Thank you to the author for the gifted copy.
Please join me in welcoming Marcy McCreary to Always With a Book. Marcy’s latest book, The Summer of Love and Death, came out last month. I hope to read it soon, but for now, please enjoy this guest post where she discusses how she came up with the title – something she is often asked at book events.
Publisher: CamCat Books
Published: August 13, 2024
Summary:
The summer of ’69: memorable for some, murder for others…
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 recognizes 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 and new clue, Susan, Jack, and Will must narrow down the pool of suspects before the killer strikes again.
For readers who enjoy mysteries by Richard Osman, Benjamin Stevenson, Robert Dugoni, Anthony Horowitz, Agatha Christie, and Lisa Gardner.
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PRAISE FOR THE SUMMER OF LOVE AND DEATH:
“Murder takes center stage in this Christie-inspired stunner that fuses thriller plotting with a character-driven mystery. McCreary delivers another ovation-worthy read.” — Tessa Wegert, author of Devils at the Door
“With juicy twists, an engaging cast, and an intriguing case that’s impossible to predict, The Summer of Love and Death is everything I want in a mystery. An addictive and entertaining ride!” — Christina McDonald, USA Today Bestselling Author
“An engrossing, clever, and propulsive read guaranteed to keep you turning pages. McCreary’s expert character development, web-weaving, and storytelling abilities shine. Add this to your TBRs now. — Mandy McHugh, bestselling author of Chloe Cates Is Missing and It Takes Monsters
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About the author:
Marcy McCreary is the author of the Ford Family Mystery series: The Summer of Love and Death (8/24), The Murder of Madison Garcia (3/23), and The Disappearance of Trudy Solomon (9/21), which was a finalist for a Silver Falchion Award for Best Investigator Mystery. Her essays about crime fiction have appeared in Mystery & Suspense, Criminal Element, Women Writers/Women’s Books, and Mystery Readers Journal. She graduated from The George Washington University with a B.A. in American literature and political science and pursued a career in marketing and communications. She lives in Hull, MA with her husband, Lew.
Author Links: Website | Facebook | Instagram | X
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Author Guest Post
The Summer of ’69: Love and Death
My latest novel, The Summer of Love and Death, is an interconnected dual timeline mystery set in both 2019 and 1969. I’m often asked what inspired the title, so let me start with a little history of the era…
When one thinks about the last sixties, the words “summer of love” definitely come to mind. The expression was first introduced in 1967 to describe the 100,000 people (hippies, beatniks and counterculture figures) who converged in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district and Golden Gate Park. They shared a common philosophy of spiritual awakening, anti-war sentiment, and sexual freedom. The phrase “summer of love” resurfaced in June 1969 in reference to a series of love-ins that brought together like-minded folk in celebration of free music and good vibes, and for the most part, were peaceful.
But the summer of 1969 was also a year marked by death and violence. On June 28th, New York’s Stonewall Inn, an underground gay bar, was raided by police on the grounds the bar refused to pay an increase in bribery. For three days, hundreds of patrons rioted against police. This clash came to be known as The Stonewall Rebellion, considered the birth of the gay rights movement. In July, The California Zodiac killer shot a waitress in Vallejo. The shot was fatal, adding the woman to the list of victims of the unknown, notorious murderer. In Chappaquiddick, a car driven by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy plunged off a bridge leading to the death of the passenger, Mary Jo Kopechne. On August 8th, cult leader Charles Manson and a group of his disciples murdered five people included Sharon Tate, in her Los Angeles home. The year ends with four dead at Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California, where the Rolling Stones staged a concert and hired the Hells Angels for security. And of course, there was Vietnam which led to the death of 52,800 U.S. service members.
This juxtaposition of “love” and “death” played out in the back of my mind as I sat down to write the novel.
Love is front and center in both timelines. The 1969 chapters play out against the backdrop of the Woodstock festival, while the 2019 chapters feature a love story between Detective Susan Ford and Detective Ray Gorman. So, the phrase “the summer of love” immediately popped into my head as I began to write. But this is a whodunnit mystery about a serial killer and a copycat killer…and themes of intergenerational trauma and senseless death. The title was so obvious to me, I came up with it as soon as I finished writing the first chapter.
Thank you so much Marcy for contributing this guest post for my readers! I hope to read this one soon. In the meantime…I am hosting a giveaway for a signed copy of this book over on my Instagram account. Head here to enter!
