The Clock Tower in The Book of Cold Cases: A Symbol of Random Violence and Fear
What the Clock Tower Is—and Isn't {#what-the-clock-tower-is-and-isnt}
The clock tower in The Book of Cold Cases is never a physical structure in Claire Lake. No tower appears in the town's landscape, and no character ever climbs one. Instead, the clock tower operates as a reference to a real historical event: Charles Whitman's 1966 shooting from a clock tower at the University of Texas at Austin, in which he fired on strangers from an elevated position. In the novel, the image becomes shorthand for random, senseless violence—a person with a gun, choosing victims by proximity rather than by relationship, with no motive anyone can understand.
The symbol enters the story through Lily Knowles. During a night when she and Beth Greer ride bicycles together, Lily makes a cryptic remark: Why don't you ever hear of a woman in a clock tower? The comment baffles Beth at first. Beth reflects that Lily always made sense, and this comment seemed to make no sense at all—which is precisely why Beth takes it seriously.
Beth's Research and the Weight of Understanding {#beths-research-and-the-weight-of-understanding}
Beth's response to Lily's comment is to go to the library—a place she never visits—and ask about people in clock towers. The librarian immediately recognizes the reference and points her to Charles Whitman, the man who took guns into a clock tower in Texas in 1966 and started shooting people. Beth reads the newspaper clippings and magazine articles, and the experience leaves her shaking.
What disturbs Beth is not just the historical fact of the shooting but what Lily's knowledge of it implies. Lily had known about Whitman. She had thought about it. And her question—Why don't you ever hear of a woman in a clock tower?—suggests she is contemplating the possibility of a woman committing that kind of violence. Beth, who already suspects Lily is dangerous, understands the implication. She thinks of Lily as a loaded gun disguised as a pretty blond eighteen-year-old.
This moment connects directly to the novel's exploration of the persistence of the past. Whitman's 1966 shooting does not stay in 1966; it echoes forward into Lily's consciousness and, eventually, into her actions. The clock tower is a past event that refuses to remain historical—it becomes a template, a possibility, a prophecy.
The Clock Tower as Prophecy {#the-clock-tower-as-prophecy}
The meaning of the clock tower shifts dramatically in October 1977. When Lily kills a random man—a stranger shot on the side of the road, chosen at random—Beth's narration states plainly: Lily had gone into her clock tower at last.
This is the moment the symbol completes its transformation. What began as a cryptic question becomes a prediction fulfilled. The clock tower is no longer just a historical reference or a disturbing idea; it is the shape of Lily's violence. The man Lily killed was not someone she knew. He was chosen randomly, shot in the face—the same method used to kill Julian Greer. Lily left a note with the body: Am I bitter or am I sweet? Ladies can be either.
The note echoes her original question about women and clock towers. Lily is claiming the space that Whitman occupied—the elevated position of the random killer—and asserting that a woman can occupy it too. The clock tower, in this reading, is not just about violence but about the gendered assumptions surrounding who commits violence. Lily's question was never really a question. It was a declaration of intent.
The Symbol's Connection to Fear and Randomness {#the-symbols-connection-to-fear-and-randomness}
The clock tower also represents the terror of violence that cannot be predicted or explained. Whitman's shooting was notable for its randomness—victims chosen by proximity, not by relationship. Lily's murder of Thomas Armstrong follows the same pattern. She doesn't know him. She simply needs someone to kill, and he happens to stop to help her.
This randomness is what makes the clock tower such a potent symbol in the novel. The Greer mansion, with its history of family violence, is a place where violence has reasons—money, inheritance, resentment, jealousy. The clock tower represents the other kind of violence: the kind that has no reason at all. When Lily tells Shea Collins in the climactic confrontation that there's no reason for her actions, she is articulating the logic of the clock tower. It is violence without motive, without explanation, without the comfort of causality.
