Fresh Fiction Blog | Tess Gerritsen | Turning Real Life Into Fiction

As a thriller writer, I'm always searching for the idea that sends a chill slithering up my spine. A decade ago, I felt just such a chill when I came across a news article about an incident that had occurred thirty years earlier.

The year was 1968, and it happened in mid-March, in a place called Skull Valley, Utah. It was chilly that afternoon, with patches of snow on the ground. While doing chores in his yard, Ray Peck developed an earache and decided to go to bed early. When he woke up the next morning and stepped outside, he was stunned by what he saw. His yard was littered with dead birds. It seemed as if they had dropped from the sky struck down in mid-flight. Not far away, a struggling rabbit was twitching in its last death throes.

Over the next few days, the local university began receiving frantic calls from farmers across Skull Valley. Thousands of their sheep were lying dead in pastures, a death toll that eventually mounted to over six thousand animals. No one could explain it. No one admitted any wrongdoing.

Thirty years later, the answers were finally revealed when the U.S. government declassified its file on the sheep deaths. That's when I first learned about what is now known as the Dugway Incident, and the explanation frightened me.

Because it could happen again. And it could happen to a town full of people.

For years I've been haunted by this obscure bit of history. Now the Dugway Incident serves as the inspiration for my newest thriller, ICE COLD, the eighth book featuring homicide detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles. My previous books in the Rizzoli & Isles series have been set in Boston, but this time my characters venture far from the city, into the wintry landscape of Wyoming. While attending a pathology conference in Jackson Hole, Maura joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the moment ski trip. Their GPS sends them up a seasonal mountain road, where their SUV becomes stranded in deep snow. As bone-chilling darkness falls, the desperate group stumbles into a valley known as Kingdom Come. There they find 12 eerily deserted homes where meals are still on tables and cars are still in garages. The residents, it seems, have vanished into thin air -- or have they?

Days later, Maura finds mysterious footprints in the snow. And she realizes that they are not alone in the valley.

If ICE COLD scares you, the true events that inspired it should scare you even more. But that's what thriller writers are always searching for: that creepy news item, that overheard bit of conversation that makes our skin go cold. We writers want to feel that shiver.

So we can pass it on to you.

PS Comment today and you could be a winner of ICE COLD, tell us scares you!!!

Comments

yep this book sounds creepy, but a great
read i'm sure... please enter me!

thank you, tina
(Tina Werner 2:07pm July 12, 2010)

spooky.But i like spooky.Can't wait to read it.
(Stacey Smith 3:56am July 13, 2010)

I am definitely curious about what happened to those farmers.
(Maureen Emmons 6:33am July 13, 2010)

That sounds like a great story and really scary about the incident in 1968.
(Barbara Hanson 8:31am July 13, 2010)

Sounds like a real winner. Can't wait to read it. As to your question--real-life worries about my kids and grandkids are what scare me.
(G S Moch 9:48am July 13, 2010)

Sounds like a great book. I love scary stories. What scares me? Spiders and snakes.
(Cheryl Lynne 10:23am July 13, 2010)

Already ordered you new book, but watched the new series last night. Loved it. Keep writing & I'll keep buying.
(Pat Wilson 10:47am July 13, 2010)

dead people or things that come to life (pet semtary was the scariest book I ever read, but then again I was in 7th grade at the time)
(Pam Howell 11:03am July 13, 2010)

Things that go bump in the night, especially when I attribute it to the cats and they are in bed with me! Thanks for the great writing, Tess!
(Kim Akers 11:56am July 13, 2010)

can't wait---watched R & I premier last pm. great.
(Patty Heerdink 12:22pm July 13, 2010)

Thanks for reminding me of true accounts which hold lots of mystery and intrigue. I love your medical take matrixed over the storylines.
(Alyson Widen 12:45pm July 13, 2010)

I just watched Rizzoli & Isles on TV last night and really enjoyed it---now I see this blog--Wow--I think I would enjoy more of your creations.
(Sue Farrell 12:46pm July 13, 2010)

This book sounds like a really good read, I have not read your books before!
(Gail Hurt 12:59pm July 13, 2010)

Oh wow. I'm going to google Dugway Incident now. What scares me is serial killers and dentists.
(Cathie Veres 1:48pm July 13, 2010)

I can't imagine living someplace called Skull valley
(Sandy Giden 2:04pm July 13, 2010)

Boy, the thoughts of such event are spine-chilling indeed. And for a plot it is such an unusual one. Congratulations!
(Gladys Paradowski 2:14pm July 13, 2010)

