Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Child

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

As originally published at http://www.epinions.com/content_178278862468:

It was a mix of self-confessed morbid curiosity, and a desire to know more, that drew me to the story of "Sharon Marshall." I have perseverated on the subject of missing children for many years, prayed for the return or at least the closure of those who have been long out of the reach of their loving parents' arms.

Sharon's story is different: We know how things ended for her... but we do not know the truth of her beginnings. Sharon Marshall is not even her real name. She has also been known as Suzanne Davis, and later died under the moniker of Tonya Hughes.

Franklin Floyd is the nightmare that is behind her ordeal. He kidnapped her at an early age, already a convicted child molester, having done unspeakable things to a 4 year old in an alley. Sharon was simply his next victim.

From there he claimed to be her father. Then her husband. Eventually he became her Grim Reaper (he is the primary suspect in her murder).

He was always her worst enemy, treating her like a toy, an object, and then discarding of her when she was so close to escaping to any possibility of normalcy. Floyd later kidnapped her son, claiming to be his real father when he wasn't. The boy, Michael Hughes, is also now missing, and again, Floyd is the primary suspect in his murder as well.

Franklin Floyd is now in prison awaiting the death penalty for another woman's murder. He won't tell the truth about Sharon, and he may never will.

To the rest of the world, Sharon remains without a connection to the former home and family to where she belonged at one time. She still cries out for someone, somewhere, to be able to bring her back to where she belonged, 15 years after her death.

Matt Birkbeck has made an astounding effort at putting together the pieces of Sharon's incomplete puzzle and identity in his book A Beautiful Child: A True Story of Hope, Horror, and an Enduring Human Spirit. Thanks to his work, we discover a strong young woman that emerged from Sharon Marshall despite the torture and abuse Floyd put her through. We discover her true humanity.

With meticulous detail, Birkbeck has traced her known history. We go back to a high school she attended in Georgia, where she met the one true best friend she ever had, and how she was a source of inspiration to that friend.

We find out she was an honor student, a Lt. Colonel in the ROTC, we learn of her goals, hopes and dreams. In the face of what we also learn of the sick world in which she was raised, those hopes and dreams are amazing - one would never expect someone in her situation to have and strive for such aspirations.

We learn about her dedication as a mother to her little boy, Michael. We learn, too, about her final determination to escape the physical, emotional and sexual prison Floyd has created for her... and how that tragically cost her life.

Unfortunately Sharon was known only as a strip club dancer when she died, someone to be regarded as trash and not much more. It is thanks to the work of detectives who wouldn't give up on her, and especially thanks to Matt Birkbeck, that the public has the opportunity to discover Sharon was much more. She was, indeed, beautiful.

Birkbeck deserves much aplomb for being able to bring back to life someone Franklin Floyd attempted to erase and crush. He does so in a way that, weeks after reading this book, I am still thinking about daily, and continuing to hope and pray for closure, for someone to bring Sharon "home."

Note: Several attempts have been made by authorities over the past several years to match up Sharon's DNA with that of missing children matching her physical description and profile at the time of her abduction in an attempt to discover her true identity. Sadly, each attempt has resulted in a dead end.

If you have any information leading to Sharon's true identity, please contact The Doe Network: http://www.doenetwork.org.

The Doe Network's profile for Sharon Marshall: http://www.doenetwork.us/cases/8uftx.html

Matt Birkbeck's Web Site, including a forum where he provides updates on Sharon's case: http://www.mattbirkbeck.com/

Such a sad story of this girl who really has no identity as she was kidnapped at such a young age.Kidnapped and abused mentally and Physically through her short life. She was a beautiful person who hid all the pain so well and tried so hard to have her life in some way be her own.
I bet she had no memory or very little of her real family. I hope they find out who she was. Bless you and rest in peace with your son. You both are beautiful souls.

This is a true crime story that is bound to move even the most hardened aficionado of the true crime genre. It is the story of an evil man who destroyed--meaning ended--the lives of three people, two of them children at the time they came under his control. The narrative depicts the territoriality of some police departments which results in the impeding of efforts to find, locate, and possibly rescue missing children. But it also shows the dedication of some law enforcement officers who were determined to bring the one man causing all the suffering to justice.

