POSTMORTEM

POSTMORTEM will examine the aftershocks of Gacy's crimes in the town of Des Plaines and the larger world.

The house in which John Wayne Gacy hid his victim's bodies has long been torn down. In its place, a single-family Tudor home and beyond its well-manicured lawn the town of Des Plaines tries to move on with its life. Kim Byers-Lund has tried to move on too from the night at Nisson pharmacy where she was the last person to see Rob Piest alive. Her testimony and a receipt left in the pocket of Rob's jacket are Gacy's undoing.
And now, forty years later, she has brought her daughter Courtney to the place that was once home. Seeing her mother revisit the pharmacy, Rob's grave, and the river where they found Rob's body, a question takes hold in Courtney: How do these murders live on in the places where they happened and in the people that they happened to?

POSTMORTEM will examine the aftershocks of Gacy's crimes in the town of Des Plaines and the larger world. Interwoven with the story of Kim's bravery in helping to solve the mystery of who Gacy was, Courtney will explore the town in its current state, traveling with a close friend of Rob's back to the places that were important to the case as well immersing the reader in the unexpected communities of psychologists and fans devoted to the case. These threads will speak to one another, giving the reader an intimate and full picture.

Author Courtney Lund O'Neil, PhD, has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Glamour, The Guardian, Oprah Daily, and more. Her book will speak to readers who were captivated by The Third Rainbow Girl and I'll Be Gone In the Dark, those who are looking for nuanced storytelling that gives weight to the aftershocks of crimes on a community. As someone with unique access to the case, Courtney is the only one who can write POSTMORTEM with the empathy that comes from being inside this story.

Kim Byers-Lund is the first person to speak in the new hit Netflix docuseries Conversations with a Killer: The John Wayne Gacy Tapes. Her diary entries from that time frame the narrative in the series, and it is Courtney who is in possession of that diary now. The show debuted at number one making it clear that people are still interested in this case specifically. POSTMORTEM will pick up where the docuseries leaves off.