One of the things that made me think sequels to Moore Hollow might work is that West Virginia has a pretty rich collection of folklore, cryptids, and other oddities to keep Ben and crew busy for many books to come. Leave it to me, then, to take inspiration for The Triplets of Tennerton not from Mothman or the Flatwoods Monster (although he kind of makes an appearance), but from a house fire that happened in 1945.

George Sodder and his wife Jennie lived in Fayetteville along with their nine (!) children. On the night of December 24, 1945, the house burned down. Both parents and four of the children made it out alive. Five other children, however, were presumed dead – presumed because their bodies have never been found. But for that last detail the whole tragedy might have vanished into the ether of memory and history, but the circumstances of the fire and the lack of remains have made it a unsolved mystery of long standing.

The primary thing that stuck with me from a storytelling standpoint is that George, Jennie, and the rest of the family continued to believe that the missing children actually survived the fire. The lack of remains was part of that belief, as there had been a similar fire in the region shortly before where remains of those who didn’t get out were found. More than that, there were reported sightings of the kids in Charleston not too long after. Over the years, there were more reports, from as far away as Missouri and Texas, but none of them ever panned out. George even tracked down a man alleged to be one of his missing sons, but the man denied it.

The circumstances of the fire were suspicious, too. The family received an odd phone call about 12:30 in the morning. A half-hour later, Jennie awoke when she heard something hit the roof with a bang. A half hour later they smelled smoke. Once the fire was underway, George tried to climb up to the second floor to rescue the children trapped there, but a ladder they routinely used around the property was misplaced. George couldn’t start either of his trucks to move next to the house to use them to climb. There’s much more, but that gives you a sense of it.

And that’s before you get to a possible motive that involves the Sicilian mob and George’s vocal hatred of Benito Mussolini (George was born in Sardinia and came to the United States at age 13).

As so often happens with real-life inspirations for fiction, reality (such as we know of it) is really just a jumping off point. What grabbed me about the Sodder story was the lack of remains at the scene of the fire and the family’s unwavering belief that those children had survived. The Triplets of Tennerton  is not the story of the Sodder family. Sid Grimaldi isn’t George Sodder and what happened to Sid’s children is vastly different from what most likely happened to George’s. Nor was Sid’s family united in their belief, as the Sodders were. This is definitely “inspired by” territory, not “based on.”

If you want to know more about the mystery of the Sodder family, I recommend this three part podcast from Unexplained Mysteries. There’s also a good write up here from Smithsonian Magazine.

The Triplets of Tennerton – coming May 29

Pre-order now for Kindle and other eBook formats.