"Autopsy of a Crime"
Bangin' event last weekend, more to come
Thanks to the more than 100 people who made it out to the New Brunswick Performing Arts Center last Saturday to see me in conversation with my Hall-Mills comrade J.M. Meyer of Thinkery & Verse/Thou Shalt Not. We had was a fascinating discussion about the mystery—“Autopsy of a Crime,” as it was billed—moderated by archivist Kim Adams of the New Brunswick Free Public Library, stewards of the invaluable Hall-Mills Murder Case Collection that I painstakingly mined for BLOOD & INK. There were so many smart questions from the audience, which included grandcousins of Eleanor Mills (who showed me original photos of Eleanor and her sisters), descendants of the Mills family’s former neighbors, great-grandchildren of one of the main detectives from the case, congregants of St. John the Evangelist, and a guy who’s apparently working on a musical about the murders. It was practically a Hall-Mills convention! For those of you who couldn’t make it but are fascinated enough by this story to want to know more, you can listen to the full conversation and Q&A below. (The audio’s decent but you’ll still wanna crank the volume a bit.)
Extra special thanks to the dozens of people who purchased books, and to those who brought the books they’d already purchased—my hand got a workout from signing all those copies. Thanks also to the longtime mayor of New Brunswick, James Cahill, who delivered the opening remarks. And to all of the event organizers/sponsors (NBPAC, NBFPL, Friends of the Library, Middlesex County, the New Brunswick Historical Society, the New Brunswick Cultural Center) for doing such a bang-up job putting this thing together.
Speaking of events… I’m doing an Instagram Live at 3:30 p.m. EST (Friday 10/28) with Oxygen True Crime, which selected BLOOD & INK as its October book club pick. Head over to their Instagram account at the appointed hour to hear me blab about the case. And on the evening Thursday, November 3, I’ll be doing a virtual event with the Boston Athenaeum, which you can register for here. In the meantime, a few more photos from Saturday…
That’s all for now. More soon. Happy Halloween: