Charlotte Readers Podcast: Nora Gaskin

In this episode, author Nora Gaskin reads from her true crime book about a murder in Chapel Hill in the 1960s and then jumps to readings from her novel, The Worst Thing.

With Nora’s help, and the characters from The Worst Thing, we dive headfirst into the realm of suspense, where there is no mystery about who is the deranged perpetrator, just plenty of angst about how things are going to turn out.

In addition to The Worst Thing, Nora Gaskin is the author of two previous books, Time of Death: The True Tale of a Quest for Justice in 1960s Chapel Hill, and a mystery, based on a true crime, Until Proven: A Mystery in 2 Parts.

As the founder, editor, and publisher of Lystra Books, Nora has stewarded more than twenty books into publication. She’s also edited the byline for Carolina Crimes: 21 Tales of Need, Greed, and Dirty Deeds, an anthology of stories set in North Carolina and South Carolina, with an introduction by Jeffery Deaver, published in 2017 by Down & Out Books.

Nora traveled to visit with us from her home in Chapel Hill, along the Piedmont backroads, with its woods and curves that often kept her from seeing what’s ahead. She says of Piedmont North Carolina: “It’s the perfect place for a mystery/suspense writer to live.”

Here’s an excerpt from Time of Death:

“Dec. 24, 1963, 8:45 a.m. Stanley Forte pulled up in front of friend Frank Rinaldi’s house and honked the car horn. Frank came out and got in. “Together again, baby,” Frank said and they set off, driving the twelve miles or so from Chapel Hill to Durham, North Carolina, to go Christmas shopping.

They bought gifts for their wives, toys for Stan’s two sons and Frank bought a teddy bear for the baby his wife, Lucille, was carrying.

When they returned to Frank’s duplex apartment, 105 North Street, Chapel Hill, at about 1:30 p.m., they found that Lucille had been struck on the head, gagged, strangled and suffocated. She and her baby were both dead.

By 6 p.m., Frank was in jail, charged with murder.”