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Invisible Eden
A literary investigation by one of the most powerful American writers at work today [Annie Proulx] of a story that riveted the how an accomplished, world-traveled fashion writer who had retreated to a simpler life as a single mother on Cape Cod became the victim of a brutal, still-unsolved murder. On the surface, Christa Worthington's life had the appearance of privilege and comfort. She was the granddaughter of prominent New Yorkers. Her sparkling journalism earned the fashion world's respect. But she had turned her back on a glamorous career and begun living in the remote Cape Cod town where she had summered as a child. When she was found murdered in Truro, Massachusetts, just after New Year's Day in 2002, her toddler daughter clinging to her side, her violent death brought to the surface the many unspoken mysteries of her life. Invisible Eden is the deeply felt story of a career woman's attempt to start over and reinvent her life away from the fashion circles of New York and Paris only to have an out-of-wedlock child with a local fisherman, forge a life as a single mother, and meet a violent end. Brilliantly portraying Christa's hunger for belonging and her struggle for survival as a first-time mother, Flook searingly evokes her search for a safe haven, her many tumultuous relationships, and the evidence linking family, strangers, lovers, suspects, and innocents to the tragedy that both shocked a seaside town on Cape Cod and horrified the nation. Flook intricately maps Christa's charged life before her death and follows the first year of the murder investigation with the help of the district attorney who is in an election battle even as he searches for the killer. At the same time, Invisible Eden captures the Cape's haunted landscape, class stratifications, and never-ending battles between its weathy summer residents and its hardscrabble working families who together form a backdrop for a powerful chronicle of love and murder. An edgy and compelling portrait of a woman's tragic journey, Invisible Eden is a mesmerizing true story. From the Hardcover edition.
Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2003
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About the author
Maria Flook
23 books15 followersMaria Flook is the author of the novels Family Night (which received a PEN American/Ernest Hemingway Foundation Special Citation) and Open Water, as well as a collection of stories, You Have the Wrong Man, and a memoir, My Sister Life: The Story of My Sister's Disappearance. Her work has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, The New Criterion, TriQuarterly, and More Magazine among others. She is a 2007 John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Award recipient, and is currently Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at Emerson College in Boston. More information about Maria Flook can be found at www.mariaflook.net.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
July 27, 2007
AWFUL. The most pretentious, unnecessarily complicated writing I have ever encountered. Just don't.
May 27, 2014
I got to page 34 when the line reads "I'm a little embarrassed to have to admit to O'Keefe that I don't know what that is--grand jury. I've heard of "Grand Prix," "grand slam," "grand piano," but--
Why would you ever write in this style? Also, you don't know what a grand jury is but you are writing a true crime novel? Get real.
That's it for me. Page 34 and no more!!
Why would you ever write in this style? Also, you don't know what a grand jury is but you are writing a true crime novel? Get real.
That's it for me. Page 34 and no more!!
October 22, 2016
I started this book thinking it was a true crime book but its not really. It is more of a biography of the victim. If you are reading it as a biography it is ok. There are very few details of the actual crime. There is a lot of description of the town and surrounding areas, which if you are from the area you might like reading about that. At times the author seems to go off in a direction that doesn't seem to have anything to do with the story or the victim. At 400 pages I thought it might be a better story if it was at least 100 pages shorter. It seems to belabor every point. About half way through there didn't seem to be a lot that was different and I wanted it to move along a little faster.
May 2, 2023
A media wet dream.
A young mother brutally murdered. Her tiny daughter (too young to call for help) crouches by her mother’s body for 36 hours, sometimes trying to nurse, sometimes trying to feed her mother from her sippy cup. A reporter who can’t get a story out of that scenario should find another line of work.
But wait, there’s more! The victim is beautiful, glamorous, and had a glitzy career! She’s from a prominent family on Cape Cod! Desperate for a child, the patrician heiress tricks a married fisherman into impregnating her! Does it GET any better? Apparently not, because when Christa Worthington was discovered murdered in 2002, the media coverage was beyond insane.
This author was drawn to the story because she (like Christa Worthington) is a single mother. She wrote the book when several men were suspected of the murder, but there had been no arrests. She claims this isn’t a book about Christa’s death, but about her life. But does she get it right?
Worthington and Cape Cod scream MONEY, don’t they? But Worthington just happened to be Christa’s last name. And Truro (the town where her family lived) is a wide place in the road. As this author admits, “there is only one traffic light, and it’s a blinker. There is no mail delivery, no sewer system, no fire hydrants, or trash pickup.” The Worthingtons weren’t just big frogs in a little pond. They were tadpoles in a mud puddle.
