A True Crime Addict: A Guest Post by Mary Kubica

A double murder at a tranquil lake resort — now that’s a thrilling mystery. Suspenseful and twisty, everyone is a potential suspect here. If you love locked room mysteries with true crime vibes, then this one will grip you from the start. Read on for an exclusive essay from author Mary Kubica on writing It’s Not Her.

Like many of us these days, I’m a true crime addict. I spend a lot of time with my AirPods in, listening to podcasts like Crime Junkie, Morbid and more. Although I find them to be both fascinating and sad, It’s Not Her is the first book of mine that’s loosely based on a true crime case, one known as the Keddie Cabin Murders.

The crime took place in April of 1981 in Keddie, California, when three people were murdered in their cabin overnight: a mother, Sue Sharp, her teenage son and his friend. Their bodies were discovered the following morning by fourteen-year-old Sheila Sharp when she returned home from a sleepover.

What struck me most when hearing about the Keddie Cabin Murders was not only how horrific they were, but that two younger siblings and a friend were in the home that same night and able to sleep through the brutal murders. In addition, a twelve-year-old sister was missing and, while ultimately this turned out to be a very fortunate thing for some and a tragic end another, I initially wondered if any of these other kids could have committed the crime.

In reality, the three boys who slept through the murders were ten years old and younger—much too young to have committed such a crime—and the missing Tina Sharp’s remains would be discovered years later—not a killer herself but another victim in this brutal attack. Still, it was that mental image that inspired the novel: a young girl returning home from a sleepover to find family members murdered in the home overnight, and other siblings (if only in my own mind) emerging as suspects.

From there, the similarities between the Keddie Cabin Murders and It’s Not Her end. What happens in the book is completely made-up, and the characters are entirely their own and bear no similarities to the victims in Keddie. To this day, the Keddie Cabin Murders remain unsolved; though suspects have emerged over the years, no one has ever been officially charged with the crime.

We will, however, find out who murdered Nolan and Emily Crane in It’s Not Her.

It’s Not Her is the story of two families who go vacationing together in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, renting cottages on a lake. One night, a husband and wife, Nolan and Emily Crane, are killed in their cottage and discovered the following morning by their ten-year-old daughter, Mae, when she returns from a sleepover. But who killed them? Other surviving family members are desperate to find out, but they don’t know if the killer is a stranger—or one of them.

Not only is this a murder mystery, but it is also a story of young love, loss, a marriage in crisis, the vulnerabilities of being a teenager these days and the difficulties of parenting, especially when it comes to raising teens.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I loved writing it.