Susan Hendricks

Down the Hill by Susan Hendricks (audiobook, read by the author)

I'm clawing my way out of a reading slump with audios from a couple of go-to nonfiction subjects: disaster accounts and true crime.

This one is about the double murder of two teenage girls in Delphi, Indiana -- a case that will be going to trial (maybe, given the delays thus far) this fall. The author is a journalist with CNN and HLN networks. Unlike so many cases she's covered from the studio in Atlanta, she went to the scene of this crime and covered it extensively, getting to know the victims' family members, and she became emotionally involved in the case in a way unlike others she'd covered.

I have mixed feelings about this one. Overall, it was a well-written account of a horrible crime. The details of the case were presented thoroughly, but I struggled with the gnawing feeling it was too much about the author. Hendricks admits she was too emotionally involved in this case. I guess I got a little tired of passages that narrated the content of news conferences, panels, and interviews she participated in. At times, that felt a little tiresome and (in some cases) redundant when the same information was imparted several times. How many times did I need to hear that the police needed to withhold certain details to protect the integrity of the investigation? But then, based on her reports of how social media dealt with the case, apparently a lot of people needed to hear that again and again, as they didn't seem to understand it.… (más)

The double murders in Delphi are horrific and Susan Hendricks did a great job of breaking down the tragedy and humanizing it; choosing to focus on the bereaved families rather than all the gory details. Not that those details aren't included, but they are dealt with very gingerly. I'm not sure I've read a true crime book like this before. My only regret is that this book was published so early, there are already so many new details, court hearings, and other information that could have been added to this story had Susan just waited for the trial to be over. Regardless, it was still an eye opening and chilling look into one of the most heinous Hoosier crimes in my lifetime.… (más)

Before February 13, 2017, what was known about anything that happened in the small town of Delphi, Indiana was kept among its residents. Among those residents were two teenage girls Abigail "Abby" Williams and Liberty "Libby" German, and the man who would, five years later, be arrested for their murders, 50-year-old Richard Allen. Now, the area has a population so small that it doesn't even have a hotel to accommodate the jury that will be selected for Allen's trial in 2024, but will forever be associated with the killings that took place there and the ominous phrase heard by the two young friends when they encountered him while exploring a nearby hiking trail on a day off from school, captured by a brave and quick-thinking Libby, and later recovered from her cell phone as a key piece of evidence. This is one of the last things Abby and Libby heard as they were led to their deaths in broad daylight. It's also the title of a book, written by veteran CNN and HLN journalist Susan Hendricks, who has reported on this case since the beginning. She has spent time with the victims' families and advocating for them against a sea of headlines that, more frequently than not, gives a voice to the girls' killer rather than the other way around. For Hendricks, the decision to focus her first book on this case was not to recount the grisly details of what's been titled the "Delphi murders", but to keep the memory of Abby and Libby alive an to remind the residents that these girls had had lives in Delphi that was cut short in a way that law enforcement has yet to fully reveal, other than to call their deaths "brutal." She follows the case from 2017 to just after Allen's arrest, and frequently mentions the girls' families waking up, day in and day out, telling themselves, "Today's the day." Meaning, today's the day justice will finally be served. After seven long miserable years, that day will soon finally be here. The account, I can't bring myself to call it a story, is about a small town in middle America that’s been haunted by an unfathomable act of violence and the ways families and communities cope with grief and move forward after tragedy. It's also about the limitations of local law enforcement and the rise of technology in helping to solve cases. The reader has to remember that this is really "Small Town America" and the police had never before even remotely encountered anything resembling this nightmare that was left on their doorstep. It shows that compassion, connection, empathy and resilience is still alive on a very real, very human level in spite of the way the world might seem to be headed.… (más)