This connects to the novel's treatment of the ambiguity of guilt and justice. The clock tower shooter was a real person whose actions were documented and understood. Lily's violence, by contrast, remains shrouded in ambiguity. Beth suspects her, knows her, and ultimately kills her—but the question of whether Lily's violence was inevitable or chosen, random or purposeful, is never fully resolved. The clock tower stands for the unknowable quality of certain kinds of evil.
The Clock Tower and Gender {#the-clock-tower-and-gender}
Lily's original question—Why don't you ever hear of a woman in a clock tower?—is the novel's most direct engagement with gender and violence. The question operates on multiple levels. On the surface, it is a factual observation: the famous clock tower shooter was a man. But beneath that, it is a challenge. Lily is asking why women are not imagined as capable of this kind of violence, and she is implicitly answering her own question by becoming the exception.
Beth's horror at the library is partly the horror of understanding what Lily is suggesting. The clippings about Whitman show Beth the template for a kind of violence she had not previously imagined Lily committing. But Lily had imagined it. She had thought about it, researched it, and internalized it. The clock tower becomes the symbol of Lily's rejection of the roles assigned to her—the foster child, the half sister, the girl who was supposed to disappear into obscurity.
This thread also connects to family secrets and generational trauma. Lily's violence does not emerge from nowhere; it is shaped by the neglect, abuse, and abandonment she experienced. The clock tower is the form her response takes—a rejection of the passive suffering expected of her, replaced by an active, terrifying agency.
The Clock Tower in Shea's Investigation {#the-clock-tower-in-sheas-investigation}
For Shea Collins, the clock tower functions differently. Shea comes to the Greer case as a true-crime blogger, someone who has built her life around understanding violence after surviving an attempted murder herself. The clock tower is not a symbol she encounters directly; it is a piece of the story she uncovers through Beth's testimony.
Shea's own near-death experience—her would-be killer has been imprisoned for nearly twenty years—gives her a personal stake in understanding random violence. The clock tower, as the novel's image for that kind of violence, resonates with Shea's obsession. Her true-crime obsession as a trauma response mirrors Beth's library research: both women are trying to understand a threat by studying it, by learning its shape, by making it legible.
The difference is that Beth's research is driven by fear of someone she knows, while Shea's is driven by fear of someone she doesn't. The clock tower bridges both fears. It is the image of violence that comes from nowhere, from anyone, at any time.
Study Questions {#study-questions}
1. Why does Beth's research into clock towers leave her shaking?
Beth's research reveals that Lily's cryptic comment was not idle. Lily had known about Charles Whitman's 1966 shooting and had thought about it seriously enough to reference it. Beth realizes that Lily is contemplating the possibility of committing similar violence. The clippings show Beth the shape of the danger Lily represents, and the realization that her half sister might be planning to become a killer is what makes her physically ill. The clock tower, for Beth, is the moment she stops being able to deny what Lily is.
2. What does Lily's question Why don't you ever hear of a woman in a clock tower? reveal about her?
The question reveals that Lily is thinking about violence in gendered terms. She has noticed that the archetypal random shooter is always imagined as male, and she is questioning why that should be. The question is also a form of self-identification: Lily is positioning herself as the woman who could occupy that space. It is not a hypothetical question for her; it is a statement of possibility, and ultimately a prediction of her own actions.
3. How does the meaning of the clock tower change between Beth's research and Lily's first random murder?
When Beth researches the clock tower, it is a historical reference—something that happened to other people in another time. When Lily kills the random man in 1977, the clock tower becomes present and personal. Beth's narration—Lily had gone into her clock tower at last—marks the moment the symbol shifts from a disturbing idea to a lived reality. The clock tower is no longer something Lily studied; it is something she became.
4. How does the clock tower symbol connect to the novel's treatment of random violence?
The clock tower represents violence that has no motive and no target. Whitman's shooting was random; Lily's murder of Thomas Armstrong is equally random. The symbol allows the novel to distinguish between the family violence of the Greer mansion—which has reasons, however twisted—and the senseless violence Lily commits. The clock tower is the novel's image for the kind of murder that cannot be explained, predicted, or prevented, which is precisely what makes it so terrifying.