Unfortunately, another one for the "Abandoned" shelf.

This book is marketed as a “true crime” novel and it is to the degree that a “true crime” does feature somewhere in it…At 30% complete there has been a scant 10 pages or so devoted to the crime and the man who became obsessed with it and one of its victims, Mary Jane Reed.

For those who are interested in stories of the history of Oregon, Illinois, its politics, statues of Abe Lincoln and Native Americans, and the life of a journalist then this is the novel for you.

For true crime aficionados then you will need to be more patient and persistent than me to complete this book and see if there really was a solution to this crime.

These are the comments I wrote while reading this book:

I am currently reading this book about a double murder that happened in Oregon, Illinois in 1948.

I just finished a chapter that dealt with a 70 something foot statue of Abraham Lincoln and the pitfalls it has been through over the years. Seriously? This has NOTHING to do with this murder. If I wanted to read about Oregon, Illinois, etc., I would have chosen a book like that. Not one that is supposed to be true crime about a double murder that happened in 1948 and has never been solved.

This isn’t the first time this book has gone off on another tangent as very early it went into the history of the Chicago Tribune.

I feel as though I am going to reach the end of this book and it still won’t be solved.

I will give this book one more chance.

This is my review:

Apparently, the story of Mary Jane's Ghost was not enough to fill a book, so the author included other articles he was working on in between the main story of the book.

I was not impressed. I skipped pages, a LOT of pages.

There is nothing in the title nor the blurb that tells the reader that there will be pages and pages of other stories included.

I gave the author an extra star because it seems as though he wasted as much time driving back and forth from Chicago to Oregon, Illinois as I did reading this book.

Thanks to University of Iowa Press and Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. ( )

This is a very interesting account of a double murder that happened in Oregon, Illinois in June of 1948. In 2003, Ted Gregory, a journalist working for the “Chicago Tribune” receives a letter from Mike Arians, who is requesting help in solving the murder/mystery of Mary Jane Reed and Stanley Skridla that occurred on the south side of Oregon along Lover’s lane. The information in the letter does tweak Mr. Gregory’s interest as well. He has no idea at the time that he too will be seeking justice for these two young people for almost twenty years. Mr. Arians has an almost unhealthy obsession with the young beautiful Mary Jane Reed. He was a small boy when this crime occurred and even though it was always a black spot in the town of Oregon it was just never really talked about out in the open. There were plenty of speculations and some strange happenings regarding Mary Jane even years after her death. At the beginning of the book after reading some of Mr. Arian's accounts I’m thinking okay, here we go “Woo-Wooville” as I kept reading certain facts just SCREAM out a cover-up. The local law enforcement at the time and in years just didn’t want to touch this case.
Mr. Gregory also covers little known historical facts regarding the state of Illinois during his while writing this book that kept it more interesting. The one I like the best that had me giggling which at the time was a genuine problem in the area and surrounding states were the invasive Chinese Carp. These fish could fly and not only were they a danger of destroying the lake and rivers delicate ecosystems, they were guilty of knocking out a few unsuspecting fishermen as well. It was such a problem that the White House had a “Carp Czar” whose main job was to try to manage these creatures. Plus, it was interesting to hear the journalist point of view of working for a famous newspaper while the printed version was dying a slow death.
There were many reasons I found this book to be interesting not only the original case but the way the book flowed. It wasn’t all just about the case, most of it was of course but as I stated earlier he had sprinkled historical facts and other witty anecdotes regarding himself.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the providing me with a copy of this e-galley in exchange for my honest review. ( )