Category: #BookTok

  • Bad Love Strikes

    Bad Love Strikes

    Who is Dr. Kevin Schewe and why is he winning all these awards?

    Shelf Life is lucky to have Guest Blogger Kathy Tretter, co-publisher and editor of the Ferdinand News and Spencer County Leader, two award winning newspapers in Southern Indiana, to answer that question. The following is from her column which ran in the Ferdinand News.

    Kevin L. Schewe, MD, FACRO, is the brilliant, rather dignified (but not stuffy) board-certified radiation oncologist serving Southern Indiana at Memorial Hospital and Health Care’s Lange-Fuhs Cancer Center in Jasper. For 35 years his work and focus revolved around saving the lives of cancer patients.
    You can and should, of course, call him Dr. Schewe (rhymes with “chewy”), but for those who knew him when, his moniker is a tad less, ah, shall we say reverential?

    “If history was taught this way in school, everyone would be a scholar and educating ourselves not only about our accomplishments but the horrors of the past that should awaken and give insight to the path of a better future. A rare gem!”
    —David Holladay, MD, 5-Star

    His wife Nikki, a radiation therapist, probably calls him Kevin, but his old friends know him as Bubble Butt!

    Dr. Schewe discovered, rather late in life, that he possesses both a passion and a talent totally unrelated to the medical profession — and that talent is, quite literally, winning him accolades across the globe.

    At last count he has been honored with over one-hundred international awards for his screenplay, Bad Love Tigers (he’s over 200 honors thus far) — not to mention raves for the four books he wrote on which the screenplay is based. Some of his awards include Best Original Story at the Cannes World Film Festival, Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Screenplay at the Vegas Movie Awards, Best Screenplay at the London Classic Film Festival and Honorable Mention at the Los Angeles Movie Awards. Most recently he earned the Best Screenplay Award at the East Coast Movie Awards.

    A partial list of his wins appears at the end of this article and the scope is quite simply astonishing.

    According to his publicist, “In less than six months on the international screenplay circuit, Kevin Schewe’s Bad Love Tigers generated momentum on its whirlwind sweep of the globe, finding acclaim at film festivals spanning from Los Angeles to Hong Kong and dozens of locations in between.” That quote came at the end of June after the screenplay had amassed, by that point, 83 awards, and the list continued to grow from there.

    So how did this all transpire? It’s not every day someone wholly ensconced in a profession as intense as medicine suddenly clicks on his brain’s right hemisphere (creative side) to become a novelist and screenwriter, although the left (logical) side is responsible for language and probably had something to do with both his careers.

    Here’s what happened.


    Dr. Schewe is a history buff and reads everything he can get his hands on concerning World War II. He came across a true military history story that happened on a late afternoon in November of 1944, as the war in the European Theater was starting to wane. A brand new B-17G Flying Fortress (four-engined heavy bomber with a 104 foot wing span), known as the Phantom Fortress, landed at a British air base in Belgium. These bombers were a proud symbol of American air strength during World War II and there were several iterations, the B-17G being the last.

    As this colossus was coming toward the landing strip with no warning, the tower kept trying to radio the pilot, to no avail.

    The landing had not been perfect. There was some damage to one engine when the bomber end-rolled in, touched down, spun around, dipped, and hit the runway, but it landed and came to a halt, the remaining three engines still turning.

    Gunnery crews on the ground were scratching their heads trying to figure out what was going on. Was everyone inside dead? But then how did the bomber land? Was this a proverbial Trojan Horse, a trick of the Nazis?

    Apparently British Lieutenant John Crisp drew the short straw and went out to the plane to investigate about half an hour later when no one disembarked.
    What he found was surreal. No one was in the cockpit or anywhere else in the bomber. Parachutes were lined up along the fuselage, while a leather flight jacket and candy bars littered the floor.

    As could be expected, an investigation ensued. The man who was supposed to be piloting the B-17G (on only its third mission) was later located and said he and the crew had been en route to bomb the Leuna Synthetic Oil Refinery — Nazi Germany’s second largest synthetic oil plant and second biggest chemical operation — when an engine failed. The B-17 was losing altitude and destined to crash, so the crew abandoned the mission and bailed out in the clouds.
    But it didn’t crash — it landed on Allied soil and only one engine — the one damaged on landing — had failed.

    Which, Dr. Kevin “Bubble Butt” Schewe realized made absolutely no sense. Why would the crew not have used parachutes and why would anyone depart without his jacket as the air outside would have been frigid? The only engine that failed was the one damaged during touchdown in Belgium.

