I am a lover of true crime shows and books, especially if the crimes happened during my lifetime. The Last Stone by Mark Bowden takes place 30 years after the crime was committed, and I'm intrigued by cold cases that are reopened.

Two little girls are missing, but the crime was never solved of what happened to the little girls and where they were buried. Most of this book was based on the interrogation interviews that were recorded at the time. I found it interesting to see what detectives do and say to try to get a witness to talk about what they know. You have to be such a patient person to be a detective.

I really liked the beginning of this book, but then it dragged on for me. I wish it was about half of the length. It's such a sad story, but you kind of guess where the story is going after the first quarter of the book.

Mark Bowden is a great author, but this wasn't one of my favorite books. That being said, I think if you really like digging in to how witnesses/convicts are interrogated, you will enjoy this book. I gave this book three out of 5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for my free copy of this book. This is my honest review.

This book started out good, but somewhere around the middle I lost interest and could never seem to get back into it.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley.

I wonder if there's any way this book could have been better. As it is, my bad habit of not reviewing books immediately after I read them has once again conspired to wipe a lot of this book right out of my head. I like true crime, an unsettling amount according to the people who have listened to me talk about Jack the Ripper and Jeffrey Dahmer. And it's easy to see why Mark Bowden and his publishers would believe this story was ripe for a true crime narrative. But, the horrible details of the crime aside, there's not enough here to make a compelling full length book.

In 1975, two preteen sisters, Katherine and Sheila Lyon were kidnapped from a suburban mall in D.C. Mark Bowden covered the case for the newspaper, but the case went cold for a very long time. Eventually it was turned over to a cold case detective, who realized that a man named Lloyd Welch, by then a convicted child molester, had been at the mall that day, matched the description of the man seen with the girls, and had lied to the police. The thing is, the police knew he lied, but let him go without any further investigation for nearly 40 years. Maybe it's not fair to blame the police for how badly this was handled, but who else is there to blame?

Eventually, Welch is questioned in a segment of the book that is probably supposed to be suspenseful, but very much is not. He tells multiple, barely coherent stories, and his questioners eventually pick out enough details that prove his complicity. Unfortunately, Welch claims the bodies were burned and the bones pulverized. Investigator later examine the house where they believe the girls were killed and find evidence of a lot of blood, but it's too degraded for DNA. Welch goes to jail.

If I've made this sound interesting, it really isn't. What's supposed to be a cat and mouse game between the investigators and the killer is plodding and dull, and Welch is horrible but very banal. Maybe that's what put me off this book- the very mundanity of its horror. I could have tolerated it, or enjoyed it as a long form article. As a book it's too much, and not enough.

This is a case that has always haunted me. I can't imagine how exasperating this was for those who had to deal with Lloyd Welch's lies and madness.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book but was sorely disappointed. The book was very slow, repetitive, and had no answers at the end. Lloyd has been accused of kidnapping and killing two young girls. There is really no proof of anything except circumstantial evidence. The police officers screwed up a few interviews by not taping some of them, telling him he could have immunity, etc etc. Lloyd's family is just as screwed up and they were all having sex with each other and no one was telling the truth and they were all blaming each other for the disappearance of these 2 girls. The book could have had some redeeming qualities but it was so robotic and it just wasn't for me. Received this book for free and I am giving my review.

