I am not normally a reader of books from the James Patterson factory. He has a successful formula, and it’s just not for me. I gave this book a try since I have an unhealthy obsession with the death of these four beautiful, vibrant college students, soon to start their adult lives, the haunted, sick psychopath who savagely took their lives, and the never-to-be-unquenched desire to understand his motive, why his suffering should lead to these horrific acts. The juxtaposition of Bryan Kohberger’s mental illness and disturbed life, with the shining, happy, promising lives he ended, demands a reason— yet, we are unlikely to ever get a full explanation. After consuming Howard Blum’s well-researched and written book, reviewed here (https://www.margueritereads.com/home/when-the-night-comes-falling-a-requiem-for-the-idaho-student-murders-by-howard-blum?rq=howard%20blum) I thought I would give one more book a chance to cover the events of this crime. I also recommend the insights of Pat Brown, a criminal profiler par excellence, and her take on Kohberger (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUKM5jMd_5s). Until Dr. Gary Brucato, noted psychiatrist and leading expert on psychotic illness and violence, studies Kohberger’s case and writes his book, we will likely get no closer to a satisfactory understanding of this man.

The authors take us through the events leading up to and through the murders, then backtrack to give us a clear and complete picture of the four victims, Maddie Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Ethan Chapin, their family and close friends, relationships with their university fraternity and sororities, thereby coming to have an intimate sense of their lives, lifestyles, and aspirations. We learn about the police tasked with investigating, solving, and helping to prosecute the accused. We learn a bit about Moscow, Idaho, the University of Idaho community, and Pullman, Washington, and the Washington State University community, how they view each other, and their relationships, which will impact the hunt for the perpetrator. We hear about Bryan Kohberger, his background and struggles, and what led him from his home in the Poconos of Pennsylvania to the Pacific Northwest. The authors conducted extensive interviews with most of these people, so we get very specific details not found in other works on the case. We come to understand the communities, the lives of those touched by tragedy, the responsible person, and those tasked with finding the truth and restoring justice and safety.

I was impressed by the sensitive, yet honest descriptions of events from the perspectives we don’t often hear— specific members of law enforcement, the closest friends who lived next door and discovered their friends brutally murdered, the parents and siblings trying to process their grief, yet present a public face that would honor their deceased loved one, and promote the prosecution of justice, and specific members of the community and how this event impacted life there. We don’t learn much detail about the Kohberger family; understandably, this is a terrible tragedy for them, one can only imagine, filled with confusion and guilt. The book closes as we await trial, and all the worries and trauma it will likely inflict.

What we now know is that Kohberger struck a plea deal, admitting guilt, avoiding the death penalty, and receiving a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole. The families and close friends are left to rebuild their lives, looking for a way to live fully as their lost loved ones would have wanted. Unless and until we receive a fuller understanding of Kohberger’s mental illness, and why he perpetrated such gruesome actions against innocent people he didn’t even know, we must remain satisfied with this story. If you want a complete understanding of this terrible tragedy, this book is the one to read.