Welcome to FIVE QUESTIONS. In this feature on my blog, you'll learn about new and exciting books from the author's themselves. You'll hear about the book, their characters, the inspiration behind the book, and other insider details. All through five simple questions.
Today, we are hearing from Marcy McCreary about her new novel THE SUMMER OF LOVE AND DEATH, available starting today.
What is your new book about?
Detective Susan Ford and her new partner, Detective Jack Tomelli, are called to a crime scene at the local summer stock theater where they find the director of Murder on the Orient Express gruesomely murdered—naked, face caked in makeup, pillow at his feet, wrists and ankles bound by rope. When Susan describes the murder to her dad, retired detective Will Ford, he tells her the crime scene matches the MO of a 1969 serial killer . . . a case he worked fifty years ago.
Will remembers a lot of things about that summer . . . the Woodstock Festival, the Apollo 11 moon landing, the Miracle Mets . . . yet he is fuzzy on the details of the decades-old case. But when Susan and Jack discover the old case files, his memories start trickling back. And with each old clue and each new clue, Susan, Jack, and Will must narrow down the pool of suspects before the killer strikes again.
What was the inspiration behind the book?
As I pondered the potential plot for the third installment of The Ford Family Mystery series, I thought about writing a prequel as opposed to a sequel. Essentially, lean in on the nostalgia of the Catskills Borscht Belt hotels (think Dirty Dancing or The Marvelous Mrs. Maisal) and set the story during its heyday of the 1960s. My initial concept was a murder mystery told from Detective Will Ford’s point-of-view when he was a young detective and centered around one of the storied hotels. That idea was short-lived—for a whole host of reasons—but it did spur my thinking about incorporating the nostalgia of that area and the historical events of that decade into a contemporary narrative.
Then came my second a-ha moment. One night, my husband and I were channel surfing, and we happened upon the 1974 screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express. It reminded me of something a friend had recently told me: the novel had been adapted for the stage in 2017. And that got me thinking . . . wouldn’t it be fun if Detective Susan Ford is called to a murder at a summer stock theater that just happens to be performing Murder on the Orient Express. And what if this crime was somehow tied to a murder from 1969, specifically a case her father, Detective Will Ford, investigated back then. And that’s the moment when the story’s inciting incident popped into my head.
Then came my third a-ha moment. In early 2022, I read an article in The New Yorker, “The Long Afterlife of a Terrible Crime,” about intergenerational trauma and the ripple effect of traumatic events on generations of family. The essay explored both the criminal’s and victim’s offspring’s overwhelming need to seek relief and answers stemming from the heinous crime. In the article, the niece of a murder victim explains to the reporter, “The murder wrecked my father’s life, and then mine, and it was hurting my children’s lives, too. We live in the reality where their actions echo in the lives of so many of us, every single, day. I want to know why. I need to understand. If I’m being completely honest, I need someone to blame.” Whoa, right? The entire article is a master class in “there is no escaping the sins of our parents.”
At this point, I knew I had all the ingredients for my story: the dual timeline, the theater-based setting, and the theme of intergenerational trauma and how it might play out among the offspring of a perpetrator and his victims.
What's the most interesting or unusual thing you learned while researching for this book?
At first, my research was pretty much relegated to the Internet. There is plenty of information about the Woodstock festival, but next to nothing about how security was handled and the role of law enforcement on the festival grounds. In order to write Will’s flashback scenes as authentically as possible, I needed a firsthand account of policing at Woodstock and the surrounding area. And then luck stepped in. At a writer’s conference in 2022, I chatted up another writer, Gregory Renz, about my manuscript and he thought he might know someone who could provide some insight. A few weeks later, Greg hooked me up with Nick Chiarkas, an ex-NYPD cop (and crime writer!) who was a member of the volunteer “Peace Force” at Woodstock. Nick and I chatted for hours about the security apparatus and his personal experiences at the event. Meeting Nick felt fateful, and I’m grateful for his contribution to the novel.
One of the more interesting things I learned was that the New York City Police Commissioner pulled out of his commitment to send a contingent of NYPD officers to Bethel, NY (where Woodstock took place) because he was pissed to learn that a bunch of hog farmers from New Mexico, led by singer Wavy Gravy, were helping with security. He later struck a quiet deal with the organizers to allow any NYPD cop who wanted to volunteer to be able to do so. About three hundred cops volunteered for fifty bucks a day and meals.
Was there a particular scene or chapter you especially enjoyed writing?
Writing Detective Will Ford’s “Summer Of ’69" mini-chapters. Will is my favorite character in the series, modeled a little after my own Dad, and to finally get to write scenes from his point-of-view was, in a word, joyful. His chapters are dark as he is investigating a serial murder case, but what I love about Will is how he brings optimism and a sense of humor to any situation. Will’s scenes are set in 1969, with the historical events of that year unfolding around him. It was fun to incorporate these events within the context of his scenes, get his take on them, and see how they influenced his worldview.
What was the biggest challenge (research, literary, psychological, and logistical) in bringing this book to life?
Writing the subplot. In my first (and several subsequent) drafts of THE SUMMER OF LOVE AND DEATH, I did not have a strong undercurrent to the main story. The subplots in both THE DISAPPEARANCE OF TRUDY SOLOMON and THE MURDER OF MADISON GARCIA revealed complex and shifting family dynamics that propelled my protagonist’s character arc and gave the overall story depth. If the main plot is the skin and bones of a story, the subplot is the heart. And the heart wasn’t quite beating in those early drafts. I struggled to come up with a meaningful subplot in this third installment, one that would instigate a profound change in my main character, Detective Susan Ford. After writing and re-writing several drafts with different subplots, I finally hit upon the idea of challenging Susan’s notion about family obligations, unconditional love, and sacrifice.
THE SUMMER OF LOVE AND DEATH is available now, and can be purchased at the following retailers.
Bookshop.org - Supporting Local Bookstores
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