    Please note, B-17Gs were not drones, nor were they equipped to land themselves, so those facts alone would seemingly constitute a miracle.
    This is where the whole right brain/left brain scenario comes in — this true tale lit an imaginative spark in Dr. Schewe. His mind then took a slight right to his undergrad roots as a physics major. “When I read this story it was like I was struck by lightening,” he recalls. He sat down and began penning the first novel, developing the characters based on his childhood friends with a couple of fictional personages added for good measure.

    What resulted is a superlative blending of fact and fiction, and it’s highly tempting to give everything away.

    But here’s a taste.

    Dr. Schewe grew up in St. Louis (his Dad served under General MacArthur in World War II) and his friends did indeed (and still do) call him Bubble Butt. Many of those friends appear in the books and script — their nicknames intact as well. The protagonist is Bubble Butt, but with a different surname. The action happens in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, which everyone who has read even a little bit of history knows was the epicenter for the Manhattan Project leading to the development of the atomic bomb.

    The fiction is fascinating and partially based in reality, such as the discovery of exotic matter (a focus of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity), also a necessary component of time travel (oops, getting close to spilling the beans).

    The year is 1974 and Bubble Butt and friends accidentally come across a secret, cavernous vault known during WWII as the White Hole Project near the Oak Ridge complex. This dynamic group of young adventurers, known as the Bad Love Gang, use a time machine to travel back to the World War II era.
    So there, you got it out of me.

    One feature of the first book, Bad Love Strikes, will surely provide the soundtrack for the movie (if it gets made and surely it will). On the first pages Dr. Schewe gives a list of songs to play while reading every chapter, from “Born To Be Wild” in chapter one to “Shambala” in chapter 20. Each chapter also begins with a quote such as “Put your hand on a hot stove for one minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.” — Albert Einstein. Or the one prior to the epilogue, “OK, I will admit that I am having some memory issues. I can do pretty good with the past, it’s the future I’m having trouble remembering …” — Larry W. Schewe, father of the author when his memory was beginning to fail.

    According to his publicist, “Schewe’s Bad Love Tigers is a feel-good, action-adventure, sci-fi blend of Stand by Me meets Raiders of the Lost Ark or Back to the Future meets Goonies. The energetic and fun screenplay has strong appeal and great potential to attract an audience of all ages to the big screen. This incredible display of worldwide interest shows that Bad Love Tigers is already a global phenomenon, crossing cultures and borders and demonstrating its potential to be a feel-great-again, big-screen blockbuster.”

    Which is why it has garnered so many awards.

    So who exactly is Kevin Schewe, physician author and screenwriter, and where did he come from?

    He moved to Jasper after the clinic at which he had worked in Colorado changed hands. He was extremely attracted to the radiology equipment at Memorial, noting some very generous donors made the Cancer Clinic at the Jasper-based hospital top of the line. The fact the move would allow for more time to write also appealed as Bubble Butt has plotted eight more books in the series.
    “I plan to be here for the next seven years [until retirement],” he notes. Then with a cheeky smile adds, “Unless Stephen Spielberg calls.”

    The 72 National and International Awards won (so far) by Bad Love Tigers (a partial list out of more than 200)