When I first read about this book, I was not aware that it was a true crime selection. From the description, I thought it was a "murder mystery" which is one of my favorite genres. As I started reading, I was captivated by the story of the Lyon sisters but was having trouble reading through what felt like a majority of the story being told in repetitive interview dialogue. About three-fourths of the way through the book, I was truly questioning whether I would finish it or not. I really wanted to find out what happened to the girls, but I was not enjoying the writing and the way the story was barely progressing. I read some online reviews only to discover that it is a true crime book. Reframing the story into a different genre, the extensive interview transcripts made more sense but did not read any better. I decided to finish the story and find out what happened to the Lyon sisters. However, we don't find out. After slogging through all of these repetitive rehashings of the story from a pathological liar, there is no firm resolution. I truly don't understand why this book was written when there is no real conclusion, only speculation. A quite unsatisfactory read.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I feel as though I must point out that, though my rating of The Last Stone by Mark Bowden is low, that does not to reflect the hard work that goes into solving cold cases around the world or the horrors that the Lyon sisters suffered that day in the Spring of 1975. I know now that I will surely carry their names and their faces in my heart all of my days in the hopes that, one day, their family will finally know the truth and be able to lay them to rest.
The low rating instead stems from the writing of Mark Bowden and the composition of book. And the fact that, let us be honest, there really was not any - 300 of its 352 consisted of verbatim interview transcripts and aesthetic descriptions of the leading detectives on the case. And, if in those transcripts are in the public record like I suspect that they are, there really is no reason to pick this book, that does little more than splicing them all together, up.
That is not to say that the interviews of Lloyd Welch do not make for an interesting read. A compulsive liar, prone to alternate fits of amnesia and stark honesty, he seems to like to talk even more than Edmund Kemper and, though he has said more, the words themselves make far less sense. And, when he is brought in, first as a witness and then as a suspect, in the 1975 disappearance of Katherine and Sheila, Welch just can not seem to keep his mouth shut. He talks, talks, talks; chopping and changing his story as the mood (and growing evidence, real or faked) takes him and, as the interviews draw on, he manages to paint himself into one hell of a corner.
Welch, after-all, is a fascinating character. His long rants, his absurdity, his lack of empathy could fill many volumes. Questions need to be answered, after-all: is he a murderer, a sex trafficker, a drugged-up former-hippie, an innocent man coerced by the police? I suppose Welch is the only one who knows.
Although, by the sounds of some of this, I would not be surprised if he was not too sure either.
The investigation into what happened to Katherine and Sheila resulted in one of the largest police investigations in Washington metropolitan area history and culminated with Welch’s guilty plea in 2017. It marked 42 years since the girls have last been seen. It is horrifying that it remained a mystery for so long, even more so that they still have not been found.
But, at least we have finally answers. At least, if you believe them to be true, that is.

On March 29, 1975, sisters Katherine and Sheila Lyons, age 10 and 12, vanished from a shopping mall in suburban Washington, D.C. As shock spread, then grief, a massive police effort found nothing. The investigation was shelved, and mystery endured. Then, in 2013, a cold case squad detective found something he and a generation of detectives had missed. It pointed them toward a man named Lloyd Welch, then serving time for child molestation in Delaware. As a cub reporter for a Baltimore newspaper, Mark Bowden covered the frantic first weeks of the story. In The Last Stone, he returns to write its ending. Over months of intense questioning and extensive investigation of Welch's sprawling, sinister Appalachian clan, five skilled detectives learned to sift truth from determined lies. How do you get a compulsive liar with every reason in the world to lie to tell the truth? The Last Stone recounts a masterpiece of criminal interrogation and delivers a chilling and unprecedented look inside a disturbing criminal mind.


The Last Stone is a riveting account of a cold case. Perfect for true crime fans who want to understand more about detective work and investigations.

The book details entire transcript, albeit in dialogue-format, of a police interrogation with a potential viable witness who turns out to be the main culprit / accessory. Read-up may not be for everyone because it is tedious, and tiring, and also, though a guy a charged in the end to a life behind bars, there are so many things left unanswered (no fault of the investigators and author in this) - including the burial of body / throwing of ashes of the two girls. It's almost like hanging on to a thread while falling to the ground.

3.5 rounding up to four because I did like it, I thought the perspective was new (at least to me) but it was a bit tedious at times.

This book is about the cold case investigation of two young sisters, Katherine and Sheila Lyon. The Lyon sisters disappeared after a trip to the mall. The author, Mark Bowden, actually covered the beginning of the case when Katherine and Sheila were first reported missing so it's quite nice that he gets to see the end of this case.

The focus is on the investigation and the investigators. Unfortunately, sometimes the almost clinical transcriptions of the interviews are somewhat of a drudge...but isn't that what detectives do at times? Drudge work can get the job done.

The main suspect appears at the beginning of the book because he gives a tip to the police, but since it led nowhere and his interview was a bit kooky he came across as more of a time-waster than a suspect. Later cold-case detectives reviewed his tip and his resemblance to the suspect sketch from another tip and tracked him down.

The book itself is thorough and Bowden seemed to have access to the investigators because their moods and remembrances about events are detailed. Bowden captures the inhumanity of Welch's crimes and the disturbing lack of empathy from Welch's family. Those were truly chilling sections of the book.

