Joe Exotic. Carole Baskin. Adnan Syed. Steven Avery. If you immediately recognize these names, chances are you’re one of the millions who can’t get enough of True Crime. Dating back to the sixteenth century, the True Crime genre is nothing new. But until recent years, the genre was “relegated to the bin of ‘trash’ culture.” Then came high-quality shows – the Serial podcast, the Making a Murderer docu-series, and others – and suddenly creating and watching (and listening to) True Crime became downright respectable. The shows are now a mainstay, and in many instances, national obsessions.
It was therefore inevitable that True Crime found its way into fiction. Kit Frick, author of the podcast-centric novel, I Killed Zoe Spanos, wrote a compelling piece about the rise of the True-Crime podcast novel, equating the podcaster with a natural offshoot to crime fiction’s long fascination with journalists.
Beyond podcasts, it’s no wonder that the True Crime documentary has also become attractive to novelists. They allow writers to not only use the age-old story-within-a-story structure, but also explore the medium itself.
All of this True Crime content – from the well-researched documentaries, to the spectacle that was Tiger King, to weekly Dateline episodes – share one thing in common: they all use private trauma for public entertainment, which is good fodder for novelists. Integrating True Crime documentaries into a novel can allow an author to explore what happens to participants when the cameras stop rolling. When the documentary subjects are left to deal with the aftermath of being a character in a real-life game of Clue. Where members of the public can take it on themselves to seek justice, electronically tarring and feathering people or even entire communities. Where loved ones of victims can see their worst day relived over ten episodes amid a score of haunting string music. In my 2021 thriller, EVERY LAST FEAR, I examined these themes in a story about a family made infamous by a docu-series who are later found dead under mysterious circumstances, a surviving son left to uncover the truth about their final days.
This month, I release THE NIGHT SHIFT, which doesn’t incorporate a True Crime documentary or podcast, but the novel draws on a type of crime that is the frequent focus of True Crime genre: workplace murders on the nightshift. My novel begins on New Year’s Eve 1999, when four teenagers working at a Blockbuster Video in New Jersey are attacked, and only one survives, inexplicably. Fifteen years later, four more teenage employees are attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again only one makes it out alive. In the aftermath, the lives of the survivors of the two crimes intersect, revealing the secrets of both nights.
The idea started when I was strolling the streets of Georgetown, a neighborhood in Washington, D.C., and I spotted the coffee shop where, in 1997, all the employees were brutally murdered at the end of their shift. I remember it well because they caught the killer shortly after I moved to the city a few years later. That day in Georgetown reminded me of another similar tragedy more than a decade later where two employees working late at a high-end athletic store near my home were attacked by masked intruders – one of the two employees was brutally murdered, the other survived. The crime really shook our community, but then there was a twist: police arrested the surviving victim who was later convicted of murdering her co-worker and staging the scene. I’ve since learned of so many of these types of crimes, many which go unsolved. These cases are haunting because they involve young lives cut too short, our own memories of the excitement and camaraderie of first jobs, and the need for justice for the victims, their families, and loved ones.
I didn’t base THE NIGHT SHIFT on any of the real crimes, but they got me thinking about the heartbreak and trauma that accompany these peculiarly insidious types of mass murders, something I explore in the novel. I delve into the legacy of trauma for the families, the pressure on law enforcement from communities, and the senselessness of these shameful events on the night shift.
The Night Shift by Alex Finlay (Head of Zeus) Out Now
What connects a massacre at a Blockbuster video store in 1999 with the murder of four teenagers fifteen years later? It's New Year's Eve of 1999 when four teenagers working late are attacked at a Blockbuster video store in New Jersey. Only one survives. Police quickly identify a suspect, the boyfriend of one of the victims, who flees and is never seen again. Fifteen years later, four more teenagers are attacked at an ice cream store in the same town, and again only one makes it out alive. In the aftermath of the latest crime, three lives intersect: the lone survivor of the Blockbuster massacre, who is forced to relive the horrors of her tragedy; the brother of the fugitive accused, who is convinced the police have the wrong suspect; and FBI agent Sarah Keller, who must delve into the secrets of both nights to uncover the truth about the Night Shift Murders...
More information about Alex Finlay and his books can be found on his website. You can also find him on Facebook and on Instagram.
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