In today’s episode we explore where the archive and the imagination meet—sometimes in productive dialogue, sometimes in open confrontation. This is a place where documents matter, facts matter, but so does the question of what history feels like once it has passed through the human mind.

Our guest is Ric Rebelo, author and filmmaker, whose recent work spans an intense, prolific engagement with horror—particularly short fiction—alongside the release of three new books centered on one of the most relentlessly interpreted figures in American history: Lizzie Borden.

I’m joined today by Dr. C. Michael Hiam, author of Murder Aboard: The Herbert Fuller Tragedy and the Ordeal of Thomas Bram, a gripping new work of historical true crime.

This maritime mystery unfolded off the coast of Massachusetts, just three years after the trial of Lizzie Borden, and invoked startling parallels to the Borden case.

I’m joined today by the brilliant Anna Behrens, a devoted Sherlockian and fellow Lizzie Borden aficionado, for a conversation that explores an intriguing literary crossover: what happens when the world’s most famous fictional detective steps into one of America’s most infamous real-life murder cases?

We’re diving into four imaginative works that bring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson to Fall River, Massachusetts, to investigate the 1892 Borden murders. We’ll look at Sherlock Holmes and the Incident in Fall River by D.A. Joy, Holmes and Watson by David Ruffle, Sherlock Holmes and the Fall River Tragedy by Owen Haskell, and Sherlock Holmes: The Maplecroft Message by Joe DeSantis.

You can purchase the books through the links below:

Sherlock Holmes and the Incident in Fall River by D.A. Joy

Holmes and Watson by David Ruffle

Sherlock Holmes and the Fall River Tragedy by Owen Haskell (out of print/ebay)

Sherlock Holmes: The Maplecroft Message by Joe DeSantis