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Was Doris Duke a Murderer?
Doris Duke’s life would envy any script Hollywood could produce—in fact, she’s been the subject of many magazine articles, books, and made-for-tv movies. She grew up sheltered and overprotected by her parents, inheriting a vast fortune before she was a teenager and finally breaking free in her 20s to explore the world. Along the way, she met many friends and…
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Book Review: You Belong Here by Megan Miranda
Megan Miranda is the queen of creating a suspenseful, atmospheric setting, and she succeeds once again in her latest thriller, You Belong Here. As the mother of two children in college, one of whom is attending a university in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I knew I wanted to check out Miranda’s latest when I learned she was…
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The Murder of Sandra Coulthard
On July 9, 1988, 30-year-old High Point, North Carolina resident Sandra Coulthard passed away at Duke University Medical Center. She’d been sick for about six months with vomiting, diarrhea, vomiting, and numbness of her feet and fingers. Doctors had diagnosed her with Guillain-Barre syndrome and had been treating her for it, but her symptoms never improved. Guillain-Barre syndrome is a…
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Book Review: Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix
Several months ago, I was browsing the shelves of Barnes & Noble when I noticed the book Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix on an end cap. The illustration with the lava lamp instantly caught my eye, and having read The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires several years ago, I knew it would fall into the horror…
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Updates on the Writing Life
I don’t want to discuss how this is probably the last summer we’ll have both of our young adults at home (they are entering their sophomore and senior years of college). Our time with them is winding down, and while I’m sad, I’m also grateful for their desire to live out in the world on their own and reach for…
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Book Review: Broken Country by Clare Leslie Hall
I’ll admit I was “influenced” by Reese Witherspoon’s official book club to put Clare Leslie Hall’s book Broken Country on my TBR list. I didn’t know much about it other than it was a mystery, but I requested it on my Libby app anyway. I knew it would take a few months to become available, and that was fine with…
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Create Vivid Settings In Your Writing This Summer
I often struggle to find my writing groove in the summer. This past year, I officially became an “empty nester” with two kids away at college from August through May. Their absence has given me more time to write. When the kids were younger, I had a hard time balancing my summer schedule with pool time, enrichment activities, and work.…
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The Disappearance of Tyler Doyle from South Carolina
On January 26 of 2023, 22-year-old South Carolina resident Tyler Doyle went duck hunting off the coast of North Myrtle Beach with a friend in a 16-foot jon boat and has been missing ever since. It was a rough day on the water and there was a small craft advisory out that afternoon. He dropped his friend off at the…
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Celebrating Five Years of Podcasting!
When I started my true crime podcast Missing in the Carolinas five years ago, I thought I would be focusing solely on missing persons cases in North and South Carolina. My creative muse had other ideas. Little did my muse know that scanning old newspaper archives would lead me to intriguing crimes from the past (many with no digital footprints)…
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Who Murdered Wesley and Bonnie Mahaffey in Asheville, N.C.?
In 1986, a free vacation getaway turned into a nightmare for an Ohio couple visiting Asheville, North Carolina. Wesley and Bonnie Mahaffey, ages 33 and 29, respectively, had traveled to the area from Hanover Township, Ohio, after winning a three-day trip to Asheville through Wesley’s job. The couple had been staying at a nearby hotel, the Great Smokies Hilton, and…