Posted by Jodi Erickson on Jan 23, 2018
When award-winning author Jim Kosmo was ten, his father set the family’s house on fire before departing for the early shift at the tire factory in Eau Claire, Wisc. His father’s imaginary friend told him to do it. Kosmo, his sister and his mother escaped, but their cat, Tippy, died. His father went to the insane asylum for 27 years. Two years after the fire, Kosmo was sexually assaulted by his Boy Scout leader.
 
Somehow, he dealt with these childhood monsters, and a couple of bullies who did their best to humiliate and bruise him at school. Eventually, he moved forward to a successful life as husband, father, journalist, town mayor, and business leader.  Drawing on more than 70 years of good times and bad times, Kosmo wrote Monsters in the Hallway, a fictional murder mystery that delves into the challenges of mental illness, childhood sexual assault, and bullying.