it’s plausible that a teenager could become involved in a homicide case… Well as it turns out, it was a student who recently helped solved a dreadful murder-kidnapping from 1964.
Twenty-year-old Eric Schubert volunteered his services as a genealogist to the Pennsylvania State Police to assist with tracking the killer of a 9-year-old girl. The case took two years to solve, and Schubert contacted police on a whim when he was 18. He helped connect the victim to a bartender who died in 1980 – the video below provides more detail (but TW for murder and assault of a minor):
So to answer that question: yeah, for sure, teenagers make highly plausible unofficial detectives. In my experience, you have to give juvenile detectives a solid connection to the case – either as a witness, a relative, or a close friend of the victim or the perpetrator – to keep their motivation strong. But if the example of Schubert is anything to go by, great junior detectives can come from any walk of life.
(I also love how all the cops in the video are trying to look like The Rock, whereas delightful Eric is just a sweet-faced geneology nerd).
What I’m up to
We’re in the middle of our mid-year school holidays right now, and although the first week of the break wasn’t great (think: headcold, snotty noses, cough drops and etc), this second week has been really lovely. Cold is not my natural state – I love jumpers? I am one of those people who dislikes cold weather and loves winter clothes – yet I really do appreciate the colour and crispness that comes with the changing of the seasons.
We celebrated the solstice at my son’s school with mulled apple juice and a solemn fire-lighting ceremony, and I took the opportunity to burn my Begone list, aka all the things I’d like to say goodbye to in my life (guilt and petty jealousies, bad luck, ill health…we all have a Begone list).
I’ve spent the days since the solstice just taking some recovery time and filling my well for the next few months, which are bound to be busy in the lead up to book-release time. And I’m trying to fit some writing in there somewhere too…
The Killing Code Preorder campaign
This month I’m opening the floodgates! Yes, THE KILLING CODE preorder campaign is kicking off on 17 July, so I’ll send out a reminder note then. Every person who registers a preorder of the book OR a library preorder of the book will receive a special thank-you gift from me:
*one of the amazing character trading cards for THE KILLING CODE, plus
*a vintage WWII sticker, plus
*a signed bookplate.
Yes, the campaign is open international!
Yes, you can enter more than once (eg: if you’ve preordered the book AND preordered at the library, you can enter twice) so long as you have separate receipts.
Yes, each separate entry will receive a different trading card (so if you register two receipts, you’ll get two different cards).
Because you’re my newsletter peeps and you’re awesome, you can get in early on the preorder campaign by going here. I’ll also send out a reminder on 17 July.
And next month, there’ll be a special extra promo giveaway for newsletter readers, so keep an eye out for that.
What I’m watching – The Thing (1982)
I sat down with my kid and watched this movie yesterday, and y’know, it’s really good? I mean some of you already knew that. THE THING was roundly panned when it came out in 1982, and director John Carpenter was apparently a bit devastated. The problem was the hobbling R-rating of the film in cinemas, and also that a lot of big SF movies emerged in 1982, including BLADE RUNNER, STAR TREK; Wrath of Khan, and ET THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL – and all the people who loved the cute alien in ET weren’t quite ready to get smashed in the face with the terror and despair of the alien in THE THING. So critics slammed the movie, and poor John Carpenter skulked off to make CHRISTINE, STARMAN, and BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA.
But we know that THE THING is a masterpiece. Based on the John W Campbell short story Who Goes There? it’s about a group of scientists in Antarctica who encounter something beyond their understanding…something very very good at imitation. When the man beside you could be a horrifying monster, who do you trust? Themes of paranoia, the breakdown of community and solidarity, and body-horror themes of personal disintegration abound.
If you haven’t had a chance to watch THE THING yet, give it a whirl. The movie has reached its 40th anniversary this year, and it holds up extremely well.
