A true crime story about two young girls who went missing in the same Arkansas woods twenty-three years apart, and the strange circumstances connecting them.
Like the trails where it begins, the book is craggy, meandering its way between loosely connected acts of violence and Mr. Hale’s ruminations about religion and redemption. But these difficulties are outweighed by Mr. Hale’s subjects and his willingness both to look at and to look beyond their worst moments ... It would be easy for a writer to make this into a cautionary tale about the danger of religious zealotry. And Mr. Hale does some of that ... The author is more successful showing that Bethany Clark’s murderers did not remain monsters ... It is to Mr. Hale’s great credit that he refuses to anathematize the prodigal children in his book.
Detail-rich prose brimming with intriguing asides, twists, turns and reflections, giving readers up-close-and-personal insights along with thoughtful analysis of personalities and events ... An intimate, deeply original, true crime narrative ... What a story it is.
