Reader Meet Writer: Beverly Bell | The Murder of Marion Miley

Join us on June 9th at 3:00 PM for Reader Meet Writer with Beverly Bell! She will be talking with us about her novel The Murder of Marion Miley and answering your questions. Sign up through Hub City Bookshop here for access to this virtual author event! 

The Murder of Marion Miley

BY BEVERLY BELL

The Murder of Marion Miley is the novelization of the 1941 murder of a nationally beloved ladies golf star. This novel has been described as Sea Biscuit meets In Cold Blood and The Lovely Bones.

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Today, the name Marion Miley is largely unrecognizable, but in the fall of 1941, she was an internationally renowned golf champion, winning every leading women's tournament except the elusive national title. This unassuming twenty-seven-year-old woman was beloved by all she met, including celebrities like jazz crooner Bing Crosby. With ambitions to become a doctor, it seemed Marion Miley was headed for greatness.

In the early morning of September 28, six shots ring out on the otherwise quiet grounds of the Lexington Country Club. As dawn breaks, news spreads that golf champion Marion Miley - winner of every US women’s amateur tournament save the National Title - has been brutally murdered. A giant manhunt begins, and a flood of support pours in from around the country to bring the killers to justice. 

Bell’s novelization of the Kentucky murder, which hit headlines across the world, captures the chaos of the first three weeks following Marion’s death, and then oscillates between three voices through the sensational trial: Marion’s father, Fred; her best friend, Fritz; and the first man to confess to the crime, Tom Penney.

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Beverly Bell is an award-winning magazine and crime writer whose work has appeared in Arizona Highways, Indianapolis Monthly, Keeneland Magazine, and Kentucky Monthly. Bell is also a featured consultant in Kentucky Educational Television's recent documentary Forgotten Fame: The Marion Miley Story.