Publisher's Weekly Review
In this propulsive true crime saga, bestseller Olsen (If You Tell) revisits Amish country to solve a decades-old murder. Eli Stutzman was a gay, Amish-raised serial killer who murdered several men in Texas and Nebraska throughout the 1980s. Olsen previously chronicled Stutzman's life and crimes in Abandoned Prayers, detailing the man's sex-fueled, drug-addled murders and 2007 suicide. But as Olsen continued to rifle through Stutzman's past, he stumbled on a series of chilling new questions: might Stutzman's first murder victim have been his young, pregnant Amish wife, who supposedly died in a 1977 Ohio barn fire? Had she found out about his sordid hidden life and threatened to expose it? Which of their neighbors knew, or at least suspected, the truth? As Olsen plunged into the silent and often uncooperative world of the Ohio Amish for answers, he found discrepancies in the official accounts of Ida Stutzman's death, and an increasingly ugly world of sex parties and possible cover-ups involving the county's shifty coroner and gay alcoholic sheriff. The details of the case are gripping enough, but Olsen elevates them with sturdy prose, meticulous research, and admirable journalistic tenacity. This addendum to a once-settled story lands as much more than a footnote. Agent: Susan Raihofer, DBA. (Jan.)
Kirkus Review
Historical true-crime account of a pregnant Amish woman who died suspiciously in 1977. In his 1990 book, Abandoned Prayers, Olsen reported on a series of grisly murders allegedly committed by Eli Stutzman, a former member of an Amish community in Ohio. Now, dozens of books later, the author returns to the topic he says has haunted him all these years. Before Eli became a murderer, his wife, Ida, died suspiciously in a fire. Olsen--and others in the Amish community, he is quick to point out--is convinced that Eli was responsible for her death, and he sets out to prove it. Despite the subtitle, he doesn't quite complete the mission. Olsen's writing is engaging, his research is thorough, and his methods seem to be sound. He writes about the Amish with nuance and respect and, thankfully, without sentimentality--which might be one reason so many Amish men and women agreed to grant Olsen interviews. However, the author often lingers too long on the circumstances surrounding his research process rather than the research itself--e.g., "My oil-slick coffee finally, and thankfully, vanquished, I pick through the pages of the autopsy report and pause to write a single word on the outside of the file folder in block letters. For emphasis, I underscore it three times. 'C-o-n-s-p-i-r-a-c-y?'" Cringeworthy moments like this aside, Olsen has a gift for taking mountains of paperwork and interview material and weaving them into a cohesive narrative that is often difficult to put down, especially for die-hard true-crime fans. Because he frames the book as a step-by-step process of discovery, readers will feel like they're right there with him as he's knocking on doors and spinning out on the Midwestern ice. An engaging, well-researched historical excavation that could have benefited from tighter editing and further revision. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Prolific true-crime writer Olsen revisits a case he wrote about more than 20 years ago in Abandoned Prayers. In that book, he looked into the death of Danny Stutzman, son of Eli Stutzman, a former member of the Amish living outside the sect. Stutzman had previously served 16 years in prison for the murder of his roommate, but law enforcement could never definitively tie him to his son's death. Prior to that, while he lived in an Ohio Amish community, Stutzman's pregnant wife (and Danny's mother) Ida died suspiciously in a barn fire. Olsen never got closure after writing that first book, and, convinced that Eli murdered Ida, he is out for justice. While much of Stutzman's sordid past is on full display in Abandoned Prayers, Olsen revisits the possible orgies he hosted (sometimes even in front of Danny), his supposed affair with the local sheriff, and his general mingling with shady folks. The story is riveting, and, with its many tangents, reads more like a diary of an investigation than traditional true crime. Folks interested in that peek behind the curtain will love this.
