Robert Ellis: THE LOVE KILLINGS Story Map

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THE LOVE KILLINGS "Story Map"

Like THE DEAD ROOM, THE LOVE KILLINGS is set in Philadelphia in some of the streets and neighborhoods where I grew up. I'm not sure why using Philadelphia as a setting in a crime novel seems to spook everything up, but I could feel it while writing both novels. And from the number of emails I've received, readers seem to get that same eerie vibe, too. As I was putting together the story for THE LOVE KILLINGS I had certain places in mind. A few are made up, like Benny's Cafe Blue, but most are real, or for legal reasons, as close to real as real gets. I thought it might be a kick to walk readers through these locations by posting them here as a rough sketch or "story map." If anyone is visiting the city and has free time, you might want to get spooked out and take a physical tour of the novel ... a virtual walk through THE LOVE KILLINGS.

For the record ... THE LOVE KILLINGS is a work of fiction, and nothing about the novel or these photographs has anything to do with anything other than a writer's imagination.

 

A home with a view in Los Angeles

As I cruise down a narrow street on the Westside of Los Angeles I see this house and think of Detective Matt Jones living over Potrero Canyon Park with a view of the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the entire Los Angeles basin on the other.

A Mansion Outside Philadelphia in Radnor

Outside Philadelphia in a town called Radnor there's a mansion like this one. If you could ever get a look inside, I think you'd find it striking. Of course, THE LOVE KILLINGS is set in December. The leaves are down, the sky, gray -- it's dark, it's late at night with an ice-cold breeze. And as Detective Jones tours a property similar to this one with his flashlight, the hair on the back of his neck is standing on end.

A Gatehouse in Radnor

If you had just committed an unspeakable crime and were being chased by Detective Matt Jones off the grounds of a mansion in Radnor, you might hop over the wall at this gatehouse just down the hill. Remember it's dark. There's snow on the ground. Look out for the iced-over pond and that stream that runs along the narrow tree-lined road.

Fitler Commons in Center City Philadelphia

Matt needed a quite, out-of-the-way place to stay while in town. I like to think that the FBI probably keeps an apartment or two somewhere in the city for long-term guests. As I walked down Pine Street, Fitler Commons seemed just right. Fitler Square is directly across the street, with park benches and enough shadows at night to sit and watch and not be seen or caught.

Love Park and the Art Museum at the end of the Parkway

Love Park may have once been paradise to an international list of skateboarders, but in THE LOVE KILLINGS, it's a great place for Matt to drink hot coffee and try to get his murder case back on track. He guesses that he's on his own again, the case slipping away, and he might be right. What he doesn't know is that the killer is sitting on a bench right behind him. It's a pretty good view from here...

Quaint Cedar Shake Cottage in Bensalem

If you were driving through Bensalem in the Northeast, you might pass a quaint cottage like this one. It's quiet here. Peaceful. A place like Love Park to think things through on a cold winter day. A place to lay back and be warm. (Or something a shade or two darker than that!)

A Mansion in Devon on the Main Line

Philadelphia is a city of mansions. You would have to consult a historian to get a definitive reason why. I always believed that it was because of the Pennsylvania Railroad, the suburbs known as the Main Line. In THE LOVE KILLINGS Detective Matt Jones receives an invitation to an elegant estate much like this one from an anonymous text message made in the dead of night. When he arrives, the lights have been switched off for some odd reason, and that harsh wind is back. Something must be up.

The Wawa Market in Strafford

After processing a hideous crime scene all night, thank God that there's a Wawa Food Market just off Sugartown Road in Strafford that's open 24/7. Matt needs an extra large cup of piping hot coffee, but he's more interested in a Tylenol/Advil cocktail to push back the pain from those gunshot wounds he received six weeks back in CITY OF ECHOES.

Dirty Diane

It's probably a good time to introduce you to Dirty Diane. Yes, she's real. She may not say much, she may not say anything at all. The only words she knows is Click, Click, Click.

Graveyard at St. David's Church

Every thriller has to have a body count! And I imagine that at least five victims in THE LOVE KILLINGS might be buried in a peaceful setting like this one at St. David's Episcopal Church. Remember, it's December. As Matt Jones stands over five fresh graves, he notices that the undertaker is fidgeting and has a strange expression on his face. He seems worried. I wonder why?

 

Park on the Delaware River

As you may have noticed, not all corpses are buried in quiet churchyards to be remembered by their loved ones. In a thriller like THE LOVE KILLINGS, bodies are apt to turn up anywhere. This is a wonderful, conveniently remote, park off River Road in the Northeast. Complete with two benches, you'll find a magnificent view of the Delaware River as well as the Philadelphia skyline a few miles down stream. Rivers with a strong current like this one can be very useful in the disposal of a corpse, particularly after midnight on a frigid winter night when no one's watching.

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I hope you enjoyed a peek at some of the places I saw in my mind while putting this story together. I can't imagine a writer having more fun than I did in creating these two novels, these two wild tales, CITY OF ECHOES and THE LOVE KILLINGS. I hope that you get as much out of reading them as I did writing them, and that you will support the effort by posting a review on Amazon. I was always taught that it takes two people to make a story. One to think it up and tell it, and another to read it and imagine it. That we share two stories like these as writers and readers is what makes this experience so true, so spot on, so great. I wish you, your friends and family, the very best.

Robert Ellis
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