    · Best Screenplay, Eastern Europe International Movie Awards (Izmir, Turkey)
    · Best Original Story, Cannes World Film Festival (Cannes, France)
    · Best Feature Screenplay, HALO International Film Festival (St. Petersburg, Russia)
    · Best Feature Script and Best Action Screenplay, Top Film Awards Film Festival
    · Best Feature Screenplay, Golden Nugget International Film Festival (London, UK)
    · Best Screenplay, 52 Weeks Film Festival (Thousand Oaks, CA)
    ·Best Original Story, Cannes World Film Festival (Cannes, France) Vegas Movie Awards (Las Vegas, NV)
    · Best Screenplay, Indo-Global 2022 Film Festival (Mumbai, India)
    · Best Sci-Fi Screenplay, Masters of Cinema International Film Festival (Rome, Italy)
    · Best Sci-Fi Screenplay, Stardust Films and Screenplays Festival (New York, NY)
    · Best Feature Screenwriting, Red Moon Film Festival (New York, NY)
    · Outstanding Achievement, Swedish International Film Festival (Arkiva, Sweden)
    · Best Script Award for Best Sci-Fi Screenplay, London Film Festival (London, UK)
    · Best Screenplay, The Gladiator Film Festival (Istanbul, Turkey)
    · Best Screenplay, Inca Imperial International Film Festival (Lima, Peru)
    · Best Unproduced Script, Indiefare International Film Festival
    · Best Sci-Fi Script, Hong Kong World Film Festival (Hong Kong)
    · Honorable Mention, Los Angeles Movie Awards (Los Angeles, CA)
    · Best Feature Script, New York Neorealism Film Awards (Rome, Italy)
    · Best Screenplay, London Classic Film Festival (London, UK)
    · Best Sci-Fi Screenplay, Stardust Films and Screenplays Festival , Best Original Screenplay, and Best Poster, Golden Giraffe International Film Festival (Nice, France)
    · Best Sci-Fi Short Script, Red Dragon Creative Awards (Dallas, Texas)
    · Best Short Screenplay, Silver Mask Live Festival (Los Angeles, California)
    · Best Script Written During Pandemic, Redwood Shorts & Scripts (Sunnyvale, California)
    · Critic’s Choice Award for Best Feature Script/Screenplay, International Motion Picture Festival of India (Pondicherry, India)
    · Best Sci-Fi Script, Mykonos International Film Festival (Mykonos, Greece)
    · Best Sci-Fi Screenplay, Thinking Hat Fiction Challenge (Punjab, India)
    · Outstanding Achievement for Feature Script, Luis Bunuel Memorial Awards (Kolkata, India)
    · Best Feature Screenplay, South Film and Arts Academy Festival (Rancagua, Chile)
    · Best Sci-Fi Script, Gold Star Movie Awards (Newark, New Jersey)
    · Best Sci-Fi Screenplay Award, BRNO Film Festival (Brno, Czech Republic)
    · Best Feature Screenplay, Filmmaker Life Awards (Hollywood, CA)
    · Best Story Screenplay Award, The Madrid Art Film Festival (Madrid, Spain)
    · Best Feature Screenplay, White Unicorn International Film Festival (Hong Kong, India, Japan)
    · Feature Script Audience Choice Award, Black Swan International Film Festival (Kolkata, India)
    · Best Feature Script/Screenplay, Indo French International Film Festival (Pondicherry, India)
    · Best Script, New York Independent Cinema Awards (New York, NY)
    · Best Script in a Feature Film, World Indie Film Awards (Chongqing, China)
    · Best Script (Sci-Fi), Los Angeles Film & Script Festival (Los Angeles, CA)
    · Best Screenplay for Young Adults, Bridge Fest Film Festival (Vancouver, Canada)
    · Best Thriller Screenplay, Adbhooture Film Festival (West Bengal, India)
    · Feature Script Outstanding Achievement Award, Royal Society of Television and Motion Picture (Kolkata, India)

    About Kathy Tretter

    Kathy Tretter with Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb .

    Active in her community, Kathy Tretter is President, Editor/Co-publisher at Dubois-Spencer Counties Publishing Co., Inc., is former Chair of the Spencer County Chamber of Commerce, past president of the Hoosier State Press Association and remains on their board. An award winning editor, Tretter was the winner of the 2014 Rotary Club of Jasper’s ATHENA International Leadership award. The ATHENA Award, an international honor, recognizes women who have demonstrated excellence in professional leadership, community service, and the mentorship of future women leaders and also have been active in community service and show professional excellence.

    Tretter is also the editor of Santa’s Daughter, the autobiography of Patricia Yellig Koch, who an nductee into the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame and founder of the Santa Claus Museum. The museum’s mission is to preserve the history of the community of Santa Claus and the attractions that helped build “America’s Christmas Hometown.”

  • Murder and Mayhem by Malware … Bits and Bytes That Steal and Kill…

    Murder and Mayhem by Malware … Bits and Bytes That Steal and Kill…

    Ross Carley’s first four novels feature PI and computer hacker Wolf Ruger, an Iraq vet with PTSD. Dead Drive (2016) and Formula Murder, set in the formula racing industry (2017) are murder mysteries.

    Cyberthrillers Cyberkill (2018) and Cryptokill (2020) are books one and two of the Cybercode Chronicles. His fifth novel, The Three-Legged Assassin, featuring assassin Lance Garrett, was released in February 2022. Ross is an artificial intelligence and cybersecurity consultant. He and Francie split their time between Indiana and Florida.

