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Book Review of Darker than Night: The True Story of a Brutal Double Homicide--and an 18-Year-Long Quest for Justice

Darker than Night: The True Story of a Brutal Double Homicide--and an 18-Year-Long Quest for Justice
reviewed on + 6 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2


If you are an avid reader of true crime you know that there are a variety of approaches an author may take in presenting the story of a true crime. The various ways of telling a story is one of the things that I like about reading true crime because there is never a pattern that is consistent. In Darker than Night, Tom Henderson takes the journalistic approach, and it happens to be one of my favorite ways to read about crime. In this book, two Michigan hunters leave for a annual hunting ritual but never return. Henderson describes well the frustration of the family as well as law enforcement when nothing they could do would generate any leads as to the whereabouts of these two men. Suspects were noted but there was not enough evidence to charge. The reader gets to know these two suspects very well, and Henderson presents their background and character so well that the reader despises them long before they are charged with the crime of killing the two hunters. There is surely no doubt that they are guilty, but for 18 years it appears that they have truly gottetn away with murder.

The chronology of the investigation, the dedication of the investigators, and the determination of the prosecutors is cleary the main selling point on this dramatic murder story. I found it compellilng. If you are one who does not like the tedium of trial minutia, you may not like this book as much as I did. The workings of our justice system, both the successes and failures is fascinating to me, so I give this book a good rating. I have read Henderson's other works as well, and find him to be a very thorough and competent researcher, and talented writer.