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In 1953, 14-year-old Evelyn Hartley vanished from La Crosse, Wisconsin and was never found. This podcast covered her case early on and it became the seed for my first novel, Echo 1953 (Book One of The Hollis Files Mystery Series), out July 27, 2026.
This episode is the story behind the book: the real case that inspired it, the husband-and-wife investigators at its center, and months spent writing a novel and producing the Amy Bradley series side by side.
ARC reader spots open — email midnightmysteryarchive@gmail.com.
In 1953, a 14-year-old babysitter named Evelyn Hartley vanished from La Crosse, Wisconsin and was never found. This episode is about what happened after I couldn't stop thinking about her case.
This is a different kind of episode. No case file, no investigation — just the story behind The Midnight Mystery Archive's first crossover into fiction: Echo 1953, Book One of The Hollis Files Mystery Series, launching July 27, 2026.
Echo 1953 started as a true crime case I covered early in this podcast's run — Evelyn Hartley's 1953 disappearance, a case that went cold almost immediately and stayed cold for 70 years. I couldn't shake it, but a nonfiction treatment felt too restrictive. So, I wrote a novel instead.
Echo 1953 opens in 2023 with the disappearance of Lena Monroe, a 23-year-old nursing student abducted from a babysitting job under circumstances identical to Alma Kirchner (based off Evelyn), decades earlier. Her sister Claire turns to Eli and Mari Hollis: Eli, a retired FBI agent who ran the Detroit Field Office for years; Mari, a sharp and relentless investigative journalist. They're married, they work together, and their dynamic is at the center of the book.
In this episode, I talk about how Echo 1953 and this podcast developed side by side over the past year, how the Amy Bradley series and the final edits of this book competed for the same late nights, what my wife (the book's first reader) got right that I didn't see, and why the book doesn't end neatly because Book Two, tentatively titled The Echo Network, is already underway.
If this podcast has meant something to you, the best way to support Echo 1953 is to pre-order it — pre-orders are one of the strongest signals publishers and booksellers use to gauge a debut. I also have 5 spots open for ARC (Advance Reader Copy) readers in exchange for an honest review.
📖 Echo 1953 — pre-order now, launching July 27, 2026: Amazon ✉️ ARC reader spots: midnightmysteryarchive@gmail.com
This Friday: Episode 12 Part 2, the finale of the Amy Bradley series is out.
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If you have information about Amy Bradley's disappearance: Call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov. $100,000 reward.
Thanks to our monthly supportersMidnight Mystery Archive explores unsolved cases, disappearances, conspiracies, and forgotten mysteries through research, storytelling, and clear analysis. Hosted by Kevin Hall, the show takes listeners deeper into the cases that shape our curiosity and haunt our history — always with respect for the victims and their families. Part of the Archive Podcast Network.