Does anyone watch Murder By The Book on Tru TV (formerly Court TV)? Mystery/suspense writers introduce the true crime cases that intrigued them. The style of the show is much like 48 Hours with documentary footage and interviews, but with bestselling authors presenting the cases. The Kellermans, Lee Child, Harlan Coben - they’ve all hosted an episode. I think Lisa Gardner and Sandra Brown have episodes coming up this season.

The most interesting episode was a re-run I just watched with James Ellroy presenting. The true crime case he highlights is his mother’s unsolved murder. This is not exactly new. He has talked about his mother’s murder and used pieces of his life in his books and wrote a book called My Dark Places which deals with her death and his life. But, at the beginning of the show, he talks about how he has traded on his mom’s murder to further his career and how he will not do so any longer. He also talks about how the murder shaped him and the very negative light in which he saw his mother. He’s pretty cold and clinical. Even talks about how, as a boy, he was relieved by the murder.

In an interview about the episode, Ellroy says this:

You wrote about your mother’s murder in My Dark Places. You’ve explored it through fiction with The Black Dahlia. You’ve talked about it in numerous interviews, including this one. In Murder by the Book, you say explicitly that this is the last time you will address the case in a public forum. Why?

I’m enjoying talking to you now, but underneath it all, it’s deadening. Virtually every piece ever written about me brings to light again the story of my mother’s murder. It’s not like I wake up every morning and go, “Boo hoo hoo, my mom was whacked; boo hoo hoo hoo.” She haunts me in odd and unfathomable ways. She’s… there. The show [Murder by the Book] airs Monday night. Then it’s over.

If you’re interested in mystery, writing or true crime, try to watch this one. It’s an interesting study in the aftermath of murder.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 12:02 pm and is filed under About Authors, About Movies and Television, About Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.