Everything is a lie … – 'The Lengths We Go.'
On Halloween night, babysitter Mia Presley is watching her two young charges, Oliver and Claire Marsh.
Oliver balks at going trick-or-treating, so he's left home alone for 30 minutes while his sister goes out to fill her bucket. When the pair return, he's nowhere to be found.
A town already on edge because of the 'Flower Girl Murders' that have taken place during the summer, at what many think at the hand of a serial killer, and the odd accident at Lake Argyle that led to the death of a local teacher, the people of Cromwell ('Easter Egg' as author and English teacher Connor Sullivan calls little hidden treats in the book) are pointing fingers at one another.
Now a 10-year-old boy has disappeared from his home.
'When someone disappears, the questions are always the same – they ask how, what and where,' Sullivan writes in the beginning epigraph.
The Story Behind the Story
Sullivan's debut murder mystery, 'The Body in the River,' launched last summer and has sold more than 1,000 copies to date. But even before his first book was off the press, 'The Lengths We Go' – set to launch Oct. 20 on Amazon, on Barnes & Noble's website, The Community Market and from Sullivan himself - was already percolating, with about 20,000 words written.
The story is set in Cromwell, a fictional town that blends Macomb and Colchester. While Sullivan's first book was a love letter to his grandparents, Milt and Tootie, and their Heapville cabin on the Mississippi River, this book is a tribute to the two towns – and all the people – who supported him, and the lengths they went to support him, with his first book. 'The Lengths We Go' also became a catharsis of sorts for Sullivan as he lost his beloved grandparents, his aunt Debra, his other grandfather, John 'Mike' Sullivan … and his dog, Sonny, … all within 11 months of one another.
'Writing these books, I've always called it my 'wonderland' because it's my little rabbit hole that I escape into,' Sullivan shared. 'It's a place where I have control over literally everything that happens when things in the outside world are beyond my control.
'There are a lot of personal things that had just happened to me in the last year, so readers will see themes on grief and guilt, and how far are you willing to go for something that you really want or you're really scared of something going away?', he explained. 'I tried to look at all angles of the lengths someone would go for X reason. I also wanted this book to be a thank you to everyone who showed up in big ways for me.'
And showed up they did … when he published 'The Body in the River,' he expected to sell 43 copies, enough to break even, Sullivan said with a laugh. Six book signing events later, and a spot on a shelf at the Springfield Barnes & Noble, 1,000 copies have been sold and people are chomping at the bit for book number two. Which also put more pressure on the young author.
'I wrote the first book really to impress my grandparents, Milt and Tootie. With this book, I did feel more pressure. It felt like there were people looking over my shoulder as I was typing, and it was harder to brush that away, whereas the first book I was writing and expecting very few people to read it,' Sullivan pointed out. 'There are expectations now, and I always have this doubt when I'm writing if it's good enough or if people will like it.'
That's where his mom, Gretchen, whom he calls his 'beta reader,' and Kristen, his best friend from graduate school at Western Illinois University, fellow English teacher and editor, come in. Gretchen reads his nearly-final version and gives her honest opinion. And Kristen … Sullivan said she's blunt and will not sugar-coat anything.
'Kristen and I have been editing this since January. We spent a lot more time editing this time around,' he explained.
His mom's thoughts? She found it hard to put down.
'She also pointed out some plot holes and that I was a little windy in some areas,' he laughed. 'I fixed some of it based on her feedback, but I also left some the way it was. She told me she felt like with this book, the writing was more 'mature' style-wise.
'With the first book, when my mom and Kristen critiqued it, my feelings would get a little hurt,' Sullivan said with a smile. 'Now I just want to do whatever I can, whatever is best, to make the story good. And now I'm ready for other people to read it because I'm tired of reading it!'
A Town on Edge... Whodunnit?!
With 'The Body in the River' set in the summer, 'The Lengths We Go' is set in the fall. The people of Cromwell, named after a character in one of Sullivan's favorite movies, 'Halloweentown,' is more than rattled because three teenage girls, Daisy, Rose and Poppy, were killed over the summer, and their deaths are unsolved. Because each girl's first name refers to a flower, the town suspects a 'Flower Girl' serial killer. Then the high school science teacher has died in what the Sullivan described as a weird car accident. Add home break-ins to what has been going on and the residents are more than worried … and they're all under suspicion.
'The whole community is involved. And then I thought about how small towns are really good with secrets and gossip, and everybody knows everybody, and there's rumors left and right,' Sullivan said. 'So how could I up the stakes? I created some problems for this small town, the first of which, there's three teenage girls that were killed over the summer, and their deaths are unsolved. Then there's so much more going on and everyone is pointing fingers at everyone else.'
The book will be offered in hardcover, as well as paperback and e-book, and with the hardcover, under the dust jacket, there's a little 'surprise' on the actual cover of the book. Sullivan wanted to give a nod to 80s/90s 'slasher' flicks, so his designer – a gentleman from Italy he found on the open-source site, Fiverr, designed the perfect cover and 'undercover.'
While the 'Easter Egg' part of the book cover does have that 'slasher' genre feel, and the book does have a slight 'horror' element to it, it's not a major part of the book, he pointed out.
'I don't want to oversell it like it's a really scary book because I don't think it is, but there are a few small parts that are kind of scary,' Sullivan added. 'I have to be vague because it's not out yet, but I want people to think 'Uh, where is this headed?' when they read it.'
As for the killer, will readers be as surprised as they were to learn the killer's identity in 'The Body in the River?' Sullivan certainly hopes so.
'It's hard to guess if people will figure out the killer before they're revealed. I thought people would figure out the first one, but it's also hard to answer for this book because there are three small mysteries interconnected,' he said. 'I don't know which one they will see coming and which one they'll be surprised with. Is it cliche to say that nothing is as it seems? My biggest fear is always that people will be like, 'Oh, I guessed that,' or, 'Oh, I saw that coming,' so I always try to think, 'How can I lead them this way, but it's actually this way?' Which is hard to do, by the way!' Book #3
While Sullivan is already at work on a third murder mystery, he wants readers to have time to enjoy his second book. He's also giving himself room to write the next one without pressure to rush.
Just like when 'The Body' was getting ready to launch and he had about 20,000 words on the page for book number two, Sullivan currently has 20,000 words down on book three.
The only hint provided for the third novel is that it takes place on New Year's Eve.
Final Thoughts
'I'm really excited for people to get into it and see what they think. I'm proud of, this is really nerdy, but I'm proud of some of the sentences in this book. I think it's a more mature writing style like my mom said. I feel like I linger in the prose a little bit longer in some areas. I was trying to throw all the bells and whistles of figurative language and writing that I have learned in my six years as an English teacher in this book,' Sullivan said. 'I was playing around with syntax and technique a little bit more knowing that I was going to have, in theory, a bigger audience reading this book.
'I also want to say thank you to anybody who supported my first book,' he concluded. 'I say in the acknowledgements chapter that 'Books really only come to life when people read them, and that in a world filled with so many books, thank you for choosing one of mine to spend your time with.''