Christa’s paternal grandparents were remembered for creating jobs during the Great Depression. Unspoken is the fact that their wealth was acquired from foreclosing loans. Grandpa Worthington generously loaned his neighbors money to pay taxes on their land. When they couldn’t pay him back, the land became his. Grandma Worthington (“Tiny”) was remembered for her artistic talent and her affairs with the island fishermen, many recent immigrants from Portugal.
The "young mother" was forty-five and the "patrician heiress" wasn’t so patrician and not much of an heiress. Her father was a lawyer in a big Boston firm, but he’d run though most of his money by the time Christa decided to move back to Truro. What was left was in danger of being used to pay legal bills for his drug-addicted girlfriend. Christopher “Toppy” Worthington was nobody’s idea of a great dad.
Christa’s mother died of cancer, her once-distant daughter caring for her at the end. Christa inherited less than $500,000 from her mother and was hoping for more from her father. She also wanted some of the family land in Truro, but her aunts and cousins said she had no claim on it.
I’m giving this book three stars because I enjoyed reading it, not because I think it’s an outstanding piece of journalism. It's not a bad book, although I'm convinced it became a NYT best seller due to the salacious subject, NOT the quality of the book.
Inexperienced as a crime writer, the author talked to locals, researched the history of the town, and spent time following the busy ADA who was supervising the investigation while running for DA. Maybe because she's from a similar background, she did a good job of portraying the town (with its good and bad aspects) and the people involved (deeply or peripherally.)
It's the conclusions she draws from her research that strike me as weak and unfounded. She either exaggerated to make her book more exciting or she was emotionally too close to the story to be impartial. She saw herself in Christa Worthington, assuming they thought and felt alike. A dangerous assumption, IMHO.
At the time of publication, two of Christa’s lovers were under suspicion, as were several members of the family of one of them. At stake also was custody of little Ava Worthington and the money SHE inherited from Christa. The custody battle was sad and its end unsatisfying.
The child’s father was known. He and his wife were prepared to raise Ava. But Christa’s will specified that she wanted Ava raised by wealthy friends. Do the mother’s wishes override the father’s rights? Apparently so if one family is working class and the other well-heeled professionals.
I was annoyed at the author’s insistence that Christa failed to find happiness in Truro because she was shunned for having an illegitimate child. She claims Christa was a modern-day Hester Prynne - not forced to wear a scarlet "A", but scorned and ignored by her relatives and their friends. In 1999? In a town where the Gay Pride celebration is the high point of the year? Puh-leeze!
Maybe her relatives didn’t like her to begin with. Maybe they wouldn’t have liked ANY child fathered by the family ne’er-do-well, Toppy Worthington. Maybe other locals were annoyed by her “New York sophisticate” act or her sense of entitlement. She spent little time in Truro as a child and none as an adult. Why should the residents welcome her with open arms?
The author tries to portray Christa Worthington as a heroine - brilliant and talented, but pushed aside by the dominant males in the fashion industry where she worked for two decades. Most industries have some element of “old boys’ club”, but women manage to succeed in spite of it. Christa WAS talented, but she was also disorganized and undisciplined. Her feelings of entitlement put off some people and she spent money like the rich heiress she believed she deserved to be.
As to her being a woman who was starved for love, cruelly tossed aside by her lovers and denied the child she yearned for….. I’m not buying it. OK, she once dated Gloria Vanderbilt’s oldest son and was bitterly disappointed when he dumped her. Her friends say her interest in him was purely monetary, based on her belief that he'd someday inherit the Vanderbilt real estate.
She loved her daughter, but having Ava never slowed down Christa’s sex life or made her less of a trouble-maker. Tricking a working man into fathering your child is dishonest. Demanding money that he doesn’t have because he refuses to leave his wife is malicious and childish.
I’m sorry Christa Worthington died, but her death doesn’t make her any more noble than she was in life. And it’s a fatal mistake for an author to believe that she has a psychic pipe-line into the heart and soul of her subject because they had some things in common. There are millions of single mothers in America and they come from all walks of life. In the end, the story of Christa’s death was a shabby, sad one. We can only hope that her daughter had a good childhood and emerged a happier, more productive person than her mother.