I love your books. Sure would like to win this one, Ice Cold. Waiting on a library list for it takes forever.
(Shirley Akins 2:40pm July 13, 2010)

Liked the new show a lot, especially love Angie Harmon. This book sounds like an all nighter. Keep up the good work.
(Donna Petrilla 2:40pm July 13, 2010)

I think I will read the series, saw the commercials for the show last night. Sounds like a good read, I love to be scared.
(Vikki Parman 3:17pm July 13, 2010)

Sounds like a good book to snuggle up on the sofa with. Probably won't be able to put it down either. Thanks.
(DeeAnn Szymanski 3:57pm July 13, 2010)

Watched the premier of Rizzoli & Isles last night. i would love to read the books.
(Robin McKay 4:13pm July 13, 2010)

After having a wreck, driving on ice scares me! Also, brown recluses. Watched the premier of Rizzoli & Isles last night - LOVED it!!
(Kelli Jo Calvert 4:44pm July 13, 2010)

I am anxious to read your book, I love suspense thrillers.
(Gloria Walshver 5:52pm July 13, 2010)

True events make for even scarier because 'stuff' really does happen.
(Mary Preston 7:04pm July 13, 2010)

Had to look up the Dugway Incident
before commenting. It is hard to
believe that intelligent people would
even consider open air testing using
the methods and quantities they did.

What scares me? The dark, heights,
and spiders. All of which I have
learned to deal with. Just don't make
me deal them when I am overtired. At
that point, a noise will wipe me out.

Even though I can be easily creeped
out, I love a good suspense. Your
books always deliver.
(Patricia Barraclough 7:50pm July 13, 2010)

I too love a good suspense. But if it is creepy, my daughter would love it.
(Joanne Vitale 9:43pm July 13, 2010)

What scares me? I hate driving over bridges, it makes me feel like I might drown; mice i don't like, don't mind running them out but I sure won't try catching it.
(Diane Sadler 10:33pm July 13, 2010)

Spiders. That fear was developed after I watch the movie "Arachaniphobia".
(Kai Wong 10:53pm July 13, 2010)

The book sounds great. I'm going to google the Dugway Incident.
(Marlene Breakfield 11:44pm July 13, 2010)

saw the first episode of Rizzoli & Isles and it was GOOD. so am guess this is well written too. love the premise.
(Barbara Studer 12:46pm July 14, 2010)

Just saw the first episode of Rizzoli & Isles,I enjoyed it.I just got book (The Surgeon)I just started reading it tonight.
(Linda Hall 2:09am July 14, 2010)

Saw the first episode also, thought it might have been the second and I had missed the first?
I also remember the sheep deaths and the scare lives on.
(Karin Tillotson 8:14am July 14, 2010)

I love suspense and mystery. The book sound excellent. Can't wait to read it. Please enter me in contest. [email protected]
(Victoria Zumbrum 9:05am July 14, 2010)

I love to read these types of book, thank you for the chance. Best wishes on the book!
(Cynthia Plaza-Harney 10:20am July 14, 2010)

I love scary books and yours are great!!

What really scares me are lonely, dark roads....dunno why, but I find them creepy.

Valerie
in Germany
(Valerie Bongards 2:39pm July 14, 2010)

I'm eagerly waiting for Rizzoli and Isles. What scares me? Spiders and Bridges.
(Marelou A 7:15pm July 14, 2010)

It sounds dangerous and interesting...sort of twilight zone stuff...love that
(Darci Paice 10:03pm July 14, 2010)

Thank you for not only writing a book that I would read, but one that my husband would enjoy as well!! I'm sure that we'll pass it on to a few other people as well that would enjoy reading it!! We love this type of genre!!
(Peggy Roberson 9:32am July 15, 2010)

What scares me most is psychological thrillers a la Gaslight. I can actually feel myself going "nuts" when I read or see such crimes. Nor do I like bloody, gory descriptions of crimes. I'm badly blood-phobic. That goes back to when I was less than 8 years old when I saw a blood-covered man coming toward me. My parents said it couldn't have happened; I must have dreamed it, but no dream-image has ever stayed with me this long. Fortunately, since I live alone, I am able to care for bloody wounds of my own. I'm not sure I could help anyone else. I had to give up with my little sister's bleeding foot.
I'm looking forward to the TV show, too. So far I've read almost all your books though sometimes I have to read fast through some of the more icky parts.
(Sigrun Schulz 7:45pm July 15, 2010)

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