READING CHALLENGE

 My Reporter's Challenge is posted on Good Reads for 2025.

It's in The Challenge Factory under Yearly Challenges.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22998133-2025-reporter-s-challenge

Be sure to join in the fun!!

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Maverick Flatts, IL

 

 

 Maverick Flatts is the fictional town where Holly Westin and her family run their ranch in the 1800s.

The series begins when Cavalry soldiers storm into Maverick Flatts hunting a fugitive. When Holly’s brother is arrested for allegedly killing a neighbor, Holly’s on the case. Things become even more confusing when a mysterious masked rider appears on the scene.

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

London, England

The infamous Jack the Ripper’s hunting grounds were in the impoverished Whitechapel district of London in 1888. Jack was accredited with 5 vicious and grotesque murders.

To this day, Jack the Ripper’s identity is unknown, though there are numerous suspects.

To name a handful:

Aaron Kosminski – a Whitechapel barber

Walter Sickert – an artist

John Pizer - bootmaker

Prince Albert Victor – eldest child of the Prince and Princess of Wales

Lewis Carroll – an author

 

There are various theories about the identity and profession of Jack, as authorities are not able to agree and at one time the number of named suspects reached over 100.

This serial killer case was the first to create a worldwide media frenzy with interest in the killings lasting to present day.

Many books, movies, Ripper walking tours and theories have come out of this case. Will we ever have definitive evidence as to Jack the Ripper’s true identity?

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Kansas

Using poetic license here – Obviously Kansas is a state (not a city), but it’s the hometown of Dorothy and Toto from the Wizard of Oz books, too precious a memory to not include in  my tribute. (L. Frank Baum never specifies any particular town in Kansas that Dorothy lives in.)

I always loved going to the Moose Lodge when I was a child and watching this movie while the adults partied in another room. To this day, I still own a very old copy of this book from my childhood.

 

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Joplin, MO

In 2011, a horrific tornado hit Joplin, Missouri. It leveled buildings and killed over 150 people. Children that survived shared stories about humanoid creatures they nicknamed “The Butterfly People”. One common element is that as they were on the brink of death, The Butterly People appeared before them, protecting them from the falling debris of the tornado.

Skeptics believe the stories are the result of mass hysteria. Stress from near-death experiences could cause people to believe they’re experiencing something supernatural. Or predetermined belief (since Joplin lies within the religious belt).

Believers of the Butterfly People think they’re really angels that the children perceived as butterflies.

 

A – Z Cities with Mysteries – Real & Fictional

 

Iowa City, Iowa

There are many mystery books where a house is being remodeled and a skeleton is found behind the wall. Was the victim murdered? Can the cold case be solved?

Mary Helen Stefaniak can beat that claim with a true-life twist on that old trope J

In 2004, Mary Helen and her husband were tearing down walls of an upstairs bedroom in their home— a former Stagecoach Inn. No hidden bones or skeletons here. Instead, they discovered an exterior wall formerly covered by lath and plaster was papered with circus posters.

Read Mary Helen’s story here.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS

 MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND

HAPPY NEW YEAR!