The first two Larkey mysteries are now available on Kindle Vella, Amazon’s new short-story service that works sort of like a subscription podcast, except it’s a story you read on your phone or favorite device. Here’s the teaser for the first book, Winter’s End:
Retired FBI Special Agent Phil Larkey used to investigate the Bureau’s toughest “locked room mysteries.” These days, he just wants to investigate a good book beside a warm fire. But when a young woman is crucified on the side of a barn on a remote Lake Erie island, Larkey knows he’s the only one who can track down her killer before the ice thaws.
For my fellow true crime fanatics thirsty for something more; a more introspective, varietal look at this phenomenon we call true crime, look no further. This is the podcast I didn’t know I needed. – Kristen32
People are polarized by Renner. I get it. Just listen. – SailorFamiLee
Initially, I was really intrigued by title of this podcast but was hesitant to listen to or subscribe after I discovered James Renner was at the helm. SO … here I am, years later, binge listening to one of the most well-thought-out and thoroughly researched podcasts I’ve ever listened to. – ssoozee
I could not stop listening once I started. It went from listening at work, to the car and kept going while making dinner. – G Lunn
My nonprofit, The Porchlight Project, is featured in this month’s Signal. We discuss how Porchlight came to be and the cold cases we’ve solved already! Click here for more info on The Porchlight Project
I’m the guest on this week’s episode of the Mile Higher Podcast. It was such a treat to get to meet Kendall, Josh, and Janelle in Denver and talk about developments in the Amy Mihaljevic case, Maura Murray, and little green men! Check it out!
I was asked to pen half of a new audio short story for my friend, Pi, and her podcast, Stories from the In-Between. It’s called BLANK, and it’s a spooky little bit of absurdity set in a world where adults possess the ability to remove parts of their face. And some covet certain features they lack themselves.
I’m this week’s guest on The Murder Squad’s “Distractions” podcast. I talk to Paul Holes and Billy Jensen about Amy Mihaljevic, The Porchlight Project, and The Philosophy of Crime. Check it out here.
The Case of the Bones in the Barn has been solved at last, and the answer leads to even more mysteries. For our second case, The Porchlight Project assisted the New London, Ohio Police Department to determine the identify of the young woman whose bones were found wrapped up in newspaper in an old barn, there. I was personally interested because the barn was located just a few doors down from a suspect in the Amy Mihaljevic case.
The Porchlight Project funded DNA testing and genetic genealogy, which led investigators to conclude that the bones belonged to one Hallie Armstrong, an eighteen-year-old schoolteacher who died in 1881.
The strange case of the man who called himself Joseph Newton Chandler is one of my favorite true crime mysteries of all time – and the inspiration behind my novel, The Man from Primrose Lane. So it was a honor to be interviewed by Katya Cengel for her new piece of long-form nonfiction, which appeared on Vox.
Investigative journalist James Renner, who reported on the Chandler case and even wrote a novel loosely based on it, believes Ruff and those like her who are running from something terrible should be able to disappear.
“What right do we have to open up those doors?” he asks.
He makes an exception for rape and murder, and he is not the only one who believes the Nichols case may have involved both. Because of Robert Nichols’s various eccentricities and the time he spent in California in the late 1960s and early ’70s, when the Zodiac Killer was active there, some web sleuths and even members of law enforcement, like Elliott, who says he can’t rule it out, suspect Nichols could be the killer.