    Ross Carley, a former engineering professor who served as a military intelligence officer and was the CTO of a defense contractor, is also the author of four books in the computational intelligence area.

    Follow Ross at:

    Ross Carley Books;

    Facebook

    Good Reads

    Instagram

  • The most popular #BookTok books in every state

    The most popular #BookTok books in every state

    TikTok’s book community “#BookTok” was recently referred to by The New York Times as a “best seller machine.” In this community, creators post literary content to the app, ranging from book recommendations to their emotional reactions during pivotal plot points. 

    This content has catapulted sales for a select few books, and major book retailers such as Barnes & Noble are recognizing the community’s power.

    These days, it takes one viral TikTok for a book to become a bestseller. #BookTok reaches readers across the world, and a nation’s most popular books can tell us a lot about its language and culture. So which books are actually selling, and what do they have in common? 

    Using Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, and Google search interest data, we conducted an analysis of the titles rising in popularity due to TikTok. Our report ranks the most popular books and authors, determines which are favored in each state, and even highlights the older books making a comeback due to TikTok. 

    Key findings

    The most popular #BookTok books and authors

    For BookTok community members, reading is all about finding stories that captivate their audience’s emotions – particularly their sense of romance. The top-five best-selling books due to TikTok are nearly all romances, and two of them share the same author.

    The five most popular #BookTok books are:

    • It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover (romance)
    • The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han (romance)
    • Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover (romance)
    • The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory (romance)
    • The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (young adult)

    #BookTok has popularized the romance genre with Gen Z readers. Romance tropes such as “enemies to lovers” and “fake dating” allow readers to enjoy fun, lighthearted stories with satisfying emotional endings across many different books with unique characters. 

    In fact, of the top 55 books analyzed, 24 were in the romance genre, according to Goodreads classifications. Fantasy books took up 12 slots, with young adult (8), thriller (6), and historical fiction (4) genres following.

    With two books in the top three slots, Colleen Hoover is the standout author on #BookTok. Her titles Verity and It Starts With Us are also in the top 25 #BookTok books. A romance author with one thriller title (Verity), Hoover is active on TikTok and Instagram, engaging with the community with her humorous personality. She clearly has a strong sense of what’s popular in online reading communities. 

    Jennifer L. Armentrout also has four titles gaining significant traction on TikTok. A prolific fantasy and romance writer, books from her Blood and Ash, Harbinger and Dark Elements series have each been heavily promoted by the #BookTok community. 

    Other popular #BookTok authors include Alice Oseman, Casey McQuiston, Elle Kennedy and Emily Henry, each with three books on the top #BookTok book list.

    The most popular #BookTok books by state

    A nation’s most popular books can tell us a lot about its culture, and the same is true for individual states. We analyzed the list of over 170 popular #BookTok books using local search data to determine the most popular #BookTok bestseller in every state and created a map to display each state’s favorite title.

    With 41 books represented, there are a wide variety of popular books in the U.S. right now, thanks to TikTok. The books most popular on a state-by-state level include:

    • Ugly Love (4 states)
    • Book of Night (3 states)
    • A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (2 states)
    • One Last Stop (2 states)
    • The Spanish Love Deception (2 states)
    • The Summer I Turned Pretty (2 states)
    • Written in the Stars (2 states)

    The books making a comeback thanks to #BookTok

    Finally, some books published well over a decade ago are seeing a resurgence in popularity thanks to TikTok. We removed books that have movie adaptations or are part of popular franchises such as Twilight or The Hunger Games

    Here are the lesser-known titles that #BookTok is giving a comeback:

    • I Am Number Four (published 2009)
    • Anna and the French Kiss (published 2010)
    • The Song of Achilles (published 2011)
    • Throne of Glass (published 2012)
    • Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (published 2012)

    Conclusion

    Books open up our worlds and minds. Simple stories that follow traditional narrative arcs can also be effective language learning tools. Whether your recommendation comes from #BookTok or The New York Times, discover a new title and learn about a different culture, place, or time. 

    Methodology: Using a list of 170+ popular #BookTok titles compiled by Barnes & Noble, we used Google search data to conduct this analysis. Genre data compiled using Goodreads.

  • Luckiest Girl Alive book review|Lainey Gossip Books

    Luckiest Girl Alive book review|Lainey Gossip Books

    If You’re not following Lainey Gossip, may I suggest that you do. It’s all about pop culture including books, fashion, movies, celebrities, etc. with lots of fun videos including this one of Tom Cruise thanking people for seeing his latest movie Top Gun: Maverick while free falling from an airplane and talking on his way down. It’s all about getting the shot says Lainey, and he sure does.

