Lori Vallow · Double Indemnity · DB Cooper

The crime
The murders of Tylee Ryan and J.J. Vallow, as well as Tammy Daybell, by Lori Vallow (and, allegedly, Chad Daybell, whose trial is set for April of next year).

The story
I reviewed Leah Sottile’s When The Moon Turns To Blood last year; in a nutshell, while Sottile is talented and IMO the best authorial match for the material, the story had too many unknowns and allegedlies to hang together — and yet the story had apparently had to go forward, thanks to the vagaries of the publishing calendar.

When The Moon is not a bad book. I read it in a day; it moves right along, and there’s plenty of compelling intel in here — much of it ancillary to the central story, but still. But that it isn’t a finished book, perhaps, or a book at all yet, is disappointing. It’s a disappointment I feel on Sottile’s behalf, versus one of her doing, and sometimes you do have to build the whole contraption before you realize you’re short all the parts. But…it doesn’t mean you’re not short all the parts. I’d say wait for the paperback, and hope she can shore it up firmer then.