My newest book, 'The Long Shadow of Katy's Killer,' is now in stores

You can find "The Long Shadow of Katy's Killer:" at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other online retailers.

My newest book is now available.

I’ve just authored a sequel to my 2021 book “A Stranger Killed Katy.” This one focuses on the newest and often startling efforts by convicted killer Brian M. McCarthy to win parole for his 1986 murder of Clarkson University sophomore Katy Hawelka of Syracuse, New York. He continues to come up with new ways to try to persuade the parole board that his brutal beating and strangulation of Katy on the Potsdam campus was just a tragic accident.

 "The Long Shadow of Katy’s Killer: Parole Hearings and Other Updates to ‘A Stranger Killed Katy’" from Chestnut Heights Publishing is available at Amazon.com and other online bookstores. You can order a copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Long-Shadow-Katys.../dp/1732241694/

At first, I considered updating the first book as a revised, longer second edition. However, I quickly realized there was too much fresh material that didn’t fit into the initial book’s narrative structure, including some newly uncovered psychological evaluations and risk assessments dating back to 2009.

I think this latest book holds up on its own in critically examining the New York parole process, the prison system's questionable computerized risk assessments, McCarthy’s shifting narratives about the murder, and the relentless fight by Katy’s family to keep him behind bars. This sequel builds to an extremely long and dramatic 2023 parole hearing, where McCarthy’s manipulations collide with a board determined to uncover the truth.

Even if you’ve read the first book, I think you’ll find this one worthwhile, as I’ve tried to repeat only enough key details so that readers unfamiliar with the original can still follow the story.

In my many years in journalism, nothing I have written has been more important to me than telling Katy's story as accurately and fairly as possible. I thank Katy’s family for once again trusting me to share their story.

News release: New book to offer update to 'A Stranger Killed Katy'

On the eve of the convicted killer’s ninth parole hearing, I am shining a spotlight once again on the 1986 murder of Clarkson University sophomore Katherine “Katy” Hawelka.

Bookstores have begun taking preorders for my newest book.

"The Long Shadow of Katy's Killer" will be published February 17, 2025, by Chestnut Heights Publishing as both a paperback and eBook. This is a sequel that updates readers on the latest developments, including two dramatic parole hearings, since 2021 when I wrote the true-crime book "A Stranger Killed Katy."

I initially considered releasing a revised second edition of the first book, but I quickly realized there was too much additional content that didn’t fit neatly into the existing structure—such as newly discovered psychological evaluations and risk assessments dating back to 2009.

For those unfamiliar with Katy’s story, I recommend first reading "A Stranger Killed Katy" for a comprehensive understanding of her life, the details of her murder, the court cases, and McCarthy’s trouble-filled years before and after his imprisonment. However, "The Long Shadow of Katy's Killer" is written in a way that re-examines old events from new perspectives, allowing readers to follow the story even if they haven’t read the first book.

You can copies of "The Long Shadow of Katy's Killer" at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, and numerous other sites.

Here is the official news release.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                           Contact: William D. LaRue  

wlarue1@gmail.com

williamlarue.com

February 12, 2025

CHESTNUT HEIGHTS PUBLISHING SET TO RELEASE THE LONG SHADOW OF KATY’S KILLER: PAROLE HEARINGS AND OTHER UPDATES TO ‘A STRANGER KILLED KATY’

On the eve of the convicted killer’s ninth parole hearing, true-crime author William D. LaRue is again shining a spotlight on the 1986 murder of Clarkson University sophomore Katherine “Katy” Hawelka, of Syracuse, New York. On February 17, 2025, LaRue will release his latest book, “The Long Shadow of Katy’s Killer,” through Chestnut Heights Publishing.

This follow-up to his 2021 book, “A Stranger Killed Katy,” gives readers a front-row seat to startling new developments, including her murderer’s 2021 and 2023 parole hearings, where Brian Milton McCarthy clashes with commissioners who question the level of his remorse and challenge his claims that he struck Katy just one time during consensual sex.

His 2023 hearing is his longest and most intense, after McCarthy fails in his demand for a postponement so he can find a way to remove copies of “A Stranger Killed Katy” that found their way into his parole file. At one point, he complains that LaRue “wrote the book to try to make my crime look worse than it really is.” McCarthy quickly backtracks: “I don’t think you can. It was the most heinous crime, in my opinion.”

