What do You think about Abandoned Prayers: The Incredible True Story Of Murder, Obsession And Amish Secrets (2003)?
This is one of the better written t.c.'s out there/ Olsen is one of the better t.c. authors though. This guy featured in this book is just nasty. That's the best word I can think of for him. (Oh, believe me, I can come up with some others but just an overall nastiness is what I get from him and even his look. Ugh.) This poor little boy, not to mention this guys unfortunate wife and "friends"/"roommates"/"lovers" who came into contact with him. I doubt I've ever said this in this situation and I honestly feel funny saying it but as sad as this is, I think this little boy is better off. The things this boy supposedly saw and did and had done to him no one should ever have to deal with unless it's as an adult and of their own accord. To be fair, there was no blatant sexual abuse that was ever substantiated but the "little" that was known was enough for me. This man should have been caught when he did what he did to his wife. How do these people slip through the cracks?
—Eva Leger
It's pretty rare that I give a true crime book a low rating. On the surface, this should have been an interesting book-formerly Amish guy turns out to be murdering psychopath. However, rather than delve into the psychology of Eli Stutzman and his life with his son, this book goes into a tedious description of Eli Stutzman's "gay lifestyle" and uses this as proof of his psychopathology. I realize this book was written 20 years ago and I hope that in the present day, we have figured out that, just like there are good and bad straight people, there are good and bad gay people and your sexual orientation doesn't make you inherently pathological. Eli Stutzman may have been a particularly promiscuous gay man who had no qualms about exposing his young son to some pretty inappropriate things but this really doesn't prove that he killed anyone. Most of the book seems to be based on hearsay from various people and I never got the feeling that this author really got to the root of the story. There were some interesting parts in the beginning about how the Amish live but about halfway through this book, I got so tired of the descriptions of Eli Stutzman's crazy sexual life that I just wanted to finish this book. If you really want a great true crime book, I definitely recommend Ann Rule, who does actually research her books and present a complete story. Gregg Olsen is definitely not in her league.
—Shana
The first half of this book was really interesting, as we learn a lot about the Amish life style. The author explains a little of what it was like to grow up on an Amish farm, the dating, marriages etc...Eli Stutzman not only grew up Amish he was also gay. His wife dies in a mysterious barn fire and he takes off across the states with his son living a wild life of gay parties, turning tricks and pornography. This book gets into a lot of detail about the gay scene in the early 80's and gets quite graphic in parts. Eli's son Danny turns up dead in a ditch and he's not the only body that seems to get linked to Eli. Eli also seems to be a pathological liar. About half way through the book the story begins to drag as we read statement after statement after statement. Some of which I don't even think where worth mentioning as they never come up again in the trial, and also don't seem to hold any real facts. I really enjoyed the story, it's just a shame that it got kind of boring for the last half. The real sad part about the whole story though is, I have to wonder if Danny would still be alive if a lot of Eli's lovers would have come forward and spoken up instead of fearing others finding out about their sexual orientation. Also could Eli have been convicted early if the Amish would have questioned more about Ida's death, and not left everything up to the will of God?
—Slayermel