A young mother brutally murdered. Her tiny daughter (too young to call for help) crouches by her mother’s body for 36 hours, sometimes trying to nurse, sometimes trying to feed her mother from her sippy cup. A reporter who can’t get a story out of that scenario should find another line of work.
But wait, there’s more! The victim is beautiful, glamorous, and had a glitzy career! She’s from a prominent family on Cape Cod! Desperate for a child, the patrician heiress tricks a married fisherman into impregnating her! Does it GET any better? Apparently not, because when Christa Worthington was discovered murdered in 2002, the media coverage was beyond insane.
This author was drawn to the story because she (like Christa Worthington) is a single mother. She wrote the book when several men were suspected of the murder, but there had been no arrests. She claims this isn’t a book about Christa’s death, but about her life. But does she get it right?
Worthington and Cape Cod scream MONEY, don’t they? But Worthington just happened to be Christa’s last name. And Truro (the town where her family lived) is a wide place in the road. As this author admits, “there is only one traffic light, and it’s a blinker. There is no mail delivery, no sewer system, no fire hydrants, or trash pickup.” The Worthingtons weren’t just big frogs in a little pond. They were tadpoles in a mud puddle.
Christa’s paternal grandparents were remembered for creating jobs during the Great Depression. Unspoken is the fact that their wealth was acquired from foreclosing loans. Grandpa Worthington generously loaned his neighbors money to pay taxes on their land. When they couldn’t pay him back, the land became his. Grandma Worthington (“Tiny”) was remembered for her artistic talent and her affairs with the island fishermen, many recent immigrants from Portugal.
The "young mother" was forty-five and the "patrician heiress" wasn’t so patrician and not much of an heiress. Her father was a lawyer in a big Boston firm, but he’d run though most of his money by the time Christa decided to move back to Truro. What was left was in danger of being used to pay legal bills for his drug-addicted girlfriend. Christopher “Toppy” Worthington was nobody’s idea of a great dad.
Christa’s mother died of cancer, her once-distant daughter caring for her at the end. Christa inherited less than $500,000 from her mother and was hoping for more from her father. She also wanted some of the family land in Truro, but her aunts and cousins said she had no claim on it.
I’m giving this book three stars because I enjoyed reading it, not because I think it’s an outstanding piece of journalism. It's not a bad book, although I'm convinced it became a NYT best seller due to the salacious subject, NOT the quality of the book.
Inexperienced as a crime writer, the author talked to locals, researched the history of the town, and spent time following the busy ADA who was supervising the investigation while running for DA. Maybe because she's from a similar background, she did a good job of portraying the town (with its good and bad aspects) and the people involved (deeply or peripherally.)
It's the conclusions she draws from her research that strike me as weak and unfounded. She either exaggerated to make her book more exciting or she was emotionally too close to the story to be impartial. She saw herself in Christa Worthington, assuming they thought and felt alike. A dangerous assumption, IMHO.
At the time of publication, two of Christa’s lovers were under suspicion, as were several members of the family of one of them. At stake also was custody of little Ava Worthington and the money SHE inherited from Christa. The custody battle was sad and its end unsatisfying.
The child’s father was known. He and his wife were prepared to raise Ava. But Christa’s will specified that she wanted Ava raised by wealthy friends. Do the mother’s wishes override the father’s rights? Apparently so if one family is working class and the other well-heeled professionals.
I was annoyed at the author’s insistence that Christa failed to find happiness in Truro because she was shunned for having an illegitimate child. She claims Christa was a modern-day Hester Prynne - not forced to wear a scarlet "A", but scorned and ignored by her relatives and their friends. In 1999? In a town where the Gay Pride celebration is the high point of the year? Puh-leeze!
Maybe her relatives didn’t like her to begin with. Maybe they wouldn’t have liked ANY child fathered by the family ne’er-do-well, Toppy Worthington. Maybe other locals were annoyed by her “New York sophisticate” act or her sense of entitlement. She spent little time in Truro as a child and none as an adult. Why should the residents welcome her with open arms?
The author tries to portray Christa Worthington as a heroine - brilliant and talented, but pushed aside by the dominant males in the fashion industry where she worked for two decades. Most industries have some element of “old boys’ club”, but women manage to succeed in spite of it. Christa WAS talented, but she was also disorganized and undisciplined. Her feelings of entitlement put off some people and she spent money like the rich heiress she believed she deserved to be.