“The Long Shadow of Katy’s Killer” arrives in stores in both paperback ($11.95) and eBook ($4.99) formats.

LaRue’s first book about Katy Hawelka profiled the 19-year-old and recounted the events of August 29, 1986, when she was beaten, strangled, and sexually assaulted outside an ice hockey arena on the Clarkson campus in Potsdam, New York. McCarthy, a repeat offender out on parole at the time, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder committed during an attempted rape, and he was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison. His first chance at parole came in 2009; he has been denied eight times since then. McCarthy’s next parole hearing is scheduled for April 2025.

Early chapters of “The Long Shadow of Katy’s Killer” lay the groundwork for understanding McCarthy’s latest parole hearings, examining newly uncovered—and often flawed—psychological evaluations and risk assessments that he has relied upon to argue for his release. The book also devotes chapters to the emotional battle waged by Katy’s family, who present impact statements before every parole hearing to argue he should remain behind bars.

The publication of “A Stranger Killed Katy” in 2021 brought renewed national attention to Katy’s murder, drawing coverage in a two-part episode of the popular “Morbid” true-crime podcast that streamed in 2022. The book and the national podcast has helped to inspire more than 60,000 people to sign the family’s online petition opposing McCarthy’s release.

WILLIAM D. LARUE is an award-winning journalist and former reporter for The Post-Standard in Syracuse, New York, and a retired online producer for newspaper websites owned by Advance Local. A native of Potsdam, New York, he received a bachelor’s degree in English from State University College at Potsdam and a master’s degree in communications from Syracuse University. LaRue, a father of two, lives in a suburb of Syracuse with his wife, Kathleen.

THE LONG SHADOW OF KATY’S KILLER: PAROLE HEARINGS AND OTHER UPDATES TO ‘A STRANGER KILLED KATY’

By William D. LaRue. 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.33(d) inches, 150 pages, will be available in paperback (ISBN 978-1-7322416-9-5) and eBook (ISBN 978-1-7322416-7-1) formats at major online booksellers, including Amazon, Apple Books, and Barnes & Noble. Publication date: February 17, 2025

###

Amazon adds audiobook of my dad's Korean War memoir, 'Candy'

I am a big fan of audiobooks. For years, when I had a daily commute to work and traveled a lot as a newspaper reporter, I would stock up on books on tape and listen to them in the car. They made the drive more interesting and productive, while giving me another way to catch up on favorite authors. (I believe I listened to all of David McCullough's fabulous books in this fashion.)

Recently, through a new feature on Amazon, I began to offer readers an audiobook of my father's autobiography, "CANDY: True Tales of a 1st Cavalry Soldier in the Korean War and Occupied Japan," which I co-wrote and published in 2015, only three years after he died. The audiobook mirrors the eBook and print text, and comes in at about four and a half hours.

I created the audiobook using Amazon's "beta" publishing tool that translates texts from the eBook version into computer-generated speech.

You can listen to a sample at Amazon's audiobook listing for "Candy," or one at Audible.com. The virtual narration is not as good as listening to a favorite audiobook narrator, but it's not bad. It's certainly better than the mechanical voices in past computer-generated speech.

My key problem with Amazon's "virtual voice narration," as the company calls it, is that it lacks the nuanced delivery of a human, the ability to inject surprise or sadness into the reading, or to precisely alter the pacing for dramatic purposes. Even more jarring, Amazon's default narration messes up a lot of pronunciations, particularly names and places. It even has trouble with words like "read" and "recreation" that are pronounced differently based on usage.

Amazon's audiobook creator does have some rudimentary tools that allowed me to add short, medium, or long pauses. I could also speed or slow the pronunciation of words, although the result often sounded distorted. And it offered the option to add a phonetic pronunciation. (It took me quite a while to figure out how to get it to properly say "Gouverneur.") After tweaking the entire audiobook this way, the result is something that at times makes you forget you are listening to a virtual voice.

However, at the time I write this, Amazon offers only eight narration choices--four male, four female--all of which sound like people from 30 to 40 years old. It would have been much better, for a book told by a man in his 80s, to have a more mature voice. Someday, if Amazon does offer that option, I hope they allow the switch to it with a simple click.

In any case, for anyone who decides to buy the audiobook version of "Candy," it won't cost a lot, just $6.99. And if they already have the eBook version, it's just $1.99 as an add-on.