Echoes in the Darkness [Hardcover]

Joseph Wambaugh (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1987

On June 25, 1989, the naked corpse of schoolteacher Susan Reinert was found wedged into her hatchback car in a hotel parking lot near Philadelphia's "Main Line."  Her two children had vanished.  The Main Line Murder Case burst upon the headlines--and wasn't resolved for seven years.  Now, master crime writer Joseph Wambaugh reconstructs the case from its roots, recounting the details, drama, players and pawns in this bizarre crime that shocked the nation and tore apart a respectable suburban town.  The massive FBI and state police investigation ultimately centered on two men.  Dr. Jay C. Smith--By day he was principal of Upper Merion High School where Susan Reinert taught.  At night he was a sadist who indulged in porno, drugs, and weapons.  William Bradfield--He was a bearded and charismatic English teacher and classics scholar, but his real genius was for juggling women--three at a time.  One of those women was Susan Reinert.  How these two men are connected, how the brilliant murder was carried off, and how the investigators closed this astounding case makes for Wambaugh's most compelling book yet.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The bizarre, seven-year-long case of an Upper Merion, Pa., high school teacher, Susan Reinert, found murdered in 1979, and her two missing children receives masterful treatment from police novelist Wambaugh, who is now building a reputation as a true-crime writer. He shows the dead teacher's lover, colleague and beneficiary of her insurance policiesamounting to about $750,000to have been a superficial intellectual, able to dazzle impressionable high school students and to gather around himself a coterie of naive and trusting neurotics. There is no doubt in the author's mind that William Bradfielda Pied Piper of the chronologically adult but psychically underdevelopedcommitted the crime in concert with the former principal of the school, Jay Smith, whom he portrays as a sociopath. The skein of murder is highly complex, but Wambaugh unravels it superbly. 150,000 first printing.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Wambaugh's latest is a true murder story in an unlikely setting: an upper middle-class suburban Philadelphia high school. English teacher Susan Reinert and her two children were the victims of a bizarre conspiracy hatched by her colleague William Bradfield and her former principal Jay Smith. Both men were convicted after a seven-year investigation. The case is also the subject of Loretta Schwartz-Nobel's Engaged to Murder ( LJ 2/1/86). However, Wambaugh's account is preferable. Where Schwartz-Nobel seems perplexed by Bradfield's character, Wambaugh convincingly identifies the guilty men's motives as sociopathic. Also, Wambaugh is a master of the crime genre and he deftly handles the twists and turns of the intricate plot. Recommended. Gregor A . Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 415 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (February 1987)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688068898
• ISBN-13: 978-0688068899
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #593,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Unbelievable . . . creepy . . . but true -- very disturbing!, May 12, 2000

By 

"lisadiva" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Echoes in the Darkness (Paperback)

The tale of Susan Reinert is one of the most riveting true crime books I have ever read. Certainly the story -- details about Bill Bradfield, Dr. Jay Smith, Vince Valaitis, Sue Myers, etc. -- was convoluted . . . and difficult to follow at best. But it just proves Bradfield's manipulation of everyone around him. The story becomes difficult to follow and almost unbelievable because the story itself is practically unbelievable. Bradfield told so many tales and lied to so many people that even he had trouble keeping up with it and remembering what he told and who he told it to. Dr. Smith proves to be a pretty sinister character himself -- someone who did a lot of terrible things (and was possibly involved in the disappearance of his own daughter and her husband! Frightening!). It is hard to believe that these people are real -- that they live(d) and breathe(d) and exist(ed) in Upper Merion -- it certainly makes for an entertaining and unbelievable cast of characters. But they are not just characters in a book -- they are REAL PEOPLE -- and that is the scary thing. It makes you stop and think and look around at your friends and neighbors and coworkers and wonder what is going on in their heads. Creepy!

What is most disturbing is the fact that Reinert's young children were unfortunately involved in this horrible situation, and that their bodies have never been found. Even more frightening is that Susan Reinert's body may have disappeared in much the same way -- except that there was life insurance money to be gained (by Bradfield) and therefore a body had to be found. The sad thing is that everyone seemed to be under someone else's "spell" -- for the most part, all these seemingly intelligent teachers (molding the minds of Upper Merion's youth, no less!) were so enthralled and entrenched in Bradfield's life, so willing to believe him, so willing to participate in his "cloak and dagger" games, so prepared to believe him until too many suspicions and too much evidence mounted against him. And Bradfield! His relationship with Dr. Smith -- whatever the extent of it -- was certainly not on the up-and-up. A frightening look at this disturbed group of people and the lengths someone will go to attain something (in this case, money). All I can say is, you have to read it to believe it. I was too young to remember the case when it happened, so I can't compare the book to any newspaper headlines or stories or actual experiences . . . but I was engrossed in the book, totally interested. Wambaugh does an excellent job pulling the reader into the lives of these people. The situations are chaotic and elaborate -- at times almost ridiculous and laughable, because everyone was so blind to the "charms" of Bradfield and Smith for so long. I only wish there had been pictures of the principle characters, so I could have put faces to the names.

30 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's amazing how clueless and idealistic you can be at 17..., April 3, 2000

By 

Richard H. Romig Jr. (Doylestown, PA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Echoes in the Darkness (Paperback)

As a graduate of Upper Merion--with Jay Smith's signature on my diploma and Bill Bradfield's loopy enthusiasm whenever I successfully translated Catullus still ringing in my head--this book was a "must-read." I CAN say that Wambaugh does his usual good job of capturing certain facets of the main characters and presenting the case, particularly from the viewpoint of the investigators, whom he lionizes. (Unfortunately, the intervening years have led to revelations about their mishandling of evidence and own character failings...which tarnishes their victory somewhat.) He also succeeds in pointing out the inverse relationship between intelligence and common sense that often exists among academics, and definitely existed here. I found his description of sociopathic behavior and how it forged the bizarro bond between these two men especially illuminating. However, it's what I usually like best about Wambaugh's books that forms the basis for my only criticism: there's no mistaking the fact he's an ex-cop. That means he forms his judgments about the perpetrators, followers, and even the victim early on and sticks to them. These people weren't quite so black and white. That being said, it's a good read that captures the gothic feel it strives for, and makes me extremely sad for the mother and children who were lost...and angry at people I respected who had so much potential.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars PART 1 OF TWO PART SAGA, May 20, 2004

By 

B Ardell Young (Camden, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Echoes in the Darkness (Paperback)

I cannot be too critical of Mr. Wambaugh's book because the movie based on the book drew my attention to the murder mystery. The case is interesting because so many questions are still unanswered and there is no clearcut version of what really happened to Reinert and her children.

The real failing of the book is not telling the whole story, which is not Mr. Wambaugh's fault because it took another ten years after the trials of Smith and Bradford for the final act to hit the stage.

If you become interested in the story, read Echoes, watch the TV-movie which appears on Lifetime several times a year. Finally, you must read the final chapter of the story: Principal Suspect, which provides the conclusion of the legal proceedings but leaves one major question of the case unanswered.

Both books and the movie are worth the time spent on them.