As to her being a woman who was starved for love, cruelly tossed aside by her lovers and denied the child she yearned for….. I’m not buying it. OK, she once dated Gloria Vanderbilt’s oldest son and was bitterly disappointed when he dumped her. Her friends say her interest in him was purely monetary, based on her belief that he'd someday inherit the Vanderbilt real estate.
She loved her daughter, but having Ava never slowed down Christa’s sex life or made her less of a trouble-maker. Tricking a working man into fathering your child is dishonest. Demanding money that he doesn’t have because he refuses to leave his wife is malicious and childish.
I’m sorry Christa Worthington died, but her death doesn’t make her any more noble than she was in life. And it’s a fatal mistake for an author to believe that she has a psychic pipe-line into the heart and soul of her subject because they had some things in common. There are millions of single mothers in America and they come from all walks of life. In the end, the story of Christa’s death was a shabby, sad one. We can only hope that her daughter had a good childhood and emerged a happier, more productive person than her mother.
January 10, 2012
HATED this book. I couldn't finish it - that's saying a lot for me. In the past I've put down books because of content, but I've never NOT finished a book because it failed to interest me. It was extremely difficult for me to just stop reading this book, as an avid reader it made me feel like a little bit of a failure, to not conquer that book...but I just couldn't get through it. It was pretentious, the author was name dropping every other sentence. It was also very repetative, she'd say something and then a paragraph, page, or chapter later she'd say the same thing almost word for word. I'd be reading and think, "did I already read this page? Was I just not paying attention?" but flip back a little and see that I had just read the same thing twice. I just couldn't push through, I couldn't do it.
October 16, 2013
Invisible Eden: A Story of Love and Murder on Cape Cod by Maria Flook
Christa Worthington, famous fashion writer that lives in Truro, MA on the cape and about her life and her work.
Love the talk of the coast and washashores, lobstering on the island and living year round on the cape.
The story is about the murder and gives you many options as to who it might have been. She was unmarried and had a boyfriend but she also
has a past in town as well. Love the history of the place, never knew it all and lives lost on the seas of those who had fished from there.
I don't recall that she had left a daughter behind either, it was just a sad story on the news and I did follow who did it...
Liked the eye disease discussions.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
Christa Worthington, famous fashion writer that lives in Truro, MA on the cape and about her life and her work.
Love the talk of the coast and washashores, lobstering on the island and living year round on the cape.
The story is about the murder and gives you many options as to who it might have been. She was unmarried and had a boyfriend but she also
has a past in town as well. Love the history of the place, never knew it all and lives lost on the seas of those who had fished from there.
I don't recall that she had left a daughter behind either, it was just a sad story on the news and I did follow who did it...
Liked the eye disease discussions.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
November 7, 2017
Worst book I've read in years - poor writing, no substance. Fair warning - don't waste your time or money. Dislike for this author who writes herself into the book grew & grew!
September 24, 2012
In all fairness, I think Invisible Eden is more biography than it is true crime. But still I thought the book was good, and I became emotionally attached to the victim Christa Worthington. Though the book started off slow and wayyy too detailed... the author got her flow going by the middle of the book and left me quite intrigued by the whole case. I suggest googling it after you finish this book, since a lot more has happened with the Christa Worthington murder since the publication of Invisible Eden.
December 17, 2019
It’s been a long since I’ve hated a book as much as this one. I made it to page 257 and finally had the backbone to throw it in the garbage.
It is pretentious and tediously repetitive.
No wonder I found it at a thrift store for 35 cents!
It is pretentious and tediously repetitive.
No wonder I found it at a thrift store for 35 cents!
February 11, 2009
I could not finish this book. It was not a good one. If you want to know more then email me.
January 24, 2016
I found the book slow to read. I thought there was too much unnecessary information. The book did not have a conclusion so maybe was written too early.
November 12, 2017
So long. And so boring.
July 20, 2022
I’m going to Cape Cod on vacation and wanted to read a book about Cape Cod prior to going. Not sure how I actually even came across this book but I’m a fan of true crime and the town, Truro, where the murder took place is next to the town we’re staying in so I picked this to read.
Well it didn’t really turn out to be a typical true crime book. It starts off by saying that the murder investigation is in progress as this book is being written and that the book does not try to solve the crime. So what is the book trying to do? Basically it’s a biography of sorts of Christa Worthington, the murder victim. The author interviews a ton of people from Christa’s life - family, childhood friends, college friends, coworkers, ex-lovers, friends from Truro, as well as cops investigating the case.
