Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Pensive narrative of a double homicide in a small town. On February 14, 2017, the bodies of two young teenage girls were discovered below a hiking trail near Indiana’s Wabash River. The local police, writes Hendricks, then on the beat as a CNN reporter and anchor, “said the matter was now being investigated as a crime and they suspected foul play”—a by-the-books conclusion that seems rather too foregone, given the forensic evidence that was eventually revealed. The investigators were confident that they could solve the case in a couple of days, relying on the fact that the community was small and tight-knit and that strangers would be noticed. However, the killer had enough knowledge of the rough terrain, a precarious railroad bridge that figured in the crime scene, and the comings and goings of other people that he—almost certainly a male—was a local. For all that, and despite the discovery of audio and video evidence of the criminal’s identity, it took years to develop a case, with one suspect dying of Covid-19 before the evidence finally pointed to a likelier perpetrator. Even then, a crime specialist told Hendricks, “It would not surprise me if it takes two years, four years, six years to get to trial, just because of all the defense motions that are going to be occurring, all the antics that can be played.” The author, as much a victim advocate as a journalist, inserts herself into the story more than one might like (“My tears started falling, trickling down my cheeks”). Yet, though the prose is merely competent, she gets to the heart of the story: Terrible crime seldom meets speedy retribution, and survivors often must live with trauma long after the event. Indeed, while the prime suspect was arrested in 2022, the case has yet to come to trial. A serviceable tale of true crime with no punishment in sight. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.