(Radio Iowa) -0 A bestselling author who’s originally from northeast Iowa is releasing a new novel this week called “The Thirteenth Husband,” about a real-life railroad heiress who was something of a 19th century Paris Hilton. Greer Macallister, who grew up in Janesville, says Aimee Crocker was a fascinating figure in history, whose tale includes snakes, spirits, world travels, and lavish Manhattan parties, but through her public notoriety, there’s also private pain.

“She inherited $10-million when she was 10 years old in the 1880s, and that’s closer to 200-, or $300-million today. So she had a lot of money,” Macallister says. “I think a lot of people don’t think the rich have any problems, and didn’t feel very sorry for her, but she did have those tragedies, and she did have a lot to deal with and a lot to struggle with in her life, so I think that makes her very interesting.” The first of Crocker’s many marriages ended with a bitter court battle over custody of her daughter, and Macallister says it took place largely on the front pages of newspapers.

“She is very much like that sort of Paris Hilton, sort of Kim Kardashian personality, where the tabloids are a tool for her, but they’re also a curse,” Macallister says. “People would follow her around and write about everything she did, and that was great if she wanted to make a splash, but it was not great when she had personal tragedies.” Crocker’s saga is filled with both fortune and scandal, as well as ghosts, but did she really get married 13 times? Macallister says that’s a big spoiler and you’d have to read the book to learn the full story.

Greer Macallister

“She did have a lot of husbands, and the title of the book comes from a story that she told in her lifetime, ‘The Real Aimee Crocker,'” Macallister says. “She had gone to many psychics, mystics, fortune tellers, etcetera, and one of them had told her that she needed to be careful about getting married too many times and that her 13th husband would bury her.” This is Macallister’s fifth work of historical fiction and she says it would be a mistake to think the genre is only focused on the past.

“Historical fiction always has some sort of resonance with the present and even on into the future, so there’s always some sort of connection we can make,” Macallister says. “Looking back at past events, seeing how people of the past lived their lives, we can draw parallels with our current situation, both the external world and our internal personalities, and sort of see how patterns emerge and move forward.” Macallister lives with her family in Boston. Her previous books include: “Girl in Disguise,” about the first female private detective. Macallister says Kate Warne, who joined the Pinkerton Agency in the 1850s, is someone whose name should be in every textbook.