In this episode of History Through Fiction: The Podcast, Colin Mustful speaks with Ray Welling, author of Byline for the Dead, a historical mystery-thriller rooted in the 1934 Auto-Lite strike and the violent labor uprising known as the Battle of Toledo. Together, they explore how forgotten local history, investigative journalism, and fiction can recover truths that power would rather leave buried.

The conversation moves from the economic desperation of Depression-era Toledo to the novel’s dual-timeline structure, which follows two journalists fifty years apart as they untangle corruption, violence, and institutional amnesia. Ray shares how oral histories, archival research, and his own memories of Toledo helped shape the story, while he and Colin reflect on labor history, Rust Belt decline, and why stories about truth-tel ...