I've been appreciating true-crime books which take a different approach than the norm. Here the kidnapping and eventual murder of the Lyon sisters aren't graphically detailed over chapters. Welch isn't glorified or thought of as a master criminal. Instead, the pain-staking investigation, the many interviews and the way the detectives gathered evidence of a crime that happened forty plus years ago create the narrative.

It's a good book, although some sections drag a bit. I liked the new perspective on the investigation and investigators themselves. I would recommend this book just for the amount of patience the detectives had when dealing with Welch and his family. The look into how a cold-case investigation occurs was fascinating and I don't think I've read anything like that before.

I am in charge of our Senior School library and am looking for a diverse array of new books to furnish their shelves with and inspire our young people to read a wider and more diverse range of books as they move through the senior school. It is hard sometimes to find books that will grab the attention of young people as their time is short and we are competing against technology and online entertainments.
This was a thought-provoking and well-written read that will appeal to young readers across the board. It had a really strong voice and a compelling narrative that I think would capture their attention and draw them in. It kept me engrossed and I think that it's so important that the books that we purchase for both our young people and our staff are appealing to as broad a range of readers as possible - as well as providing them with something a little 'different' that they might not have come across in school libraries before.
This was a really enjoyable read and I will definitely be purchasing a copy for school so that our young people can enjoy it for themselves. A satisfying and well-crafted read that I keep thinking about long after closing its final page - and that definitely makes it a must-buy for me!

Three and a half stars for this true crime book. My heart went out to the parents and police investigators who worked this case. A depiction of truly evil people who live among us with no sense of what is right and/or wrong. I found myself so frustrated with the hoops the investigators had to jump through to try to determine what happened to Sheila and Katie and was even more frustrated to not know exactly what happened to them. I was disheartened by the hours and hours of time spent interviewing and reinterviewing Lloyd Welch and his despicable family, with no clear results. I cannot imagine how frustrated they must have been. A good read, but also a frustrating one. Many thanks to Mark Bowden, Atlantic Monthly Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC of this recently published true crime story.

I received an ARC from Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. I have always enjoyed Mark Bowden’s work. His books are always informative. I enjoyed the book but the story bogs down a bit with the full interview transcripts. If you want a good book about a cold case, this is it!

A true story told by a man who was there when the crime first happened and stayed on the trail until it was solved 40 years later. Newspaper headlines sometimes leave you wondering how there could actually be people in the world who would commit this kind of crime. Mark Bowden does not try to sensationalize the story, it's enough of a truly horrible story to keep you thinking about it long after the end of the book. This author lets the story unfold through time and does an excellent job of keeping you reading. A sure fire winner that could easily be made into a movie.

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I'm a huge fan of true crime so was interested in this right away.
I thought it was poorly written and became so redundant with the interviews.

This extraordinary book about the long cold case of the kidnapping of the Lyons sisters decades ago in the Maryland suburbs of DC brought back memories I thought I’d long forgotten.

I lived in DC when the daughters of John Lyons, a local radio personality, and his wife, disappeared from the Wheaton Mall, apparently kidnapped, never to be heard from or seen again. While local police thought they had arrested the right suspect, there was never sufficient evidence to convict him, but he spent 30
years in jail nonetheless.

The book begins as he’s about to be released. An almost retired detective with eyes and ears for cold cases remembers the case when the release date draws near, and, not one for passing up an attempt to bring true justice to horrible people, starts talking to the guy (whose name escapes me right now) and in a masterpiece of detective work that no novelist, no matter how good, strings the kidnapper/killer along until there’s enough solid evidence to keep him in prison for the rest of his life.

While the family could never possibly recover from this tragedy, at least they are finally able to lay their daughters to rest in eternal peace.

Despite the horrendous circumstances that this book describes, it is a masterpiece of outstanding writing. I could barely put it down. It’s certainly not for the faint of heart. It’s just unimaginable that such horrible acts occur. And it’s remarkable when cases this cold are solved. My heart went out to the Lyons when this happened and it goes out to them again.

I received this book as an ARC from the publisher and NetGalley and give it my highest recommendation.

4 stars - Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Monthly Press for allowing me to read and review this book. Published on April 2, 2019.

