《书目》(Booklist)书评
On September 22, 1969, Eileen Franklin's best friend, Susan Nason, disappeared from her suburban San Francisco home. Three months later, the bruised, strangulated body of the eight-year-old victim was found in a nearby wooded area. With no suspects and few clues, the unsolved case remained open until 20 years later, when Eileen Franklin began recalling bits and pieces of that brutal murder, which she had witnessed. The rapist and murderer was none other than Franklin's burly, alcoholic father, George, who had been verbally, physically, and sexually abusing his wife, five children, and others for years. This book is a wildly fascinating chronicle of this well-publicized case (George Franklin was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in January 1991), detailing both Eileen's stormy life and her father's long history of violence. Mixing Eileen's first-person insights and reflections with third-person narrative, Wright spins an evenhanded account of this stranger-than-fiction episode. In the hands of a writer less skilled, this could have devolved into a titillating soap opera, but Wright manages to remain objective. What with the publicity the murder recently received on "60 Minutes," expect high patron demand. (Reviewed Nov. 1, 1991)0517582074Sue-Ellen Beauregard