This is the definitive story of the 1981 kidnapping, rape and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh, and of the botched police investigation that took 27 years to unmask his killer. It was perhaps the most important kidnapping in American history because — largely through the efforts of Adam’s parents, John and Reve Walsh — it revolutionized the way in which local, state and federal authorities investigate cases involving missing and murdered children. Because it is such a famous case, you might think you already know the story; the authors quickly demonstrate that you would be mistaken.
| READ THIS |
| ‘Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction That Changed America’ |
| » Author: Les Standiford with detective Sgt. Joe Matthews |
| » Publisher: HarperCollings |
| » Price: $24.99 |
Les Standiford, the author of 15 nonfiction books and novels including “The Man Who Invented Christmas” (2008), tells the story with help from Joe Matthews, the detective who finally solved the case while working for John Walsh’s TV show, “America’s Most Wanted.”
The book has been likened to Truman Capote’s classic “In Cold Blood,” but the comparison is not apt.
Unlike Capote, Standiford does not bend facts for the sake of art, and his writing is not self-consciously literary. He spills out the narrative in a precise, matter-of-fact style — a wise choice for a story laced with so much heartbreak, gore and perversion. A more apt comparison: “Bringing Adam Home” is one of the finest true-crime books since Thomas Thompson’s “Blood and Money” (1976).
The authors meticulously recount Adam’s kidnapping from a Sears store in Hollywood, Fla.; the fruitless search for the missing boy; and the subsequent discovery of his severed head bobbing in a canal a few miles away. And they briefly sketch the tireless work by the boy’s bereaved parents on behalf of other missing and murdered children.
This remarkable story will bring readers to tears of grief — and rage.
