2026 Edgar Awards round-up: Out of the Woods
the true crime that's worth your time
Susan Howard on perennial Best Fact Crime nominee Gregg Olsen's "collaboration" with abduction survivor Shasta Groene.
Subscribe nowOnce again this year, Best Evidence is tackling the 2026 Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award nominees for Best Fact Crime book.
Today’s selection is Out of the Woods: A Girl, a Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home by Gregg Olsen.
The crime
In 2005, authorities discovered Brenda Groene, her son Slade, and Brenda's boyfriend Mark McKenzie murdered in their Coeur d’Alene, ID home. Missing from the scene were the two youngest Groene children: Dylan (age 9) and Shasta (age 8). Seven weeks later, Shasta was recognized at a Denny’s restaurant in her hometown, accompanied by her abductor, a habitual sex offender named Joseph Edward Duncan.