Julie Apple is both the pen name of Catherine McKenzie and the protagonist of her new novel, Fractured.

How did that happen?

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away (okay it was Canada, Montreal specifically) (also, 2007), Catherine decided to write a novel she’d been thinking about since she attended McGill Law School in the 1990s. Sitting in her Criminal Law class, she wondered if a lawyer would have an advantage in planning a perfect murder. Could she use her knowledge of the law to do it? What if a group of friends tried it out, just for fun? A game.

But then, years later, what if that murder actually happened?

Catherine wrote that book. Though she was happy with it, she put it in a drawer because her writing career took a different turn.

Fast-forward to 2015. Catherine gets the idea for Fractured and its protagonist, Julie Apple (hey, that’s me!). She’s an author who’s written a book that’s drawn all kinds of unwanted attention to her and her past. Catherine decided to base Julie’s book on the book she had in a drawer. When Fractured was finished, Catherine thought it might be fun to take that book of the drawer and let it out in the world.

And that’s how I, and The Murder Game, was born.

Want to know more about me? Read Fractured—some crazy things happened to me ten years after the events that took place in The Murder Game. Not that The Murder Game is based on real events, or anything. Of course not.

And then maybe you’ll know the answer.

Were we guilty?
Were we innocent?
You tell me…