This is a very thick account of the murder of a six year old girl – it was a rather formidable task to wade through almost 700+ pages.

JonBenet Ramsey was a cute little girl who wanted to be a beauty queen; she was strongly encouraged in her interest by her former pageant queen mother and grandmother. She had been groomed from young, taking lessons and participating in contests and competitions. One day her mother, Patsy Ramsey found a ransom note asking for money in return for JonBenet. Before long the police and neighbors were gathered at the house. Then JonBenet was found dead in the basement, a room that either had not been checked or left out by the police during their initial searches for the little girl.

This book is very detailed; it would certainly interest readers who are avid fans of crime and murder investigations. The conflicts and lack of collaboration between the Boulder police and the DA office were stumbling blocks; it seemed more like a scramble for territorial rights. The whole investigation did not seem to have been carried professionally or fairly. The DA office appeared to have gone overboard in their courtesy and delicacy in handling JonBenet’s parents – this I believe would never happen if the parents were less affluent. Furthermore, the parents had protected themselves with high profile attorneys. There were many people involved – fortunately the author had the presence of mind to include a list of the characters for easy reference.

The book clearly showed that the author had conducted extensive research of the case and the story was well written, otherwise I would have been skipping pages just to get to the end. However I hate unresolved murders and mysteries – this is the one imperfection I found about this book.

Rating: 6