Customer Reviews

Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Being wicked close to having been a Mainer all my life, I remember how murders back in the 1950s and 1960s held everyone's attention because we were a small state, way off in the northeast corner and relatively unpopulated. Mainers just didn't do each other in; get hammered on Saturday night and whack the heck out of each other, yes, but murder someone? Well, that was rare.

Fast forward to the next century. Murder is more common, but every so often one happens that simply captures the attention of everyone in the state. Amy St. Laurent's death was such an event. You could tell from the newspaper accounts that it was really eating away at the law enforcement folks who were involved.

Finding Amy isn't so much a who-dunnit as it is a gripping account of how the crime affected a considerable number of very dedicated law enforcement officers. As such, it is superbly done and does a very good job of helping the reader get inside the heads and more importantly inside the hidden feelings of those cops who pretty much stopped having a life while they were 'finding Amy.'

Finding Amy succeeds as a work of suspense, as you live through the day-to-day agony and frustration of the investigating officers as they piece together the crime despite flaky witnesses and hard-to-find physical evidence. But it also hits home as a tribute to an innocent victim who truly found herself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I thought I knew all there was to know about this case, but the book proved me wrong. Flipping page after page of riveting details, I actually found myself reading while walking through the house on my way out the door. Such was my inability to put in the bookmark and resign myself to finishing this great read later.

It also made me cry, and more than once.

I just finished Finding Amy and I have to tell you - it was a great piece! I was reading two other books (about mobster Whitey Bulger) but had to put them down completely when I started Finding Amy. This book captured my attention and kept it right until the last page. It was pretty unique to read about colleagues in your profession - many who you know and have worked with - and to read about their dedication and tenacity to bring this killer to justice. The book was well written, informative, and told from a cop's point of view - all the while reliving the story as it happened. Congratulations on your endeavor - your hard work certainly paid off! Well done!

What a great read --- made all the better by the fact that it is all true. I started the book on Saturday and finished it last night. I am not normally attracted to non-fiction crime books but this book grabbed me right from the beginning. I was particularly impressed by the journal entries Captain Loughlin made while he was working the case. His compassion and concern for the victim and her family is very moving. The writing is clear, straight-forward and elegant. This book is profoundly moving all the more for being real. It has everything --- a truly innocent victim, an extremely perverse killer, an intelligent and dedicated police force. Fiction should be this good!

Finding Amy is a gripping story that brings to life the search for Amy St. Laurent and the process of bringing her killer to justice. Flora's narrative is woven in with Loughlin's behind the scenes insights in a way that forges a connection between the reader and the victim's family, the detectives, and Amy herself. I found the book impossible to put down and will never forget the compelling story it tells.

This is arguably the best non-fiction crime novel ever written. Fast paced and gripping, the novel tells the story of a beautiful and talented young woman's abduction and the ensuing investigation including heartfelt journal entries by co-author Captain Joe Loughlin. Throughout this novel, the authors bring to light the difficulties that police officers endure on a daily basis for the all too often thankless job they perform.

I recently attended an event at a local library, and so happened to hear one of the authors of this book, Kate Flora, talk about Finding Amy. As I listened to her describe her experience writing the book, one of the things I found fascinating was her comment that although the book is true crime, it has all the elements of great drama. I soon found out how right she was. From the first chapter of this book, I was hooked. Joseph Loughlin's raw, emotional description of the life of a cop drew me in immediately - I knew he'd be a fasinating guide on the journey through this story. The approach the authors' take, of alternating Joe's very personal story of his involvement in finding Amy with Kate's wider view of events works exceptionally well. During the period I was reading this book, I happened to wake up two hours early one morning. Instead of rolling over and going back to sleep, I got out of bed so I could keep reading - that's how riveting it was. This book provides heartwrenching insight into what it's like for a distraught family facing their worst nightmare, describes the boundless, selfless dedication of the police and the ends to which they will go to find a killer, and is a beautiful tribute to Amy, a very special young woman loved and missed by all of those she left behind.

Even though the outcome of the search is known to many, Joseph Loughlin and Kate Flora turned this account into a page turner. There is drama up to the last pages. To anyone who is has seen how a crime is so elegantly solved on TV, this book tells us what really goes on; the long hours put in by detectives, the turf battles, the smirks of the suspect, the fingernail biting while waiting for the verdict. Not since in "In Cold Blood" have we seen an account that covers the sorrow, the agony and the gore that comes when a "real" crime is committed and how it affects the life of an community.

This is one of the most emotional and gripping, true-crime stories I've ever read, and I knew the ending! Every word builds towards the inevitable outcome in a such a way that I could not put the book down. A masterful job of reporting on an amazing piece of police work.

Amy St. Laurent had everything including a loving family, friends, a job that she loved, and a community behind her. One night while entertaining a male friend, Rubright, from Florida which she tried to explain that she wasn't interested in him as more than a friend at a bar where it all when went wrong. She chose the Jeffrey Russell Gorman, a ticking time bomb who was known to drug and rape his female victims. While the people concluded that Rubright's story that night was a bit preposterous but true, they came across Gorman who was truly the threat to poor sweet Amy. Her death was brutal and horrifying enough and she fought back. While I admire the police's detective work including driving down to Alabama from Maine when they could have flown and got there quicker, Amy's disappearance and murder occurred only weeks after the events of September 11, 2001 where flying airplanes became a common fear even for veteran police officers here. I recall the events of September 11, 2001 like everybody else and how that might have overshadowed the horrible crimes that occurred elsewhere than ground zero and pentagon and Shanksville, Pennsylvania. I had trouble with this book because I felt that two people writing about the same thing at the same time made me rush through it. I felt a lot of stuff was rehashed repeatedly. In the end, I read that a portion of the book's proceeds benefits a foundation in Amy's memory and if you ever travel to Cape Elizabeth, Maine, check out the lighthouse and the granite bench with her name on it.