Spoken in Darkness: Small-Town Murder and a Friendship Beyond Death [Mass Market Paperback]

Anne Imbrie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

This chilling and beautifully written true story tells of a woman who unravels the murder of a childhood friend and finds a tangle of lies. A disturbingly intense look at murder, and a feminist view of a neglectful legal and social system.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Lee Snavely, a 24-year-old heroin addict and prostitute, was murdered in Michigan in 1974 by a serial killer. Imbrie, an English professor at Vassar College, was a friend of Snavely's in junior high school in Ohio during the '60s; they last saw each other in 1971. In an overwritten account padded with her dull memories of growing up, Imbrie recreates her erstwhile friend's decline. Both of Snavely's parents had died by the time she was 12; she careened from foster homes into marriage to an abusive Vietnam veteran, also a junkie. Her killer, Gary Taylor, a wily psychopath and fan of Hitler and Rudolph Hess, was earlier arrested for serial killings, declared insane and institutionalized. Set free in 1972, he married his lawyer's secretary and went on to commit more murders, including the brutal slaying of Snavely. He is now serving a 99-year prison term. Marred by literary posturing, this is an all-too-familiar indictment of an inept judicial and penal system.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Author Imbrie was shocked to learn that Lee Snavely, her childhood best friend, was the victim of a serial killer whom she had apparently mistaken for an easy hustle. Imbrie still considered Lee "the only difference" in her own more predictable world. In this hard-to-put-down narrative, she documents Lee's erratic life, from the death of her doctor-father to her murder. Somehow all the pieces fall together. Pretty, intelligent Lee had a restless spirit that made her an outsider from an early age. Her rebelliousness, exacerbated by the confines of the small Ohio town and the lack of support from family, put her on a direct line to another outsider, killer Gary Taylor. Although it is often lacking in depth, Imbrie's book is absorbing and revealing. Recommended for true crime collections.
- Frances Sandiford, Green Haven Correctional Facility Lib., Stormville, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Plume (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452272173
• ISBN-13: 978-0452272170
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,582,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Truly Soulful Book, February 12, 2007

By 

Dan Bogaty "Mr. Congeniality" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Spoken in Darkness Pb (Paperback)

This is a difficult book to describe. Although it is classified as such, it is not at all "true crime" and those who are looking for strict true crime will be disappointed.
Ann Imbrie's "Spoken In Darkness" is basically the author's search for the memory of a murdered friend, both externally through research which includes courthouse searches and interviews; and, to a greater degree, through her own memories of her friend, Lee Snavely. The author was best friends with Lee for only a couple of years, but when she heard Lee had been killed she began her search, and in doing so she beautifully and honestly uses the experience to also examine her own childhood and her relationship with her parents, and to contrast that childhood with Lee Snavely's in an attempt to explain to herself how a friend she truly loved could end up so differently from herself - Lee a murdered prostitute; Imbrie a college professor. And, in fact, the book is at least as much about the author and her emotions as she remembers her friend as it is about the friend herself.
This is a highly literate work written at an unusual level of tenderness and honesty. Lee Snavely's murder, and some of her adult life, are described by Imbrie only as products of her imagination. This does not at all detract from the purpose of the book, which is to a great degree more emotional than factual. The pain in Imbrie's writing about Lee Snavely's childhood is palpable and explains why Lee's life unfolded as it did.

"Spoken In Darkness" is a truly soulful book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An achingly beautiful tribute to a lost friend, March 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Spoken in Darkness: Small-Town Murder and a Friendship Beyond Death (Mass Market Paperback)

This book took my breath away with the beauty of its lyricism and metaphors. Many writers attempting to tie a traumatic event in with their own lives fail to do so with total clarity - Imbrie is not guilty of this flaw! The violent loss of a friend and its implications to the author's own life are brilliantly set forth by this author. As a former student of Imbrie's I can attest to the sincerity of this book as well as to her innate gift with words. Women whose lives have been touched by violence will especially appreciate this book, a real work of literary art as well as a beautiful tribute to a lost (stolen!) friend.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good book to check out of the library, February 25, 2001

By 

Janis A. Varo (Seattle, WA. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spoken in Darkness: Small-Town Murder and a Friendship Beyond Death (Mass Market Paperback)

The book is touching, I'll give Ann Imbrie that, but really, she doesn't have enough material to warrent a full length book. Because she lacks many facts, she invents what she doesn't know and does a good job doing it, but the book should be marketed as such i.e. it is really about her feelings and reminisces of her dead friend, not what happened to her. An excellent book to borrow from a friend, check out from the library, or purchase used, but i wouldn't pay full price for it.