"Henry has done it again"
New book, school visits, and a mysterious arrest
Drama in the air and on the ground
What a month! I celebrated my birthday. Stay Dead was a finalist for the Oregon Book Award and I wore a fancy dress to the awards ceremony. At school visits in the St. Louis area and upstate New York, I spoke to 3,500 students and got to see amazing student art. And after one flight, my across-the-aisle seat mate, a nicely dressed businessman, was marched off by law enforcement. (I would still love to know what he did! The only crime I personally saw him commit was taking off his shoes - but he did leave on his socks.)
“Henry has done it again!”
When We Go Missing releases May 13. Booklist says, “The fast-paced plot is narrated from three perspectives: Willow, Dare, and the serial killer, which keeps the pages turning. Known for her deeply suspenseful novels, Henry has done it again.”
The story behind the story
When We Go Missing was loosely inspired by serial killer Rodney Alcala (known as the Dating Game Killer, and recently the subject of a Netflix movie called Woman of the Hour). He was convicted of nine murders of young women, many of whom he lured in by claiming he could help them with a modeling career by taking their photo. (Another serial killer, Christopher Wilder, did the same thing.)
When police were investigating him for a 1979 murder, they found a cache of hundreds of photos Alcala kept in a storage locker in Seattle. Periodically, these photos have been released to the public in the hopes of identifying them. Some of these young women have been identified, others have not. One woman recognized her sister, whose body was found only feet away from where she posed on the back of Alcala’s motorcycle.
Photos featuring a woman with a Farrah Fawcett haircut caught my eye. In various articles, I have seen three photos of her, seemingly taken back to back. In one she smiles. In the next, her blouse has been pulled down over one shoulder and she looks doubtful. In the last, her expression is morphing to fear.
As far as I know, she has never been identified.
For years, I have been playing around with having a character who takes photos of pets at an animal shelter, hoping to make them more adoptable. I decided to combine these two ideas.
What if this volunteer, Willow, found a camera card on the sidewalk? Hoping to reunite it with its owner, she looks at the card’s contents. Willow is shocked to find photos of hundreds of girls, some smiling, some unaware, and a few who seem afraid.
Willow teams up with another volunteer, Dare, to try to figure out what happened after the photos were taken.
Win a book!
Would you like to win a free signed hardcover of When We Go Missing? Just tell me something you are looking forward to this summer. Winner will be chosen at random.
Do you work for a Title 1 school?
Let me know if you work for a Title 1 school middle or high school. I might have something special in the works.
This book sounds soooo good! Those pictures are so haunting. You would think at this point someone recognizes her. Excited to dive into this book this summer and also spend time with my family once we are all out of school. I'll be trekking around the high desert of Washington with our youth church group pulling a handcart getting a glimpse into pioneer life as ma and pa with my husband. Wish us luck! haha I am a middle school librarian at a title 1 school.
My middle schooler can’t wait for the next book. We are looking forward to taking a family cruise once school is out and she wants to read it while at sea :)