The Last Stone

This is a book about the power of perseverance on the part of many people. Almost 44 years ago, on the 29th March, 1975 two young sisters went to the mall and never returned. Although their parents continued to wait patiently for local law enforcement to find out what happened to their daughters the case wasn't solved and gradually sank to the bottom of the pile.

With the advances in science and the resurrection of many cold cases however, in 2013 it became active again with five experienced detectives concentrating on its resolution. The story of their dogged determination to see this case through to a conclusion is brilliantly put together by Mark Bowden who reported on the initial disappearances and was ultimately able to bring things to a close in this excellent book.

Bowden was able to draw extensively on the years of recordings made of the interrogations of convicted child molester Lloyd Welch, as well as those conducted with his family. He was then able to show how things finally began to come together as the experienced team worked tirelessly to sift through the lies and misleading half-truths to reach a outcome worse than any fiction.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to Netgalley and the publishers in exchange for an unbiased review and would recommend it to anyone true crime aficionado who enjoys the minutiae of investigations and the dismantling of the psyche of those who practice to deceive.