What do You think about Echoes In The Darkness (1987)?
Wambaugh's novel about the real-life murder of Susan Reinert, an English teacher in the Upper Merion school district of PA is intriquing to read. The case was current, as I followd it in the newspapers,and far too-close-for comfort. I found it to be somewhat compelling, with many,inexplicable loose ends, several bizzare characters, and stranger motives To this day, I am uncertain whether or not the facts were revealed and if the real perpetrators had been arrested; in fact, there are many missing pieces in this incredibly odd and terrying case.
—Skye Skye
Well it's time to revisit a book from my past. I've been thinking a lot about high school lately since a new co-worker and I went to the same school. I attended the school that this book is about and knew the teachers and principal involved. I was in 9th grade (Jr. High) when the murders took place and in high school when the investigation and trial were in progress. My siblings were in high school before all this happened and they could tell you some wild stories about the main characters. One of my sisters had the principal suspect for English and thought he was wonderful. All my siblings said the principal Jay C. Smith (or as they called him Jesus Christ) was a very strange man. There were so many stories that flew around about devil cults and bodies buried in back yards..it was surreal. None of the teachers at the school would discuss anything and I think there is a lot that went on that never came to light. So now I want to revisit this story and refresh my memory. I am going to reread this book and another called Engaged to Murder. I had difficulty tracking that one down since it was not as widely known but if I remember correctly it has less bias than the Wambaugh book. We'll see how much I remember!
—Kathy Fimognari
I read to page 148 before putting this book aside and finding no motivation for picking it back up. It wasn't bad, really - the case itself was interesting enough, and the book was at least semi-enjoyable; however, the writing style was very odd IMO. The author's constant use of italicized words was distracting and made it hard to take this account of a true-crime murder case seriously. Examples:p.63: "And to all of little faith, he said there might be a possibility of opening yet another store in Philadelphia, and a third in Exton Mall."p.78: "It was a case of mistaken identity. So it was probably the lookalike, whoever he is, who did the other one too."Every single page has at least one, if not three, four, five uses of italics to emphasize seemingly random words. Like I said, distracting!!!I would like to know what happened in the last half of the book, but since finishing it seems like a tedious process, I'm just going to call it quits on this one.
—Kelly
