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It all began in November...

  • milliknudsen
  • Jan 26
  • 2 min read

The book launched at Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, November 21st. What an exciting night! I opened by saying it reminded me of the old TV show This Is Your Life. I looked out at the crowd and saw my husband, friends from my weight-loss group, the church, co-workers, several detectives, my former supervisor at Major Crime, an assistant AG, neighbors and my publisher Deidre. Even our town administrator was there! It definitely was my life right there in front of me.


I opened with the first story of the book from Laconia, how Thomas Samon tried to pawn the murder of Jennie Ford off onto her husband John.


I told a story from the NH Prison (since I was in Concord) about Michael Storin. Guards were concerned that Michael would give them a hard time so they doubled up and attempted to remove him from his cell in order to place him in the "dungeon" downstairs, but a fight ensued. Michael grabbed a pan of hot water from the top of a coal stove and threw it at Officer Rand who was badly burned.


Then I showed a timeline of the period covered by Murder and Mayhem, 1883-1915 when railroad travel became a common occurrence. The story of Isaac Sawtell showed his use of train travel and also addressed the legal question of whether you can be tried in a state where not all the body of your victim is located.


After a few more readings, I asked if anyone had questions or comments. It was my favorite part of the evening as I heard reactions to my talk and questions about how I felt about the treatment of women during that period. With my law enforcement co-workers in the room, I addressed how I felt about prisoners passing on knowledge of their criminal activity to other prisoners. Some asked me why I was still working fulltime at age 70, and was able to get in a dig at my present supervisor who had hired me after hearing all my best arguments against it. Even he laughed.


I walked away, so excited about having been coached by Ernest Thompson on what to do and what not to do at a book talk. So grateful to him for his support and advice!

 
 
 

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