HALLIE EPHRON: Ages ago, when I gave one of my first radio interviews, the interviewer asked me if I thought that all of the 
terrible things that were happening in the world were caused by mystery writers putting ideas into people's heads. I told her, IF ONLY the real world were as safe as the world we mystery writers put in our books. In our make-believe universe, villains are captured and justice is served.
terrible things that were happening in the world were caused by mystery writers putting ideas into people's heads. I told her, IF ONLY the real world were as safe as the world we mystery writers put in our books. In our make-believe universe, villains are captured and justice is served.
Today we're happy to welcome Eileen Rendahl who's picking up another part of the question, dissecting the intersection of true crime and crime fiction. Food for thought!
AND Eileen is giving away copies of her fabulous new book, COVER ME IN DARKNESS, to THREE lucky commenters...
EILEEN RENDAHL: At a dinner party the other
night, several of the women were talking about true crime books and shows. One
of the men asked why the women were all so interested in true crime. His tone
made it clear he didn’t think it was a good thing and that 
maybe there was a
little something wrong with us for being so interested.
maybe there was a
little something wrong with us for being so interested.
It’s something I’ve thought
about. Why would I want to read about or watch horrible things happening to
someone? What did that say about me that I wanted to have that stuff in my
head?
Women walk through the
world differently than men do. That became very clear to me when my
then-teenaged son complained that the key fob for our car only opened the drivers’
door when you clicked it once. A petty complaint, but he was sixteen and still
a bit teenagerific. He’s better now. At any rate, I explained I liked that
feature because I knew if someone was making me uncomfortable in a parking lot
or garage, I could get into my side of the car without giving the other person
access through the other doors. I got blank looks from all the men in my house.
That had never occurred to them. They were even more surprised when I told them
how often that was a factor for me.
I don’t know a single woman
who doesn’t have a story or stories about times they were followed or
threatened or attacked. True crime stories often make it very clear that a
woman’s best weapon is her brain. Understanding the situation and the person
who is attacking you can literally be the difference between life and death.
It’s not just that we want to know how someone got away from an attacker. We
want to understand the underlying motivations so we can maybe avoid being in
the situation at all, so we can recognize the signs that something isn’t quite
right, so we have some options.
Honestly -- and what I told the gentleman at
the dinner party -- it comes down to anxiety. True crime stories help me feel
less anxious because I feel better prepared to face the world.
I don’t write true crime. I
write novels. I’ve written romance, urban fantasy, cozy mystery, and thrillers.
My first book with a big publisher, Do Me, Do My Roots was a
fictionalized account of what happened after my husband died. Getting to take
my personal story apart and look at it from different angles helped me process
what I was feeling and was a major factor in helping me through the survivor’s
guilt I felt.
The idea for Cover Me in
Darkness came from something that happened in my childhood. A mother in my
hometown killed her child. I was about ten at the time and it had never
occurred to me that a mother would hurt a child. My whole experience with
motherhood was based on my family. I’m not saying my mother was perfect or that
her mother was either. I can tell you neither of them would have ever
intentionally hurt any of us, though.
That event was the beginning of my interest in true crime. I needed to understand what had happened so it could stop frightening me. Over the years, I twisted that story around in my head dozens of ways, trying to understand it from all the different perspectives involved.
That event was the beginning of my interest in true crime. I needed to understand what had happened so it could stop frightening me. Over the years, I twisted that story around in my head dozens of ways, trying to understand it from all the different perspectives involved.
Coming at it as a novel let
me process the very complicated feelings I had about what had happened and even
how it could have been avoided.
What about you? Does true
crime help you feel less anxious? Does fiction give you a place to process your
feelings?
Giveaway: Eileen is giving away 3
e-copies of “Cover Me In Darkness” for randomly chosen commenters.
About Cover Me in Darkness:
Tagline: Old Wounds Run Deep
Short blurb: Amanda escaped the cult that killed her brother, but troubling
events force her to dig into the secrets of her past.
Starred review:
"... a hard-to-put-down psychological thriller that also
offers a nuanced look at a damaged woman."
-Library Journal
Description:
Amanda Sinclair has to fight harder than most for everything she
has after fleeing the cult that left her brother dead at her mother's hand.
Amanda works a quiet job in quality control for a small cosmetics company,
trying to leave her past behind her―until she learns that her mother has
committed suicide in the mental ward where she's been locked away for the past
ten years.
But when Amanda receives her mother's personal belongings, she
finds a troubling connection to the upcoming parole hearing for cult leader
Patrick Collier. And then troubling things begin happening to Amanda herself.
Teaming up with her mother's psychologist, Amanda starts to peel away the
layers of secrets that she's built between herself and her own past, and what
she finds is a truth that's almost too big to believe.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YF98ZFW/
About the author:
Eileen Rendahl is
the national-bestselling and award-winning author of the Messenger series and
four Chick Lit novels. Her alter ego, Eileen Carr, writes romantic suspense.
Both Eileens were born in Dayton, Ohio. She moved when she was four and only remembers that she was born across the street from Baskin-Robbins. Eileen remembers anything that has to do with ice cream. Or chocolate. Or champagne.
She has had many jobs and lived in many cities and feels unbelievably lucky to be where she is now and to be doing what she's doing.
Links: www.eileenrendahl.com
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