Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder by Rachel McCarthy James

In the third of our author interviews, Sonja & Vanessa are proud to feature another Lawrence, Kansas local author:  Rachel McCarthy James.  If the name sounds familiar, it’s because she co-authored 2017’s cold-case cracking tour-de-force, Man on the Train, in which she and her coauthor, Bill James, solve a hundred-year old serial axe murderer mystery.  In her new book, Rachel traces the history of the axe as tool, weapon, and cultural artifact. Whack Job includes so many killer stories (pun intended!), like the story of a murder victim, from 430,000 BCE, found along with an axe in the “Pit of Bones” in northern Spain.  Whack Job also recounts hair-raising true crime stories that hit much closer to home, like the daylight axe murder of Frank Lloyd Wright’s mistress and five others at his Wisconsin “Love Cottage” in 1914.  

In our interview, Rachel shares insights into her research methods, her travels, her “rabbit holes,” her original discoveries, the experience of working with editors to shape her manuscript–in short, the honest, hard work, determination, and sacrifice behind a well-researched and well-written history book.  Plus, you are in for a treat because Rachel shares some fascinating stories that didn’t make it into the book! 

Along the way, Vanessa and Rachel hatch a hatchet business venture, Sonja drools at hearing a new, non-cherry-tree axe story about George Washington, and the axe gets compared to an important but much maligned female body part. 

REFERENCES:

Rachel's website

You can purchase Whack Job at any bookseller, but we suggest ordering it from our outstanding local bookstore, The Raven, in the heart of Lawrence, Kansas.