Strange Piece of Paradise

This is why I love working with librarians who can make book recommendations! Jenn steered me to this true crime book by Terri Jentz. It was so good! Back in the summer of 1977, Jentz and her Yale roommate were bicycling across Oregon when they were brutally attacked one night while camping in a park. Someone ran over them with their truck, and then jumped out and went at them with a hatchet. Jentz remembered the whole attack, her roommate did not, and to this day suffers partial blindness because of the attack. Fifteen years later, the crime still unsolved, Jentz returns to Oregon to see if she can solve the crime herself, even though the statute of limitations no longer makes it a crime that can be prosecuted (Oregon has since changed the limitations on attempted murder cases). She discovers a town that is hiding a secret--everyone "knows" who did it, there just wasn't enough evidence to convict him. It was a great true crime, and she tells it in such a compelling way. Even though it happened to her, sometimes she seems very detached. It was great, even without a neatly tied up happy ending.