Ticket 2 Ride

It’s Book Talk Tuesdays again. An opportunity to review a recent book, or rediscover an old one.

Tragedy is an understatement. Four college kids murdered in their off campus home. The murder victims were stabbed by person or persons unknown. The city of Moscow, Idaho, and the nation, are tuned in to this horrific crime.

Best selling authors James Patterson and Vicky Ward deliver a book that reads like a crime novel, except it’s true. The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy was published before the murder suspect pled guilty and was sentenced, but that fact does not change the story; only that we have little information about his motive. Patterson and Ward paint his picture from interviews of those who knew or interacted with him, but there’s a lot missing. Maybe we’ll never know.

The book follows the victims’ stories, particularly their young adult years, life at the University of Idaho, their aspirations, and last hours. Also included in this tragic story are the friends and acquaintances, university staff, law enforcement and prosecutors who are drawn into the story. The best thing about the book is that you really get to know these four kids and appreciate who they were, and how much their murders devastated their families and the Moscow community.

DNA, cellphone records, GPS and social media all made a difference in developing the case and telling the story. Of those, social media was also the biggest headache and detriment, fostering falsehoods, character assassination and grief for already grieving family and friends. While there were Facebook pages that allowed interested persons to interact and share their thoughts, it may have attracted the killer to be a part of that environment. Everything about this story is creepy and exasperated by the interest.

I have a couple of complains about the construction of the book and narrative. The authors give voice to a couple of participants that deserve far less space in the overall story. I’m not going to identify them, but they hijack the focus. There is already plenty of conflict and fracturing of the different parties.

Second, too many minor events, and repetitive information slows and distracts from the effort to weave a lot of stories and voices together in this book.

Small jurisdictions struggle when tragedy on a national level occurs. Often, they lack the training, resources and professionalism needed to handle these critical situations. Critics and opponents lay in wait for errors, omissions and missteps that get played out to the world, courtesy of social media and the internet.

Granted, there appear to be a few mistakes made in the investigation and lead-up to court. I’m no expert, but from what’s presented in the book, I can’t fault the city, state or federal agencies involved in this case. The authors are tough on the prosecutor, maybe unfairly, but it’s difficult to tell from where I sit.

The ending of the book is underwhelming, given the horrible nature of the case and its national profile. It’s just weird timing that the book ends before the case is done. I don’t know how to feel about everything.