While Idaho Slept: The Hunt for Answers in the Murders of Four College Students by J. Reuben Appelman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Like many true crime books, While Idaho Slept is very detailed. At times the detail is very interesting and at other times it feels like irrelevant minutia.
I found the focus on the victims to be so important. These were not faceless people but real lives who deserve to be remembered and honored.
I had followed the case but not in great detail, so I did learn quite a bit from listening to the audio version.
The major issue I have with this book is that it is incomplete. Because it has been released so soon after the murders there is still a great deal of information that is unknown. For example, what became of the house is not included in the book. However, the most obvious hole is the fact that the murder suspect has not yet been tried. Therefore, whatever evidence exists was still not known at the time of this book’s writing. A fuller story could have been told if the author had waited until after the trial and verdict. As it stands now, I am not sure the book revealed any answers that were not already discussed in the headlines.
I’d rate it 3.5 stars because it is readable and interesting. However, I am disappointed in the fact that the author is attempting to tell a story that is not yet ready to be told.
View all my reviews
