"In the winter of January 1998, the small town of Escondido, California, was horrified when the body of 12-year-old Stephanie Crowe was found brutally murdered in her own bedroom. The police used psychological manipulation to force three 14-year-old boys to falsely confess to the murder."

This book is scary because this is something you hear about happening all too often. It is terrifying that the police can use such manipulation to get someone to confess to murder. It's horrifying.

The story itself is so interesting and intriguing. The problem is I felt the book was not well written. There was so much "extra" that made the book drag on and on.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of the book for my honest review.

This book absolutely rocked me to my core. I still dont understand how law enforcement can be questioned with a parent notified. Overall this was a tragic story for all of the families who were involved.

Dry good read. Highly recommended. Sad and insightful at the same time. Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for the arc of this book in return for my honest opinion. Receiving the book in this manner had no bearing on my review.

Free ARC from Net Galley

Great book

Terrible case

Terrible LEO conduct

But look, stop taking the worst moment of the system and branding it with it

Learn, earn, move on

Great read

I enjoyed this book and I app!and the author for pushing for reform in this area of law. I really liked the author presenting the actual crime scene at the beginning because it really pulled me into the story, however after that I do wish that he would have given a bit more background on the family and their relationships with each other before directly launching into the investigation. I believe that is a very important aspect when considering the guilt of innocence of the brother. It is only natural that the reader is going to put the suspect/suspects on trial and so they need as much information as possible.

This was a great book for those who love true crime. It definitely makes you want to lock up your kids and never let them out of your sight ever again. Parts of this book were on the edge of being to much for me to even read. However, the pacing was well done and I really couldn't put it down. It had a way of drawing me in.


Go Into This One Knowing: True Crime

Heartbreaking story about a corrupted system and its repercussions. False confessions. A tale that seems to be even more shocking because it's based in true events. A very well documented book based on the Crowe Murder case. Captivating and page turning (so hard to put it down). A must read for all True Crime lovers.

While I appreciate the author's wish to have the interrogations related through transcripts, this makes it for a very tough read. Many questions are repeated and the details of who is tired, hungry, and emotionally exhausted. This story is frightening as a parent.

One child is murdered and the other is accused of it. The interrogation techniques used, while common place, are not appropriate for a developing teenager's mind. This creates a one track mind for the investigators and destroys 3 teenage boys lives. The book provides great detail for the interrogation technique used.

I am a big true crime fan, so naturally I'm drawn to books about interesting or controversial cases. In this case, a lot of focus was spent not on the victim, but on the boys that were arrested and interrogated by the police. It was difficult while reading to not feel a sense of frustration and anger at the injustices served.

I did find this book to be a little repetitive at times, but I've noticed that a lot of true crime books can have a tendency to do that. This sometimes caused the book to grow a bit tedious and the tone sometimes felt a little more textbook-lite than I typically enjoy for true crime books.

All told, McInnis has put forth a solid book that makes a strong case for revised Miranda Rights for children.

Dennis McInnis shares a story of how a police department united against three teenage boys in San Diego county for the murder of a 12 year old girl. The problem? No evidence and two coerced confessions. Dennis was the defense attorney for the one boys that did not give a confession under duress. Dennis and two other attorneys fight for the boys in court against a prosecutor dead set for trying all three boys as adults. They uncover evidence that the prosecutor said didn’t matter. The twist? It changed everything.

I am so mad at the fact that it’s obvious that the judicial system hasn’t changed much since these three boys were arrested. Thank goodness there are lawyers like Dennis out there fighting for the rights of children. I enjoyed this book and my only complaint is that it was wordy in quite a few spots. It could have been shortened.

This True Crime novel is a very hard read and this is not due to the writing style but more to the subject matter. The Stephanie Crowe murder case shows exactly how a police investigation can devastate the lives of three families through hunches without any evidence. The case against older brother Michael and his two friends, Joshua Treadway and Aaron Houser.

Using a technique that very clearly went against their rights as juvenile, it is a wonder how the parents seemed to let this happen and were not fully aware of their rights. Considering that it is in the best interest not to be question without a parent or lawyer present, stands to reason why the police were able to get away with what they did.

Lazy policing and coercing the juveniles seemed to be easier than ensuring that evidence was in place and to let the evidence speak for the case. We are left with a misjustice that should have rocked the world more than the case itself but seemed to be set on the back burner. We are once again dealing with a media that seems to not be interested in the case itself but sensationalism without questioning the tactics used.

McInnes brings this to the forefront and although we are left with bits and pieces of the murder itself and the book mainly deals with Miranda rights and Children Bill of Rights, it is a very thought provoking book that makes us question how this was able to occur. Considering this comes on the heels of other high profile cases concerning minors and we are also left with how the police will not accept responsibility when they get it so wrong.