This is the type of book where it is best not to give away too much, since the narrative does succeed in providing considerable suspense. Suffice it to say that Sharon Marshall, whose real identity the author takes most of the book trying to find out, came under the control of an evil man when she was about seven. This man posed as her father, then married her, possibly fathered at least one of her children, forced her into stripping and prostitution, and ultimately killed her. All this is discovered fairly early in the book. The evil man takes at least two other lives as well. The book's suspense consists of watching the law enforcement officers attempt to build a case and secure convictions, and also in the attempt to discover the young woman's real identity.

The reason I gave the book only three stars is because it is so badly written and organized. I found it hard to believe that any competent editor would allow this book to be published in this form. The author commits egregious grammatical errors: he decides that two photographs of young women are "one in the same;" he states, "Jennifer became nauseous." He employs clunky phrases like "the teenagers...bumped and grinded" their way to class. Can the author be unaware that the past tense of "grind" is "ground?" Can he be unaware that "bump and grind" is a creaky term for what a dancer in a burlesque house did, and thus a totally inappropriate metaphor? Can he be aware that such a phrase is totally jarring to anyone with an ear for language and its cadences?

Stylistic qualms aside, this is a sad and fascinating true crime story. Recommended with reservations.

A great book is one that leaves you thinking long after the last page is read. It's been a week since I read A Beautiful Child, and it's all I think about. I have seen words like "incredible" and "unbelievable" used to describe this work. I would add "sobering" and "miraculous". Sobering in that a young girl could be kidnapped in this country by a vicious murderer and actually raised as his daughter with nary a whisper from anyone. Miraculous in that Matt Birkbeck brought this young woman to life. We see her laugh, we see her cry, we see her battle the evil she was unwillingly forced to deal with. This is a book that defines a writer's career, a book to be remembered by. Mr. Birkbeck's simple yet riveting prose is purposely understated as it only can be to tell such a story so rich in imagery. A Beautiful Child is a gift, a book that must be read by every parent, teacher, social worker, police officer - by anyone - if only to remind us of the evil that lurks, and that goodness can shine so brightly even in a remarkable young woman who was thrust into hell.

You cry, you cringe, you get angry, you cry again. With each passing page I found myself immersed in A Beautiful Child.
Is it a mystery? A tragic tale? A sorry history lesson? It's all three and more. This is a book that you not only won't put down, but will read again and again and as my first Amazon review, I want to tell the world about this book.
Like other reviewers, I applaud Matt Birkbeck for writing this book. How can you not? Investigative journalists flesh out the truth, and at the same time they paint a bulls eye on their back for their enemies to aim. Birkbeck is no different. After reading A Beautiful Child I read his first book on Robert Durst, A Deadly Secret: The Strange Disappearance of Kathie Durst. It's another gripping book, one that takes apart the sleezy criminal justice system and lets a serial killer remain on the streets.
I don't believe Birkbeck is a crusader more than he is an obvioulsy talented writer who found great stories, reported on them, and presented them in such a way that leaves your head spinning. Most importantly he remains true to the facts and above all he can relate a story. Of the two A Beautiful Child is the better story. A young girl kidnapped by a monster and raised as his daughter, at the same time she maintains their secret and accomplishes great things in school? This must be fiction, but is not. A Beautiful Child is a book that MUST be read, discussed, disected and understood, if only to save another Sharon Marshall.

IF you have ever read I KNOW MY FIRST NAME IS STEVEN then a BEAUTIFUL CHILD IS A MUST. The author Matt Birkbeck goes indepth as he writes this superbly heart breaking true crime book which i highly recommend and is a "must read" for any true crime fan. The story is of Sharon Marshall a young girl of about 3 yrs old who some how falls into the hands of an evil peodophile Franklin Floyed, who he raises as his own daughter.
Sharon grows up into a beautiful young woman and even marries the peodophile of a man in which she calls daddy. This is a tragic true story which ends in disastrous consequence's, i won't reveal any more of the book buy it on amazon now and you won't be dissappointed.

my first time reading this author, very interesting story I couldnt put it down, very well written, I still keep wondering who this child belonged to cwnt get it off my mind