I had heard great things about Gregg Olsen’s work and was excited to dive into this true crime story of the tragic death of a young Amish mother/wife. Because the tragedy of the barn fire occurred nearly 40 years ago majority of his efforts to prove it as a murder at the hands of her husband Eli (and one who continued to murder others) was circumstantial and hearsay, most of the witnesses to the crime or possible cover up are no longer even alive.

I should have maybe read Abandoned Prayers also by Olsen beforehand because it too involves Eli (but for the murder of his son). That book is mentioned 25 times in The Amish Wife.

I appreciate Olsen’s dedication to find answers but unfortunately at the end theirs no concrete proof and the lengthy book doesn’t really resolve anything in bringing justice to Ida.

Thanks to NetGalley and Thomas and Mercer for the copy of this book.

I want to start off by saying, this was an incredibly sad story behind the death (murder) of Ida Stutzman and her son Danny (among the others killed) by husband and father, Eli. It was heartbreaking seeing the love she held for the man that would be her and her son’s demise.

I’ve only read one other book by Gregg Olsen, If You Tell and liked it quite a bit more than this one. The Amish Wife felt repetitive and super choppy in areas. It seemed like it was all over the place with no definitive conclusion other than the hearsay that was collected. There were SO many individuals introduced, with similar (or the same) names and it was difficult to keep them straight. I also felt like I wanted more of a backstory for Ida herself.

I’ll continue to give Olsen a try, but this one just wasn’t the best for me. With that being said, if you love true crime, I won’t discourage you from picking this one up. I hope you love it more.

The Amish Wife is Gregg Olsen’s second deep dive into the deaths of Ida and Danny Stutzman. I would advise that readers should dive into his first book on the topic, Abandoned Prayers, before reading The Amish Wife. Without having read Abandoned Prayers, I felt a bit lost and apathetic.

Mr. Olsen clearly takes his work seriously, and he provided a great deal of information about his efforts. It is obvious that we waded through oceans of documents and developed relationships in order to interview Amish people who were close to the alleged murderer. The Amish Wife focuses not only on Mr. Olsen’s process and efforts but also on the character of Eli Stutzman (husband and father of the victims and assumed murderer) and the secretive and punitive nature of the various Amish sects.

The title of the book, The Amish Wife, made me think that I’d get a little more background information on Ida Stutzman, however, there was precious little about her in the book. While Mr. Olsen did not conclusively prove that Eli Stutzman was in fact the killer (but isn’t it usually the husband!?!), he did prove to me that there was a conspiracy within the Stutzman’s community to hide Ida’s violent end. Kudos to Mr. Olsen for chasing down a 30-year-old murder to prove that it was in fact murder not an accidental, tragic death, and for shining a spotlight on the lies and deception that let a probable killer run free to commit further horrific crimes.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

A true crime book about Eli Stutzman, who in 1977 lived in the cloistered Amish community when his wife perished in a fire,

Before their marriage, Eli was expelled from the church, in the 60's, he was banned in hopes of returning to the order, which he subsequently did and got married, despite his future wife's many misgivings about Eli, who has tested positive for gonorrhea repeatedly and who was gone from their home in the evenings when his wife was expecting.

A frightening, well-written cautionary tale about secrets that had they not have remained hidden may have saved lives, this story highlights problems which can occur when a community tries to police itself, and values secrecy above almost all else..

The title “The Amish Wife” almost evokes the currently popular literary genre Amish romance (chaste “bonnet rippers” that are written for denomination-curious Christian evangelical women), but the real story of this Amish woman is far more tragic and gruesome. Back in 1989, Gregg Olsen first explored the murder of a little boy abandoned in a field, which led back to the death of a pregnant Amish woman in a barn fire (but not adjudged to be foul play) and produced his debut book “Answered Prayers.” Olsen did his best to investigate the story of “Little Boy Blue” at the time and his very graphic non-fiction book determined even then that psychopathic Eli Stutzman murdered his son and got away with it. Olsen had encountered numerous coverups and roadblocks 30 years ago and was prompted to revisit what happened to Stutzman’s pregnant wife when her brother, still a member of one of the strictest Amish sects, contacted him again with a box of letters.

I love Gregg’s true crime style — he really should turn his updated books into podcasts. In this narrative, he’s once again trying to track the truth, hopeful that enough has changed (and enough participants have died) to shake the memories and tongues of the survivors of that period. As usual, he unfolds his tales as if they were fictional thrillers — you’re rooting for him to find the truth, even if the final proof is revealed in the epilogue. 4 stars!

Thank you to Thomas and Mercer/Amazon Publishing and NetGalley for a free reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

3 stars

I would have given more stars, but I didn’t realize that there was a previous book that would have cleared up a ton of confusion. The story also has a lot of people/names to try to keep track of.

Gregg Olsen does a fabulous job investigating and writing this and eventually things will clear up.

Other than that, the story is sad, and intriguing and you really cannot put stars on tragedy so do not take my star rating in to account when it comes to this.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. Ida who was amish died many years ago. Her brother thought she might have been murdered. This is a story that takes us back many decades to determine what happened to Ida. This book was well written

I am a big fan of Gregg Olsen’s true crime and was excited to read The Amish Wife. It’s more personal than his other books because it’s focused on him trying to chase down the reason for a murder back in the 70s. The Amish community covered up this crime but Gregg knows that it was not an accident. There is more to the story, and I would highly recommend reading the first book, Abandoned Prayer, about the murder before picking up this one. I didn’t know much about the case and was a little lost.

Gregg does explain everything however, the full backstory would benefit the reader.

Synopsis:

In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner’s report: natural causes. Ida’s husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed.

What really happened to Ida? The dubious circumstances of the tragic blaze were willfully ignored and Eli’s shifting narratives disregarded. Could Eli’s subsequent cross-country journey of death—including that of his own son—have been prevented if just one person came forward with what they knew about the real Eli Stutzman?

The questions haunted Gregg Olsen and Ida’s brother Daniel Gingerich for decades. At Daniel’s urging, Olsen now returns to Amish Country and to Eli’s crimes first exposed in Olsen’s Abandoned Prayers, one of which has remained a mystery until now. With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth—about Ida’s murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that kept it hidden for forty-five years.

Out on Jan. 1