The Carpool Detectives

 

A few years back I heard about web sleuths: people who use the power of the internet for good, to help solve cold cases. I thought it was something I could do but I got quickly disheartened by the sheer number of unsolved cases and realized it wasn't for me. These four women did it, though, which is so amazing!

Shortly before the pandemic started, Marissa, a stay at home mom, was looking to get back into the workforce and took an investigative journalism class. While watching some B roll footage, she saw a police helicopter retrieval of an SUV where the two passengers had been found dead. Surprisingly, it was ruled a homicide and the case was still unsolved, fifteen years later. 

Once COVID kicked in, Marissa connected with three other like minded women (Jeannie, Samira, and Nicole) who wanted to solve the case of Joel and Angela Watkins (not their real names). With dogged persistence they were actually able to find out what happened to the couple. It was an incredible story. 

52 Pickup; Cooler Than Cool

 

While reading a biography on the late, great Elmore Leonard, I realized I hadn't actually read a lot of his books. So I checked out a collection of four and dove in. 

"52 Pickup" is the story of Harry Mitchell (Mitch) who steps out on his wife and gets caught in a nasty blackmail scheme. Rather than pay off the blackmailers, Mitch decides to turn the tables on them. Things get deadly. I don't want to spoil it by giving away too much, but it had a very satisfying ending. 

And here we are with the biography, "Cooler Than Cool". Who was cooler than Elmore Leonard in his heyday? No one, really. The man's fiction had a style all his own. He's eminently readable and his books, even the ones written half a century ago, don't feel dated. 

Leonard was an ad man in Detroit who wrote stories before he was able to make a living by writing fiction. He married young and had a bunch of kids. He struggled with alcoholism, got sober, got divorced, remarried, and continued writing. Most of the movies Hollywood made that were based on his stories weren't terrific, with a few notable exceptions (3:10 to Yuma, Jackie Brown; Get Shorty). Every few decades a new generation would be introduced to the brilliance that was Leonard. Justified was a smashing success and a high note to end his prolific career. Leonard died at the age of 87 a little over a decade ago, but his legacy lives. It was a terrific read and I will definitely be reading more of his fiction in the future.  

Out of the Woods

 

This was a really sad one. 

Back in 2005, a serial killer with the initials JED broke into the Groene home, murdered Brenda Groene, her boyfriend Mark, and her son Slade. He kidnapped nine year old Dylan and eight year old Shasta and held them captive in a remote area of the woods in Montana for weeks, abusing them in the most horrific ways imaginable. I think one of the worst things he did was give them hope: he told them if they could capture a wild chipmunk that was hanging around their campsite he would take them home. The kids did everything they could think of to get the chipmunk and when they finally did they were ecstatic at the idea that they were going home, only to have JED brutally murder Dylan right in front of Shasta. He took her and ran, stopping to eat at a Denny's. The waitress and several of the customers recognized them from the AMBER alerts and billboards and called the police. The waitress was able to stall them by pretending the printer wasn't working while several of the male customers hung back at the ready to physically restrain him if he tried to grab Shasta and run. The police came and arrested him, and unfortunately it felt like that was just the beginning of Shasta's nightmare.

Her father was devastated that Dylan was dead and refused to believe it until the police took them back to the campsite and recovered what remains they could. He was a shattered man who didn't want to hear about Shasta's ordeal, even though the poor girl needed someone to talk to. She ended up acting out, drinking, doing drugs, cutting herself, all sorts of horrible things, despite everyone around her trying to help her. She was shipped off to a group home for teens, which made things worse. 

Twenty years later and Shasta is still fighting daily to have a "normal" life. It was such a heartbreaking story. Olsen said in the afterward that he really hopes she can make a good life for herself. I hope so too. What a goddamn tragedy all the way around. 

It's Almost Always Sunny in Philadelphia

 

I read Kimberly Potts' book about the Brady Bunch and enjoyed it, and since I like "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" I thought I would give this one a whirl. 

It was pretty good. Hard to believe the show has been on for 20 years! I went back and rewatched a few of the early episodes and my God, they all look so young, even Danny DeVito. Of course so did I in 2005. 

At any rate, some of the episodes she talked about as being fan favorites aren't necessarily my favorites. I understand why a lot of people enjoy them, I just don't like them as much. About 2/3 of the way through the book she went on a multipage diatribe against Jerry Seinfeld, who apparently had the audacity to claim he's never seen the show, doesn't watch much current TV, and thinks TV comedies peaked when his show was on in the '90s. Um, okay? Not sure why I'm supposed to care what Jerry Seinfeld thinks or why she seems to care so much. It was just weird and felt out of place. Other than that it was a decent read.