In The Attic: Based On True Crime, Book 1

by Garry Rodgers

“I’m so terrified... that psycho’s going to kill me!” Maria Dersch prophetically predicted her death at the savage hands of her ex-boyfriend, Billy Ray Shaughnessy, who hid in her attic for two and a half days with an ax before sneaking down in the dead of night, chopping Maria and her new lover to death.

In The Attic is based on a true crime story - an intense, shocking, and unforgettable psychological crime thriller - and a real double murder case author Garry Rodgers investigated as a homicide detective. It’s also told from the killer’s point of view through his lyrical, psychotic, and homicidal thoughts.

In this lightning-paced, mind-twisting, psychological ride, you’re suspended in a six-day investigation and search for Billy Ray after Maria reported a violent, knife-point, sexual assault committed by him on a Friday afternoon. Over the weekend, police and friends made a frantic attempt to lock Billy Ray from the house and track him down to prevent escalation. They failed.

In The Attic allows a terrifying yet fascinating access to a psychopathic, anti-social mind—a mind diagnosed as one of the most outstanding cases of mental disorder a team of forensic psychiatrists ever saw.
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270 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 28, 2020

About the author

Garry Rodgers is a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police serious crimes detective who went on to a second stint doing sudden and unexplained death investigations for the Province of British Columbia Coroners Service. In his younger years, Garry served as a marksman (sniper) on British Special Air Services (SAS) trained RCMP Emergency Response Teams. He's also a recognized expert witness in Canadian courts on the identification and operation of firearms.

In his third reincarnation, Garry Rodgers made #5 bragging rights on the Amazon Best Seller list, sandwiched between the names Stephen King and Dean Koontz with his debut crime thriller novel No Witnesses To Nothing. It’s based on a true story where many believe paranormal intervention occurred. At the moment, Garry is working on a series of books based on true crime cases he was involved in. These are In The Attic, Under The Ground, From The Shadows and Beside The Road. In the works are On The Floor, Between The Bikers, By The Throat, Below The Deck, At The Cabin and Off The Grid.

Garry hosts a popular blog at www.DyingWords.net. The tagline is provoking thoughts on life, death and writing. There are 300+ posts ranging from rants on bureaucratic stupidity to analyzing high-profile death cases. He also blogs at the HuffPost and does ghost-written op-eds. Recently, The Kill Zone gang invited Garry as a regular contributor.

A few non-fictional facts about Garry Rodgers…

~He grew up around the drag strip and was an NHRA ModProd racer.
~He also raced snowmobiles (sleds) for Mercury Marine on the SnoPro circuit.
~He won a mechanical bull riding competition — stayed on 8 seconds at level 8.
~He was struck by lightning and survived to talk about it (that really, really sucked).
~He was bitten by a venomous brown recluse spider while he was innocently writing a book.
~He was thoroughly humiliated by having to karaoke sing You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog.
~He almost killed Neil Young, the rocker. Story goes that Neil was flying over a tree-lined hill crest on his bicycle and Garry nearly bug-squashed him with his Ford Explorer. According to Garry and Neil, it was a close call. Real close.

Outside of crime writing, Garry Rodgers is an old boat skipper. He went to school and took Transport Canada courses, exams and proved sea time to get his 60-Tonne Marine Captain ticket. Garry says, "I’m good-to-go (from a legal point) to run tugs, seiners, small ferries and luxury yachts. However, outside of operating a few touristy whale-watching boats, I don’t drive watercraft commercially. I just love spending time around the Pacific saltwater near my home in Nanaimo on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island at Canada’s beautiful west coast."