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A Beautiful Child [Hardcover]

Matt Birkbeck (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)


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Book Description

September 7, 2004
Sharon Marshall was brilliant.

As a student at Forest Park High School near Atlanta, Georgia, Sharon was at the top of her class. She had a personality that radiated, and the blond-haired, blue-eyed beauty to match, making her one of the more popular, and respected, students. She also served as a Lt. Colonel in the ROTC, was a Who's Who Among Students in America's High Schools, and earned a full scholarship to Georgia Tech University to study aerospace engineering.

Sharon was the girl next door, her future filled with so much hope and promise.

She was an American dream.

But Sharon had secrets. Deep, disturbing secrets so shocking and complex, and so unique, they took more than a decade to unravel.

A Beautiful Child explores one of the most baffling cases in the annals of American law enforcement. It tells the gripping true story of a gifted, yet mysterious young woman caught in the violent world of the murderous felon and fugitive she called her father.

A complex web of deception thirty-years in the making, Sharon Marshall's incredible story, and the horrifying events that followed, fueled a dedicated FBI agent determined to unravel her secrets. But his efforts were thwarted at every turn by a nation's failure.

What unfolds is a heartrending testament to the profound courage and perseverance of one woman trapped in the grip of extreme evil.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matt Birkbeck is an award winning investigative journalist and the author of A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst. His work has appeared in Reader's Digest, People, and the Philadelphia Inquirer, among others.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Berkley Hardcover; 1St Edition edition (September 7, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 042519650X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0425196502
  • Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,282,575 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matt Birkbeck is an award-winning investigative journalist who has written for the New York Times, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone, People Magazine, Boston Magazine, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Birkbeck's latest book is the critically acclaimed Deconstructing Sammy: Music, Money, Madness, and the Mob (Amistad), which tells the riveting story of Sammy Davis Jr. and the efforts to resolve his millions in debts and restore his legacy following his death in 1990. The New York Times Book Review called Deconstructing Sammy "Gripping" and "Sensational," and the Los Angeles Times called it "Epic."

Birkbeck also authored A Beautiful Child (Berkley/Putnam 2004), the international best seller which tells the remarkable, tragic story of Sharon Marshall, a brilliant young woman who was kidnapped as a toddler by Franklin Delano Floyd, a convicted felon, fugitive, and pedophile who raised her as his daughter while traveling the country using stolen identities. Birkbeck spent six hours in a Florida prison in 2003 interviewing Floyd, who had just been sentenced to death for torturing and murdering a Tampa woman.

Birkbeck also authored A Deadley Secret (Berkley/Putnam 2002), which explores the investigation into Robert Durst, the heir to a New York real estate fortune accused of killing his wife and two others. Birkbeck is also the coauthor of Till Death Do Us Part (Atria/Simon & Schuster) in 2006 with Dr. Robi Ludwig, a noted psychologist who appears regularly on The Today Show and Larry King Live.






 

Customer Reviews

33 Reviews
5 star:
 (26)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.7 out of 5 stars (33 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A beacon in the fight to end child abuse, October 2, 2004
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This review is from: A Beautiful Child (Hardcover)


I applaud Matt Birkbeck for writing A Beautiful Child. Coincidentally,I began working with neglected and abused children during the writing of this book. The writing is simple and straightforward but the actual plot is quite complex.

A Beautiful Child is a true story that leaves the reader wanting to do something about abuse or help in finding missing persons. It's the kind of book you put down after reading and find yourself staring out the window for a long time. You wonder why nobody ever said anything before it was too late. Sharon Marshall could be anyone's neighbor or high school buddy; she was the girl next door, a shining example of hope for a better world. Earning top grades, listed in Who's Who Among American High Schools, Sharon read Shakespeare for enjoyment and participated in ROTC. She was headed for Georgia Tech on a scholarship, with the goal of someday working for NASA. The sweet, blonde girl with the cheery disposition would never see that dream. Neither would her little son, Michael. There's more, much more.
This is a tale of baffling sadness and gross cruelty that spans generations. Warren Marshall, aka Franklin Floyd kidnapped a child, raised her as his daughter, then as his wife and mother of his child. His activities left hardened detectives appalled and searching for the answers to a mystery that remains yet unsolved.

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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible, November 15, 2005
This review is from: A Beautiful Child (Hardcover)
That is the only word I can use to describe this book. Matt Birkbeck tells a compelling story about the tragic life of Sharon Marshall. The fact that Franklin FLoyd was able to keep poor Sharon quiet for so long is a mystery. There are few books that I cannot put down, this was one of them. I am an avid reader of true crime books and when you find a good one that spends time on the story and not the trial coverage you are lucky. I recommend it highly!
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A Compelling Book, September 19, 2004
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This review is from: A Beautiful Child (Hardcover)
For those who are interested in true crime, it doesn't get anymore chilling than this. A Beautiful Child, by Matt Birkbeck, is the true story of a young woman known to many as Sharon Marshall. Sharon's story is one of absolute horror, but also one of the indomitable human spirit.

Matt Birkbeck begins his book with Sharon's death. The story of Sharon Marshall is revealed through the aftermath of her death. Birkbeck follows the path of how investigators first became involved in Sharon's story, learned who Sharon was and wasn't, and how the search for Sharon's past continues to this day.

A Beautiful Child is a good book. It is not the best written book, but its subject matter is absolutly compelling. I did not want to put this book down. The book looks at Sharon Marshall's life from several different primary sources, the people who knew Sharon as well as anyone did. The book is also loaded with first hand accounts of the people who investigated Sharon's life, who she was and where she came from. And finally, the book is very timely and up to date. Information about the investigation at the end of the book is only few months old at the most at the time the book was published.

A Beautiful Child by Matt Birkbeck is worth reading. Its a chilling look into the life of a young woman who never gave up. Its a story of despair but also of hope. Its the story of a beautiful child, a story that needs to be told.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The wide halls of Forest Park High School were crammed with teenagers, all moving in slow motion as they bumped and grinded their way to class. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
student council camp, paternity test, exploited children, missing children
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Oklahoma City, Sharon Marshall, Michael Hughes, Franklin Floyd, Forest Park, Warren Marshall, Cheryl Commesso, Franklin Delano Floyd, Georgia Tech, National Center, Mark Yancey, Jennifer Fisher, Clarence Hughes, David Dial, New Orleans, New York, Greg Higgs, Mons Venus, Cheryl Ann Commesso, Golden Lantern, Pinellas County, Cary Strukel, Jane Doe, South Carolina, Stone Mountain
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