Stephanie Kane needed 50 years to write this true crime memoir

Stephanie Kane is a lawyer and award-winning author of seven crime novels and a true crime memoir. She lives in Denver with her husband and two black cats.

SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?

Stephanie Kane: “True Crime Redux” is the true story of the murder of Denver-area housewife Betty Frye in 1973. It happened two weeks before my wedding to her son. I was also one of the last people to speak to Betty that morning, and hours later one of the first to see her killer. Betty’s story took me 50 years to write, but this wasn’t the first time I tried to tell it. 

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“Quiet Time,” my first novel, was a fictionalized version of Betty’s murder. Published in 2001, I’d written it to exorcise my own ghosts: the guilt and fear that the wedding was the catalyst. But in 2005, the killer’s sister saw an old interview of me on TV, went out and bought that book, and then came forward with information which reopened the case. Suddenly I was a prosecution witness. 

For the 10 years that the cold case wound its way through the courts, my hands were tied. When it ended, I got the official files. Instead of just my memories of that day, I finally had the facts. “True Crime Redux” goes a step further and answers the question of why.

SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it?

Kane: The first three chapters establish the characters and setting and take the reader directly to the morning Betty was killed. 1973 was a time of great social upheaval, and the murder was rooted in that time and place. 

SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?

Kane: Betty’s murder made me a writer. “Quiet Time” was my lab for learning fiction craft. Between it and “True Crime Redux” I published six other mystery-thrillers. Looking back, each taught me to hone my craft (character development, dramatic structure, suspense, etc.) so that when I finally had the facts, I could tell the story of Betty’s murder in the most effective way.

“True Crime Redux” itself morphed several times as nonfiction before ending up as a true crime memoir. First I tried writing it in third person. This tight linear procedural attracted a top New York agent and some publishers, but never sold. Purged of emotion and texture, it was uninteresting and flat. To rediscover Betty’s story, I had to make it my own.

“True Crime Redux”

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So I rewrote it in first person with all the messy emotion, as a blog. The challenge now was condensing the intensity into digestible bites, telling it in my voice, and putting it under a larger lens which hopefully added up to something bigger. To create an overarching theme and place Betty’s murder in a context that finally makes sense, I framed each post with a mystery-writer’s storytelling device: red herrings, scapegoats, recasting villains and heroes, etc. This new take on true crime attracted a publisher. The last step was unifying it into a cohesive narrative. 

SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?

Kane: The biggest challenge was how to deal with the facts: how much or little to say, and marrying that to the chosen structure.

SunLit: What’s the most important thing – a theme, lesson, emotion or realization — that readers should take from this book? 

Kane: The concept of mercy. Because it’s the opposite of retribution, we don’t think of it as an aspect of justice; instead of an eye for an eye, it recognizes and accepts the wrong. Mercy is not a right, but a gift.

SunLit: What does justice mean, and to whom does it belong? 

Kane: When the cold case rolled around, Betty’s kids didn’t want her killer prosecuted. That’s just revenge, one said; another thought the whole thing could have been handled with a phone call. But what about Betty? And aren’t there larger interests at stake? 

“Black’s Law Dictionary” defines justice as rendering every man his due, and since ancient times the blindfolded woman wielding the sword and scales has symbolized fairness. In addition to personal accountability for the wrongs we do, society has an interest in bringing things back into balance. The first step to righting a wrong is recognizing that one has occurred. 

A few more quick questions

SunLit: Which do you enjoy more as you work on a book – writing or editing?

Kane: Nothing matches the thrill of nailing something in words, but editing is a lot easier.

SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing – at any age – that you remember being proud of?

Kane: A story I wrote in elementary school about a little girl in a covered wagon. Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, there was nothing more exotic to me than the West.

SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing?

Kane: Not a quote, but something I read in an interview of an author whose first novel was a runaway bestseller and whose second novel was a critical disappointment. He said he was still the same person the day after his second novel bombed as he’d been when his first novel hit. 

SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you?

Kane: Eclectic interests.

SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write?

Kane: Silence.

SunLit: What music do you listen to for sheer enjoyment?

Kane: Oldies and folk music.

SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?

Kane: Still not convinced.

SunLit: Greatest writing fear?

Kane: An empty page.

SunLit: Greatest writing satisfaction?

Kane: A full page!