What I’m watching part II
Okay, this one may have slipped under your radar, but I really loved the film KATE. It stars Mary Elizabeth Winstead as a badass female assassin working in Tokyo who finds herself unexpectedly poisoned, and has less than 24 hours to find her own killer.
Is this film a classic? No. Is it better than your average action thriller? Um, also no. But is it a film I’ll go back to again and again for some indefinable reason? 1000-times Yes.
KATE is like one of my other fave action thrillers, THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS – there’s nothing particularly special about it (apart from Winstead, who is an absolute powerhouse - she really brings the Emma Lewis vibes) but it evokes a feeling that I like, and it features a gutsy female lead who just pours everything she’s got into the role and elevates the film out of the ‘filler’ category and into ‘this film rocks’.
This is one of my fave scenes from the movie – enjoy 😊
This book is not like the other book
Hey, just a moment to give you a heads up about something:
While some of you have been with me since the beginning with this newsletter (back when it was on AWeber, and looked a lot more clunky), a lot of you have joined in my newsletter since NONE SHALL SLEEP came out – thank you so much!
But I should warn you in advance that THE KILLING CODE is not like NONE SHALL SLEEP.
While that book was a sharp-and-spiky terrifying psychological thriller, this book is a historical murder mystery – it’s got romance, and queerness, and clue-hunting, and cocktails, and girls in fancy ‘40s clothes. It’s a lot softer and sweeter than NONE SHALL SLEEP could ever be.
It’s also a standalone! So, unlike NONE SHALL SLEEP (which gets its follow-up next year with SOME SHALL BREAK), you won’t find more than one KILLING CODE book.
Basically, the NONE SHALL SLEEP Sequence is a day-glo cupcake filled with razorblades while THE KILLING CODE is a gorgeous cinnamon roll.
So I wanted to warn you in advance! Not everything I write is like NONE SHALL SLEEP – that would get boring for everybody. I like to switch things up a little and challenge myself with every new novel. I’m sure those of you who’ve been with me since my first book EVERY BREATH will be nodding your heads in understanding.
For new fans, you’ll get an extra NONE SHALL SLEEP jolt with SOME SHALL BREAK in 2023. But the closest I’ve come to being that hardcore before now was probably in my outback-drug-busting book NO LIMITS, and maybe in the second EVERY series book, EVERY WORD.
And if you fall hard for THE KILLING CODE, you can find more cinnamon-roll goodness in my other books like the EVERY series, the CIRCUS HEARTS series, and WHITE NIGHT.
I hope you like all my books equally! (they’re all crime books? So I guess that’s the main commonality) But just as I like to write different books at different times, I know that readers have different tastes – we all pick and choose. It’s a great rainbow of reading choices! And that variety is part of the joy of it.
LoveOzYAbookclub
This month we’re reading WE WHO HUNT THE HOLLOW, the debut novel by Kate Murray which won the Ampersand Prize. It’ll be a nice mid-year recovery book 😊 You can find out more about bookclub here.
Vote for THE KILLING CODE on Goodreads!
If you’re a GoodReads user and you’d like to give THE KILLING CODE a little boost, one way you can do that (for free!) is to add it to on Goodreads, and vote for it on Goodreads lists.
This may seem like a small gesture, but it can mean a lot – a vote for the book on a GR list can lift it up the rankings and give it more visibility. That brings it to the attention of other readers, and makes publishers sit up and take notice.
If you can vote for THE KILLING CODE, I’d very much appreciate it <3
And that’s it for me this month. Nailbiters friends, I’ll have a new email for you soon! Remember to take advantage of the early preorder campaign link for THE KILLING CODE – I’m really looking forward to giving out reader presents! – and if you could add and vote for my little book on Goodreads, I’ll be very grateful. Oh, and if you get a chance to watch a movie this month, see if the ones above fry your burger.
I wish you a very good mid-year moment. May all the things on your Begone list get gone, and may the wind be at your back in the latter half of 2022. Until next month, take care and happy reading!
xxEllie