This is the nonfiction story of a gruesomely violent crime. A crime committed over 3 separate states, 41 years ago. Evidence was lost, eyewitnesses died, time erased memories, the family remained silent and it was often only speculation that bound the story together.

This was a kidnapping, a sex crime, and the murder of two little girls - known and sanctioned by a whole family. Many uncles and aunts and cousins were aware of this as it happened. Many took part. No one could find the missing girls. No one saved those little girls. No one reported their abductor.

This book is about 90% put together by reiterating the hours of taped interviews of one Lloyd Welch. The author states that there is some alteration for brevity sake. It took three detectives working on this cold case over 21 months to bring the truth to the forefront.

This is not a book to be read by those with a queasy stomach. Some scenes are horrifying. The patience of the three detectives interviewing Welch for hours on end and going back to it day after day is commendable. To be able to patiently sift through his lies and still remain civil to him was extraordinary. To be able to take that task on, allow it to run and at times ruin your life for 2 years, knowing that upon completion it would never go away, takes a very special person.

This is not only a book of a heinous crime but a book detailing the sad, mind suffering reality of what our cold case units do daily. Please be thankful for them.

Mark Bowden is always a delight to read, but he outdid himself with The Last Stone. Bowden returns to a story he covered as a reporter: the disappearance of two young girls from a mall in 1975. This book is perfect for fans of true crime - a dedicated group of cops hunting for the truth, grotesque incidents that add light, and a writing style that propels the reader forward, always asking the next question. My bookstore has sold several copies already.

I'm a diehard true crime fan so I was thrilled to get my hands on The Last Stone. It starts off interestingly enough: two young sisters go missing in the mid-1970s while at the mall buying pizza. What follows though is a twisted ride through stumped investigations, a fearful community, and one last effort to connect a man with the crime decades later. It's quite a ripe story but unfortunately it falls quite flat from in a narrative sense. It's less so a story and more a recounting of exhaustive interviews between cold case detectives and the suspect Lloyd Welch.

As a true crime fan it was very interesting to see such a real account of the interview process, how completely tiring and repetitive it can be to work a suspect into revealing more than he means to. I also enjoyed the light it shone on the detectives, the toll an investigation like this one takes, and their honest feelings about it all, even in regard to the 'mistakes' made in the process.

However, as a reader, there were long passages which fell flat and boring because of how true the accounting is. I found myself scanning pretty regularly just to get through the parts where again Welch is making excuses and terrible lies. It was very interesting at first but grew dull quickly and I really admire the detectives for being able to work with such person for so long and so thoroughly. I do wish the book had been more narrative in style to keep the reader engaged but I also understand and appreciate the decision for not doing so. I still think true crime fans would really enjoy this book but the casual reader might not find it as engaging.

Note: I received a free Kindle edition of this book via NetGalley in exchange for the honest review above. I would like to thank NetGalley, the publisher Grove Atlantic, and the author Mark Bowden for the opportunity to do so.

This book touts itself as "a masterpiece of criminal interrogation," and boy is this right on the money. The police investigators featured are truly dedicated to their job, however, it's the cold case team who reopened and pored over the case files from the abduction in 1975 and eventually solved the case; this true crime work follows the journey from the decade it happened right through to justice finally being served. I have heard that it's actually, unbelievably normal for some criminals to insert themselves into the investigation of a crime that they indeed committed, and this is exactly what happened here with Lloyd Welch, but at the time he was wrongly deemed a harmless drug addict.

The kidnapping of Kate and Sheila Lyon was journalist Mr Bowden's first big story and probably due to that it had a lasting impact on him leading to the writing of this book. I guess the title, The Last Stone, is in reference to the painstaking work of the cold case team in which they left no stone unturned to bring a sense of closure and justice to the Lyon family, in particular. It's as gripping and twisty as any thriller on the market; you really have to remind yourself that this is real life. The writing is engaging and immersive, and I found myself feverishly turning the pages to find out what happened.

Without a doubt, this is one of the best books showing the dedication and labour-intensive work the police force and, in particular, detectives carry out. Those interested in true crime, police investigations, psychology and behaviour profiling will find much to enjoy within these pages.

Many thanks to Atlantic Monthly Press for an ARC.