The only gripe I would have liked is a bit more information about the three suspects and how they were able to get on with their lives especially as we know this must have had devastating consequences that have probably followed them throughout their lives. Now that the interviewing techniques are now public knowledge, it would have been very interesting for the three to have read what went on in each of their suspect interviews. Hopefully they may have been able to salvage some aspects of their friendship and maybe give them some closure.

As this is not your normal crime book, some people may feel that this is a bit hard going as it is very detailed and at times, very hard hitting. It is very informative and I found the whole case riveting but did feel that sometimes too much detail could have been summarised a little. The book left me a bit angry and thought that there should have been more repercussions set against the district attorney and the police involved but as this is non fiction, we do not always get the outcome that is deserved.

Overall, this is an outstanding book and one for anyone interested in crime fiction as a whole. As stated above, if you are looking more about the crime, then this will not satisfy your interest but will give a more clearer understanding about the interrogation process as whole. A Five Star book.

I love reading about true crime cases and somehow I had never heard of this one. 12 year old Stephanie Crowe was found stabbed to death in her bedroom and police had no suspects. But she had a teenage brother who was into violent video games, so they used horrifying coercion tactics to get a confession out of him and his two best friends for her murder. They were completely innocent.

That is so scary and mind boggling to me. And while I can appreciate everything this case has done in regards to how police interrogate minors today, the writing of this book was just no well done. I do feel for Stephanie’s parents and those teenage boys for all the tragedy that they went through. But this book is just so repetitive and the author does not have that great of a flow to his writing at all. I ended up skimming a majority of this for those reasons.

This is was a very insightful book that takes the reader into a very controversial case. The "false confessions" that are given by suspects and how it is comes about was eye opening in this book. The treatment of the juveniles that were accused and arrested was beyond acceptable. The tunnel vision of the police officers involved was seen from the beginning of the investigation. The sad realization that this was not the first case and will not be the last case of false confessions because of the tunnel vision of some investigators is saddening. . The author did a wonderful job of presenting the facts and giving an unbiased view of the case. Anyone interested of that works in the Criminal Justice field would find this a very interesting read.

I loved this. It is exactly the kind of true crime book I wanted to read. It didn't feel like just a retelling of facts only; it felt like a narration of this huge tragedy. I never lost interest and I can't wait to share this one around.

WOW!
This was well written and oh so interesting! Scary, creepy, I can't believe this is true crime. I was so full of emotions.
Really glad I had the chance to read this book! I didn't want to put it down.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book. This is my honest review. All opinions are my own.

I enjoy Truer Crime and I know that many books on the subject are repetitive and a bit slow due to tracking the process of investigation. She's so Cold is interesting because it focuses on the suspects and how the police got confessions out of them. Unfortunately, this makes for a very repetitive book.
It's chilling to read the interviews and the tricks the police use to convince these young boys that their best option is to confess to a horrible crime they did not commit. The trust that the families (and the kids themselves) have in the police is striking when shown against the tactics of the police to gain confessions...none of their ideas make any sense and they seem to spend all their time on this rather than actually investigating the crime.
This is a good book to read if you found The Confession Tapes on Netflix interesting, but overall I found it a bit slow and repetitive.

A well-to-do story about the murder of a young girl and the tragic aftermath that was visited upon several families due to law enforcement's beliefs. The tragedy didn't stop with the murder but continued to affect several families for years to come as the innocent suspects were put through the ringer of the court system.

This book is a different type of true crime novel. It focuses on the procedures used by authorities to obtain confessions from three juvenile suspects in a murder case. The first half of the book was a bit difficult to get through...trying to follow the interrogation was confusing and repetitious at times. The second half (which focused on the hearing) flowed a bit more smoothly. Overall, this story shows that our justice system is far from perfect and the is room for improvement, especially when it comes to the rights of juveniles.

I remember this case so clearly when it happened. It was shocking and disturbing as the facts came out and San Diegans were led to believe three teenage boys were responsible for the brutal murder of one of the boy's sister. This book is not about the case and the victim, however. It is actually about the justice system and its treatment of children involved with the case. It is about the tactics of the detectives and police department who abused the rights and used psychological warfare to close a case.
The first half of the book was repetitive, but it showed how the police wore down the boys until there was nothing left of them. It was painful to read as a parent. Fortunately, through hard work of the attorneys and some luck the truth came out. But at what cost? Some things can never be erased or repaired.

A huge Thank You to The author, The publisher and Netgalley for providing the e-arc in exchange for a unbiased review of these works

such a sad sad read, but a really well put together book for the true crime fan