Helpful Score: 7
This is the best true crime book I have read (sorry Ann Rule)! It is so well written and paced. This is a tragic story of a wonderful young girl who went out one night like- 25 year olds do - and never came home. This book focused on the victim and the way the murderer was brought to justice by unheard of cooperation across various police and investigative agencies. There was true love in this case and this story never lost the heart of Amy. Great read.
Helpful Score: 2
Story about a young woman who goes out with a friend and then vanishes. Started out interesting and then got very boring for me.
Helpful Score: 1
From the front cover - Twenty-five year-old Amy St. Laurent was attractive, intelligent, and responsible. One October evening she went out to show a friend from Florida the exciting nightlife of Portland's Old Port section. She played pool. She danced. And then she disappeared. The police investigation into her murder riveted the state of Maine3 for months.
I just finished this book (baffled that 90% of Amazon reviews are four and five stars) which I borrowed from a friend (glad I didn't buy it). I've read a few true crime books over the years. This one did not engage me. Early on the reader knows who the perpetrator is so what the reader is left with is getting the case ready for trial. The book has two authors, one of whom (Joe Loughlin) was a police officer involved in the case. Loughlin's contributions to the book are written in italics and are his thoughts/recollections of what happened and conversations he had with people. Often times, his comments about what happened have already been written about by Kate Flora, the other author, so Loughlin's comments really add nothing except more pages to the book.
It got to the point that every time I came to an italicized section, I became irritated. I read the passages nonetheless. I got tired of hearing about how tirelessly the police worked (I don't doubt that they worked hard but how many times does one need to hear it?) or how special Amy was (she sounded like a very nice person but after hearing that mentioned many times throughout the book, I wondered if the cops would have been as dedicated to the case if Amy had been a prostitute, drug user, or in some other way a troubled person). My interest was pretty much gone probably by the halfway mark in the book but I slogged through to the end.
I think this story might have made a decent Dateline NBC show but the book--as written--was lacking.
It got to the point that every time I came to an italicized section, I became irritated. I read the passages nonetheless. I got tired of hearing about how tirelessly the police worked (I don't doubt that they worked hard but how many times does one need to hear it?) or how special Amy was (she sounded like a very nice person but after hearing that mentioned many times throughout the book, I wondered if the cops would have been as dedicated to the case if Amy had been a prostitute, drug user, or in some other way a troubled person). My interest was pretty much gone probably by the halfway mark in the book but I slogged through to the end.
I think this story might have made a decent Dateline NBC show but the book--as written--was lacking.