    Here are a couple of posts from her site–and I mean who wouldn’t love a column titled Smutty Book Round-up?

    Here’s short bio from her website

    LaineyGossip.com is an entertainment news and gossip blog co-founded by Elaine “Lainey” Lui. The primary voice of LaineyGossip.com, she is also co-host of CTV’s daytime talk show “The Social”, and a reporter on CTV’s “etalk”, Canada’s number one rated entertainment news show.

    The site started as an email to small group of friends and colleagues in 2003 and spread by word of mouth to thousands of now loyal readers. It launched as a website in December 2004 and has since grown into an immensely popular entertainment destination visited by over 1.5 million monthly unique readers. Generating over 18 million monthly page views, it is now a leading international celebrity gossip source and a must read for well-read, educated females across North America.

    Aside from securing hot tips and exclusive party access on its own, the site has benefited from the access associated with Lainey’s role on CTV’s etalk, which she joined in 2006 as a special correspondent. With etalk Lainey has covered the Red Carpet at the Oscars, SuperBowl XLII, Cannes and Toronto International Film Festivals, and other top tier events worldwide.

    In April of 2014 Lainey fulfilled a lifelong dream when her first book Listen to the Squawking Chicken: When a Mother Knows Best, What’s a Daughter to Do? A Memoir (Sort Of) was published (by Random House in Canada and Penguin in the USA).

    Bored yet? If not, below is a selection of clippings from a handful of magazines and newspapers over the past few years.

    Need more? See the our full bio here (PDF format) or email press@laineygossip.com for more information.
    Buzzfeed, April 2021
    Perez Hilton And Lainey Gossip Were Famous For Their Mean Blogs. Now They’re Trying To Change.
    By Saachi Koul

    ELLE

    Every day after I came home from high school, I’d run to my bedroom, turn on my enormous, whirring black Dell desktop, and read Perez Hilton — the up-to-the-minute celebrity gossip blog — for hours. Paparazzi hunting young famous women and bloggers updating their whereabouts by the second created the feeling that every It girl in Los Angeles was publicly spiraling… Link to full article
    Toronto Star, Jan 2021
    TV sensation Lainey Lui’s dogs, Barney and Elvis, may the best-loved beagles in Toronto. You have to meet them
    By Jillian Vieira

    ELLE

    There are dog people, and then there’s Lainey Lui. Along with husband Jacek Szenowicz, she’s pet parent to Barney, 10, and Elvis, 5, a pair of brotherly beagles who The Social co-host, eTalk co-anchor and founder of LaineyGossip.com fully admits are beneficiaries of an ultra-spoiled situation… Link to full article
    ELLE Canada, May 2020
    15 Inspirational Asian Canadians to Know
    By Patricia Karounos and Hannah Zeigler

    ELLE

    All of our best gossip comes from Elaine Lui – or Lainey, as she is better known. The Toronto-born writer launched her eponymous blog, Lainey Gossip, in 2004 while still working at Vancouver’s Covenant House. Two years later, she quit her job to preside over the site full time, and she’s been a regular fixture in our pop-culture routine ever since… Link to full article
    Chatelaine, Sept 2019
    Elaine Lui On Aging: Some Women Want To Embrace Their Wrinkles, But That’s Not Me
    By Courtney Shea

    Chatelaine

    I’m on TV several times a week for The Social and etalk, and one of the things I’m constantly hearing from audience members or on social media is, “Cut that hair!”—that it’s too long for my age. First of all: If you had my hair, would you cut it?… Link to full article
    The Cut, Nov 2018
    How I Get It Done: Elaine Lui of LaineyGossip
    Lisa Ryan

    The Cut

    You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who understands gossip better than Elaine “Lainey” Lui, the Canadian maven behind LaineyGossip.com. She’s been running the site for more than a decade, and parlayed it into a career as an entertainment journalist…. Link to full article
    BBC News, Sept 2017
    Canadian blogger Lainey Lui on why gossip is political
    By Jessica Murphy

    BBC

    Elaine “Lainey” Lui is keeping a sharp eye on Colin Farrell. The Irish actor is a few tables over in the lobby of a downtown hotel being interviewed for a film he’s promoting at the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff). The festival, which runs until 17 September, is a busy time for Lui…. Link to full article
    The Ringer, October 2016
    Lainey Is Yours in Gossip: How a 12-year-old celebrity blog became essential again
    By Allison P. Davis

