The true crime genre is my guilty pleasure! I have read dozens of TC books, tend to gravitate to the 364.1523 shelf in the public library, and in my local used bookstore, I head straight for the back wall, lowest shelf. Thanks to Wild Blue Press and NetGalley, I got a copy of Murder in My Hometown by Rebecca Morris in return for my honest review, and I was happy to indulge in my guilty pleasure.

Honestly, I had never heard of Ms. Morris, although she has co-authored several TC books with Gregg Olsen, including A Killing in Amish Country, If I Can’t Have You, Overkill, and Bodies of Evidence. On her own, she also wrote Ted and Ann, a book that explores whether a young girl who disappeared from Tacoma, WA, in 1961, might have been Ted Bundy’s first victim.

Ms. Morris grew up in Corvallis, OR in the 50s and 60s. And in 1967, 17-year old Dick Kitchel, a student at Corvallis High School, disappeared after leaving a party where he may or may not have fought with someone.  His body, beaten and strangled to death, was found a couple of weeks later floating in the Willamette River.

The book that I expected was a thorough exploration of the victim, the crime, and the investigation — and all those are included in the book. We learn that Dick was from a violent and very unhappy home: his father didn’t report him missing for quite some time, and never expressed any sadness over his death (making the father a suspect for sure). Corvallis was a college town, and the high school kids tended to be divided into two groups: those who were in some way affiliated with Oregon State University and those who weren’t. Dick’s family was in the latter camp, which many of his friends thought resulted in the police almost ignoring his murder and just barely investigating it.  So, what really happened?

Dick was definitely given a ride from the party, and left with three other guys. The driver dropped off the other two first, then he claimed he dropped Dick off downtown. This sounded fishy to some people because Dick’s treasured jacket was left in the car, and Dick NEVER went without his jacket. The driver of the car was definitely the primary suspect, and both the police and the DA thought they knew he was guilty of the crime. But there was never an arrest and the murder remains unsolved.

And, as I said, the story of Dick’s disappearance and the subsequent investigation is told in the is book, and I appreciated the writing of that part. But the author gave equal weight to BOTH parts of the title: in addition to the murder, she provides a thorough look at her childhood and her hometown. Long passages (chapters, even) are dedicated to her experiences growing up in Corvallis. No offense, Ms. Morris, but a mention of the social climate, history, or political leanings (as well as what was going on in the country at large in 1967-68) as they related to the story of Dick’s murder would have been plenty. I’m not really interested in the details of your childhood, and while the writing is good and I enjoyed much of the detail about Corvallis, that is totally not what I expected. It doesn’t seem like the killing changed the town, or if it did, it wasn’t at all clear. All the details about the author’s upbringing, etc. would seem to belong in an entirely different book. Two stars. I will read more of her books, and hope for a stronger editor or a more focused exploration of a crime.