Every week we post a roundup of true crime news, which we fondly refer to as the TWITCH, put together by
. Some may wonder how true crime connects to a book lover’s newsletter. Today Marybeth answers that question for us and she is also revealing the cover of her new novel Every Moment Since which releases 10.01.24 and is available for pre-order now.I just finished drafting this week’s TWITCH (This Week in True Crime Happenings) and it got me thinking about my love of true crime, my commitment to following it, and why it has also informed many of my novels, including the one that’s coming out October 1, Every Moment Since. (And if you’re seeing this today, then you’re seeing the cover reveal! Very exciting!!)
I can trace my love of true crime back to a miniseries that ran on tv when I was a kid that— for reasons I can’t explain— I was allowed to watch. (It scared the bejabbers out of me but I never admitted it.) It was the story of Jeffrey McDonald, the young Green Beret who was accused (and later convicted) of murdering his pregnant wife and two little girls back in 1979. Because I was a voracious reader, and in spite of my young age, I bought the book that the miniseries was based on, and promptly devoured it, which led to me discovering there were other books like it. This basically sparked my obsession with interest in true crime.
I don’t know why other people follow true crime— though I know that millions do based on the popularity of podcasts and shows about it— but I can tell you two reasons why I do: 1) because of what I learn about people, about human nature, from reading or watching and 2) because I am all about the justice. I love seeing people who do wrong get caught, go through a trial, and pay the price for their crime. (And I can tell you that I struggle mightily when that does not happen.)
Many times when I’m watching any sort of true crime documentary I find myself thinking of — not the main characters of the event, so to speak— but the people on the periphery. I find myself asking, what would it be like to be them? How does it feel to have your world upended in one phone call? How do you carry the knowledge that you were the last person to ever see or speak to someone? What do you do with the guilt/regret/weight of being involved in a tragedy? These are the things my brain likes to chew on. Which means these are the things I end up writing about.
In my upcoming novel, and in my past books, When We Were Worthy, This Secret Thing, Only Ever Her, and The Things We Wish Were True, a real-life crime/tragedy I’d read or heard about got me thinking: What would it be like to be that family member, that friend, that witness? How would it feel to be in that situation? How would you react? And, most importantly, how would you go on?
It is that question that motivates me, because that question is the key to the human spirit. In most cases, these people do go on. They find the faith, the strength, the hope to keep moving forward. They learn to love again, to be brave again, to return to places and venture to new places, to run races and form foundations and live the life that, many times, a loved one was denied. And to live it well. In my novels, though they may sink, I am always rooting for my characters to swim back up. I have literally stopped writing long enough to pump my fist in the air when one of them breaks the surface.
It is my hope that you will, too.
~ Marybeth
Read more about Every Moment Since:
A small Southern town. An ordinary Saturday night. A little boy disappears without a trace.
Everyone in Wynotte, North Carolina, knows the name Davy Malcor. Knows the video clip of him juggling four balls, “All at the very same time!” Knows the Marty McFly jacket his mother made for his birthday that he wore proudly, and often. But no one knows what happened to him the night he went missing more than twenty years ago.
When the jacket is unexpectedly uncovered, the cold case reopens, and Davy’s family is thrust into yet another media storm. But at the heart of the story are four people forever changed by one single night: Thaddeus Malcor, Davy’s older brother, created the life of his dreams by writing a bestselling memoir about his family’s experience and is enjoying success and notoriety as a result, even if the memoir doesn’t quite reveal the whole story. Tabitha Malcor, his mother, is divorced and living alone, advocating for victims’ rights and faithfully cataloging her regrets each week, never including her biggest regret of all. Anissa Weaver was just a kid herself when Davy went missing, and her connection to him is one she cannot reveal as she serves as the Malcor family’s Public Information Officer. And, long suspected in Davy’s disappearance, Gordon Swift has kept his head down and scraped together a decent life. But the new attention to the case makes it impossible to hide from the public, and the past.
With hauntingly vivid prose, Marybeth Mayhew Whalen peels back the curtain on the inner turmoil of those who were left behind in the small Southern community as they pick up the pieces that remain and press forward into the light to find hope and healing.
Congratulations, Marybeth. And thank you, reader, for sharing our obsessions with us.
Don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Every Moment Since and as always Marybeth is here every week with the TWITCH.
Can’t wait for this book!
That's such a beautiful cover, and the book looks fab!