Book Review: How It Happened by Michael Koryta

Published in 2018. Rob Barrett had been with the FBI for only a year, but he was already the expert in obtaining confessions when no one else could. For two years, the Port Hope police department and the Maine State Police had been questioning Kimberly “Kimmy” Crepeaux in the investigation into the murders of two young people, Jackie Pelletier and Ian Kelly. They had no success. Barrett volunteered to go, having lived in the area as a child and was able to extract the confession no one else could get. The next problem was finding corroborating evidence. At every turn, the confession appears wrong. Mathias Burke is accused of the murder without evidence, making Barrett look like a fool. He’s reassigned to Montana but the case continues to haunt him. He returns on his own time and vows to solve the mystery but other forces are at work.

This was a very interesting book and it shows the difficulty of law enforcement. They are at a distinct disadvantage, trying to build a case from nothing. When the opportunity comes to prove a case, they jump at it, hoping the case would be resolved. Sometimes it works; sometime it doesn’t.

The author writes well, although I found pages of italic writing somewhat taxing to read. The spacing between the lines helped. This is the author’s thirteenth book and I think I’ll be on the lookout for his other ones.