Local resident launches true crime online book company on Astini News

Marilyn Bardsley has written about some of the most heinous people in modern crime: Charles Manson, the Boston Strangler, Jack the Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and many more.

The Savannah resident has also written about the good guys, including Eliot Ness and J. Edgar Hoover. True crime and its best-known figures are her passion, although she started out reading fictional mysteries.

"When I was in elementary school, my parents would see a light shining under my closed bedroom door at 11 p.m.," Bardsley said. "I was a Nancy Drew addict. My father was a mystery reader. When I had read all the Nancy Drews, I moved over to his stash."

For several years, Bardsley was a marketing executive in multibillion-dollar companies in the internet and telecommunications services industries. She formed her own company, Dark Horse Multimedia, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in internet investment portfolio and marketing strategies for companies in Europe and Asia, in 1996.

"In 1998, I stopped reading and started Crime Library," Bardsley said.

That was a successful true crime website loaded with stories about famous crimes, present and past, biographies of famous criminals and their foes and a news section. "I sold it to Court TV with me as executive editor in 2000," she said, "and remained in that position through 2007."

Then Court TV ceased to exist.

"It turned itself into a tabloid-like reality TV network called TruTV," Bardsley said. "At that time, Crime Library had 28-30 million page views per month."

Now, things are looking up. Bardsley's company, DarkHorse Multimedia, Inc., has joined forces with RosettaBooks LLC, a leader in electronic books, to launch a new online publishing business.

Under the name Crimescape, it has released six digital true crime titles, including Bardsley's "After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil" about Savannah's Jim Williams. The books are being promoted by Amazon Kindle on the Exclusives page and also on the Mystery and Thriller page as the "Crimescape Series," and all have made the Kindle bestsellers lists.

More ebooks are coming. Bardsley has put together a stable of 14 true-crime authors who are known for their experience in criminal investigation.

The ebooks are shorter than most printed books, about 70,000 words. They also include photos.

When Bardsley visited a Savannah nail salon, she realized the popularity of ebooks was soaring.

"Here I am listening to all of these women talking about their Kindles, inlcuding the women doing the manicuring, and all of sudden I realize a wave of technology has taken over and I've been asleep at the wheel," she said. "Here I am, a technology person, a telecommunications executive and an Internet executive, and I don't have a Kindle."

Soon after, Bardsley met with Arthur Klebanoff, owner and president of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency and head of RosettaBooks.

"He and I got together and said this is the time for the dreams we've had to come to fruition," Bardsley said.

"He said, 'Let's do a true crime thing. You're perfect to do this.' I had a good relationship with all these writers who have done things for Crime Library."

She said they decided to create their own publishing company of true crime.

"Generally, the true-crime book was sleazy, dealing with things you don't want to think about, let alone read about. What we're trying to do with Crimescape is selectively – very selectively – bring in authors who are vetted very, very thoroughly."

Author Anthony Bruno's "Immortal Monster" about the "Iceman" case is one of the offerings and sells for $2.99. Bruno's full-length book, "The Iceman: The True Story of a Cold-Blooded Killer," is the basis for an upcoming film starring James Franco and Benicio Del Toro.

"The timing is perfect," Bardsley said. "People we have involved are excited about it. It's taking off."

After years of traveling for business, Bardsley is happy to be in Savannah.

"We lived in northern Virgina in Great Falls and decided we wanted to come south," she said. "I love Savannah. If I had known how wonderful it was, I would have been here a lot sooner."

MORE INFORMATION

For information about Crimescape books and authors, go to www.crimescapebooks.com. Titles are available for purchase for Kindle book readers at www.amazon.com.