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In this episode, I chat with my friend and fellow author interviewer, Sara DiVello. Sara is a thriller author, and creator and host of Mystery and Thriller Mavens, a popular author interview series and interactive Facebook group. We met at the San Diego Writers Festival and have since become friends. Sara's boundless energy and verve for life and literature are contagious. Sara is a gem!

Have you ever stumbled upon the ruins of a castle in suburban America? For Sara DiVello, that chance discovery sparked a decade-long journey to uncover one of the Jazz Age's most fascinating unsolved murders.

Sara shares the remarkable story behind her historical thriller, Broadway Butterfly. The book resurrects the forgotten 1923 murder of Dot King, a case that implicated one of America's wealthiest families and exposed the complex social dynamics of Prohibition-era New York.

With candor and warmth, Sara reveals her own compelling journey from corporate burnout to published author. After a pivotal moment watching her mother face terminal illness, Sara confronted the question we all eventually face: if time were limited, would you spend it as you are now? This revelation led her to abandon her stable but unfulfilling career to pursue writing, with yoga teaching providing both financial support and the mental clarity essential for creativity.

What makes this conversation truly exceptional is Sara's deep dive into her meticulous research process. Drawing from over 1,800 primary sources, she reconstructed not just the crime but the textured world of 1920s Manhattan—from the cigarette-littered floors of newspaper offices to the complex racial dynamics facing Black Americans who had migrated north. Her approach to writing characters outside her own experience, particularly Ella Bradford (a Black woman in 1923), demonstrates remarkable care and ethical consideration.

Sara illuminates the eerie parallels between 1923 and today. "How much has changed and how little has changed," she observes, noting society's persistent fixation on controlling women's bodies and choices, and our collective reluctance to confront uncomfortable historical truths.

Ready to discover why forgotten stories like Dot King's matter now more than ever? Listen now, and consider what voices from our past still deserve to be heard.

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