    The Ringer

    Elaine Lui has had her back to me for about 20 minutes, typing away on her Surface tablet. We’re tucked into her broom closet of an office in Toronto’s Bell Media complex, where Lui sits amid an immense but well-organized pile of stuff. A heap of designer shoes is stashed in a cubby; the walls are decorated in the style of collage-obsessed 19-year-old – there’s a Slytherin banner on her front door… Link to full article
    Slate, July 2016
    A Celebrity Gossip Expert Explains the Summer of Taylor Swift
    By Heather Schwedel

    Slate.com

    Taylor Swift is having quite the summer – from her breakup with Calvin Harris to the birth of Hiddleswift to Kim Kardashian’s receipts-apalooza, plus or minus a Nils Sjoberg, she’s been consistently dominating headlines. But what does it all mean? LaineyGossip.com is where many of the smart women I follow online turn for informed interpretation of the latest celebrity scandal… Link to full article
    The Walrus, March 2015
    IN DEFENCE OF LOW CULTURE: And praise of love, hate, discovery, jealousy, obsession, betrayal, and mean-girling
    By Elaine Lui for The Walrus Talks Creativity

    walrus-speech-mar15.jpg

    Elaine Lui is a Canadian television personality, reporter, blogger, and author. She runs the celebrity-gossip website laineygossip.com, reports for CTV’s etalk, co-hosts CTV’s daily talk series The Social, and wrote the mother-daughter memoir Listen to the Squawking Chicken… Link to see video
    Toronto Life, November 2014
    Toronto’s 50 Most Influential: the people who changed the city in 2014
    By Toronto Life

    toronto-life-nov14.jpg

    She’s the quirkiest, funniest and most watchable member of The Social, CTV’s answer to The View, and the active ingredient in its success. The show, now in its second season, reaches 2.4 million viewers weekly (up 300,000 from Season One) and has reeled in such high-watt guests as Katy Perry, Jessica Alba, Jane Lynch and Daniel Radcliffe. Her website, LaineyGossip, attracts… Link to full article
    FLARE May, 2014
    Mother Clucker
    By Maureen Halushak

    flare-may2014.jpg

    In her new “sort of” memoir, Lainey Gossip’s ELAINE LUI divulges her most personal scoop yet: the inner workings of her insanely close relationship with her mom, semi-affectionately known as the Squawking Chicken. Over dim sum, MAUREEN HALUSHAK observes the dynamic. Read on for the full experience, plus an exclusive excerpt… Link to full article

    https://www.laineygossip.com/Luckiest-Girl-Alive-book-review/Books/2063

  • Blood Runs Green: The Murder That Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago

    Blood Runs Green: The Murder That Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago

     

    Almost 12,000 people streamed into the First Cavalry Armory on Michigan Avenue in Chicago on May 25, 1889 to view the coffin of Dr. P.H. Cronin, an Irish physician and political activist who had been savagely murdered.

    “It was one of the first ‘sensational’ murders covered by the Chicago press and far beyond,” says Gillian O’Brien, author of Blood Runs Green: The Murder That Transfixed Gilded Age Chicago(University of Chicago Press, 2015; $17). “It wasn’t just the newspapers that were fascinated – there were Dime Novels written about the crime, waxwork reproductions were made of the body, the suspects and the horse that took the doctor to the scene of his murder was put on show at a Dime Museum. The house where he was killed was opened to the public for a fee.”

    Blood Runs Green

    For O’Brien, a historian and Reader in Modern Irish History at Liverpool John Moores University, it wasn’t just the luridness of the crime that caught her interest but that Cronin, involved in a secret Irish American republican society, was murdered because he fell out with the leadership of the organization called Clan na Gael. She first learned about the murder while researching at the Newberry Library in Chicago and after running across numerous references to the investigation and trial she searched for a book about Cronin but learned that little had been written since shortly after the trial.

    “The repercussions of the murder on the Irish in Chicago and the Irish in America more broadly were very significant,” she says explaining her reason for undertaking extensive research to and writing the book. “There was a backlash against the Irish with many arguing that a hyphenated identity was problematic. There was a feeling that the Irish could never be truly American because of their residual loyalty to Ireland. The fact that an Irish political murder took place on American soil was also a cause for great concern. It was the combination of the sensational crime and the impact of it on Irish America and on Irish republicanism that made it a very compelling story for me.”