Holy Hell: A Lillian Byrd Crime Story - Softcover

Sims, Elizabeth

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1555836534 ISBN 13: 9781555836535

Publisher: Alyson Pubns, 2002

Synopsis

Lillian Byrd is a small-time reporter with a flair for making big-time mistakes--so her investigation into the disappearances of women around the Detroit area might not be the best idea. But when one of the victims turns up dead and Lillian recognizes the curiously mutilated corpse, she is in too deep to get out. After simultaneously blowing the case for the police and revealing herself to the killers, she is completely on her own. Can she catch the murderers before they catch up with her?
 

About this title

From the Author

Enjoy this interview of Elizabeth discussing HOLY HELL.
 
Q: You can only be a first novelist once. What made you take the leap and start writing? 

A: All my life I'd wanted to be a novelist, but I kept trying to avoid it. I tried to work it off on other things: I wrote for a local newspaper, I wrote technical manuals for a machine company, I wrote training videos for a bank, I wrote press releases for a bedwetting clinic, I wrote little poems and stories for little magazines, I wrote book reviews, I enrolled in graduate school and wrote papers about novels, I got a job in a book shop and sold novels written by other people. I really tried to avoid writing a novel. 

Q: Then what happened? 

A: I finally thought, OK, I won't write a real novel, I'll just write a sleazy little short lesbian crime story with lots of sex, wait, no, I'll write a dozen of them, and they'll sell like mad, and I'll be able to quit this job in the book shop, and I won't have to write a real novel. So Holy Hell started out as a cold-blooded, exploitative exercise. But a funny thing happened: the more I worked on it, the more fun I had with it, the more respect I began to have for the process--and for myself. I'm delighted with the result. 
 
Q: You mentioned having been a reporter. Your main character, Lillian Byrd, is also a reporter. Did you base her on yourself, and were there events you covered that suggested the plot for Holy Hell? 

A: Lillian possesses an amalgamation of traits I know I have, traits I wish I didn't have, and traits I'd like to have. 

Q: Like what? 

A: She's a bit impulsive--which I can be. She's good at messing up. I think people who know me know that even though I'm supposedly smart, I can mess up terribly. Lillian makes bad decisions, but she's principled, she always tries to do the right thing. She's unsure of herself, yet forges ahead in spite of it. And she's tenacious. You know, being a journalist, even in a small-time situation, you get a window into all the little lies and vanities people allow themselves. And, you see the small heroic acts that happen every day, the moments of integrity and kindness that make life bearable. Lillian is an observer of these things.

From the Back Cover

"In the wisecracking tradition of Janet Evanovich, Elizabeth Sims brings us a delightfully down-to-earth character in Lillian Byrd, a woman who refuses to take herself too seriously, even in the face of serious threats of grievous bodily harm. Sims's tight plot, delicious irony, crisp dialogue, and colorful cast of 'real' people make Holy Hell not only an impressive first novel, but an honest-to-God page-turner. It's a blend of the absurd and the macabre, guaranteeed to keep you up reading into the wee hours of the morning."
--Lauren Maddison, author of Deceptions and Witchfire

Edition details

• Publisher: Alyson Pubns
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1555836534
• ISBN 13: 9781555836535
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 270