When I spoke with Minnesota author and forensic psychologist Frank Weber, I told him the truth: his latest release, Heartbreak Hollow, kept me reading because I needed to know who did it. The novel is rooted in a real Minnesota case, including the unsettling detail of a young woman who believed she followed a barking dog out of the woods after a brutal assault, a dog investigators later confirmed was not there.
Weber’s work blends real cases with fiction, a process he discussed while talking about Heartbreak Hollow and offering a preview of his next Duluth-set novel, A Superior Affair, ahead of his August visit to the North Shore.
When he first heard the victim describe the dog, he said he knew there was something there. As he dug deeper into the case, the investigation only became more compelling. The story contains a jealous online relationship, a suspect who seemed obvious, and a twist that shifted the entire direction of the case.
Weber has interviewed victims and offenders for decades, and he said understanding how people rationalize their behavior is what allows him to write in the first person, even from an offender’s perspective.
“I know how they think,” he said. “People get to those chapters once in a while from the offender’s perspective, and they say they are creepy, but they kind of enjoy they are there because you get an understanding of how somebody thinks who does this.”
His forensic career has long run parallel to his writing. Weber has worked on homicide, sexual assault and domestic abuse cases across Minnesota, providing evaluations, expert testimony, and insight for investigators.
Weber’s path into that work was not direct. He started college as a math major, later became a teacher and coach, and eventually moved into behavioral analysis and clinical psychology before working with the Department of Corrections and studying investigative and psychological techniques that shaped his career.
Over time, that work naturally began to influence his writing, and the writing began to become an outlet.
“You spend your day talking to serial rapists. You cannot come home and say, ‘Hey, guess what I did today,’” he said. “So I just started writing about some of these true crime cases and putting them in three-ring binders in the closet.”
After more than a decade of filling binders, he finally sent a manuscript to a publisher.
“I figured the worst they could say was no,” he said. “They said yes.”
His first book, Murder Book, was published in 2017 and became a Midwest Book Award finalist. He now has ten novels, all based in Minnesota and all following investigator Jon Frederick. Frederick shares Weber’s middle name and some of his tendencies, but Weber is clear that the character is not a stand-in.
“I am not Jon Frederick, but I understand how he thinks. I have done the work he does,” he advised.
Weber said one of the biggest challenges of writing fiction based on real cases is deciding which details stay in the story. Real investigations involve many people, and he includes a character list at the beginning of each book to help readers keep track.
“When you are dealing with real cases, there are a lot of people,” he said. “You have to decide which ones you are going to talk about and which ones you are going to let go.” His upcoming novel, A Superior Affair, is the fourth and final book in a series involving the Minneapolis Combination. The story begins with a relationship in Duluth and ends with a murder that pulls Frederick into a maze of family connections, past relationships, and federal involvement.
“There is a lot of angles,” Weber said. “It is a matter of sorting it all out about what matters and what does not matter.”
Weber researches his settings the same way he researches cases. He walks through neighborhoods, visits locations, and studies the details.
When he comes to the North Shore in August, Weber plans to do more than talk about his books. His library events are part true crime workshop, part forensic psychology lesson, and part interactive demonstration.
He begins by walking readers through a real forensic investigation for the audience to help unravel.
“I try to pick cases that are not real popular because I want people to work at solving it and not knowing how it ends,” he said.
From there, he shifts into profiling. He puts crime scene images on the screen and asks the audience what they notice.
“I will show some crime scenes and talk about what do you see here, so what does this tell you,” he said, explaining that even small details, like no one reporting a suspicious person in a neighborhood, can be a major clue. “That is a big clue. It is telling you whoever did this is someone who moves about your neighborhood.”
The program also includes a live lie detector demonstration where he asks a volunteer to participate.
“When people tell a lie, you have to create something that did not exist in reality, and as a result, your physiology changes just slightly,” he said.
Weber said audiences enjoy the mix of psychology, mystery, and hands-on activity.
“People have a lot of fun,” he said.
Despite writing about serious crimes, Weber said he tries to balance tension with lighter moments in his books. I admitted, I appreciated the touches of romance and humor in the story, and that it wasn’t all blood and gore.
“The thrill is not in the gore,” he pointed out. “The thrill is in the anticipation.”
The author will visit the North Shore in August for events on August 7 at the Silver Bay Public Library at 10 a.m. and the Two Harbors Public Library at 2 p.m. For more information on Frank Weber, upcoming events, and his works, visit frankweberauthor.com.