Christa came from a wealthy family in Cape Cod but she always felt like the odd duck in the family. Her mom was an outsider and not really warmly embraced by the family and her dad had a history of checking out and cheating. She left the Cape and traveled the world as a fashion writer. She apparently was a good writer but it seems like people always thought she could do a lot more with her talent and kind of wasted it. She had a bad history with man. Always choosing someone who couldn’t or wouldn’t commit to her or maybe she never wanted a true commitment, hard to tell. However around age 40, she seemed to really want to become a mom. She was willing to do what it took to be a single mom. Her mom was sick and dying so she came back to Cape Cod to live and take care of her. She had a fling with a married man, Tony Jackett, whom she told she was infertile so they didn’t use protection and she ended up pregnant. She was excited. She didn’t care if Tony wanted any involvement. Her mom died just a few days before Christa gave birth to Ava. Christa stayed in Cape Cod awhile, then moved back to NYC, but then came back to Cape Cod again. Tony didn’t want anything to do with Christa or Ava. Christa got upset and gave him an ultimatum to tell his wife. He did and surprisingly she stuck by him and welcomed Christa and Ava into their family. That just got Christa more upset, but she did let Tony into Ava’s life. Christa also dated a neighbor, Tim Arnold, shortly after Ava was born. It seemed more like she just wanted a man around than that she truly liked/loved Tim but I think he loved her and Ava. They broke up at some point but remained friendly and Tim continued to hang around and babysit Ava on occasion.
Tim was the one who found Christa lying on her floor, dead, in a pool of blood and called police. She’d been stabbed. Ava was snuggled by her side, alive. Initially the suspects seemed to be Tim, Tony, Christa’s dad and/or his girlfriend, a few members of Tony’s family. From everything I read I didn’t think any of them were the killer, except possibly Tony’s daughter’s ex-husband but even for him I don’t know what the motive would have been. The reason I didn’t think any of them were the killer was for 2 reasons. She was found with semen in and on her. It didn’t match any of them. Her front door was kicked in. Tim and Tony and her dad all had keys to her place so there wouldn’t be a reason to kick in the door. The book never did lean toward anybody as a prime suspect.
I guess the murder made National news at the time. It happened in Jan. 2002. Over 20 years ago. I don’t remember it. I Googled Christa after I finished the book and read that they did eventually arrest and convict a man, Chris McCowen, a local sanitation worker, of raping and murdering Christa. His arrest came 3 years after the fact due to DNA evidence. He says he’s innocent.
Well it didn’t really turn out to be a typical true crime book. It starts off by saying that the murder investigation is in progress as this book is being written and that the book does not try to solve the crime. So what is the book trying to do? Basically it’s a biography of sorts of Christa Worthington, the murder victim. The author interviews a ton of people from Christa’s life - family, childhood friends, college friends, coworkers, ex-lovers, friends from Truro, as well as cops investigating the case.
Christa came from a wealthy family in Cape Cod but she always felt like the odd duck in the family. Her mom was an outsider and not really warmly embraced by the family and her dad had a history of checking out and cheating. She left the Cape and traveled the world as a fashion writer. She apparently was a good writer but it seems like people always thought she could do a lot more with her talent and kind of wasted it. She had a bad history with man. Always choosing someone who couldn’t or wouldn’t commit to her or maybe she never wanted a true commitment, hard to tell. However around age 40, she seemed to really want to become a mom. She was willing to do what it took to be a single mom. Her mom was sick and dying so she came back to Cape Cod to live and take care of her. She had a fling with a married man, Tony Jackett, whom she told she was infertile so they didn’t use protection and she ended up pregnant. She was excited. She didn’t care if Tony wanted any involvement. Her mom died just a few days before Christa gave birth to Ava. Christa stayed in Cape Cod awhile, then moved back to NYC, but then came back to Cape Cod again. Tony didn’t want anything to do with Christa or Ava. Christa got upset and gave him an ultimatum to tell his wife. He did and surprisingly she stuck by him and welcomed Christa and Ava into their family. That just got Christa more upset, but she did let Tony into Ava’s life. Christa also dated a neighbor, Tim Arnold, shortly after Ava was born. It seemed more like she just wanted a man around than that she truly liked/loved Tim but I think he loved her and Ava. They broke up at some point but remained friendly and Tim continued to hang around and babysit Ava on occasion.
Tim was the one who found Christa lying on her floor, dead, in a pool of blood and called police. She’d been stabbed. Ava was snuggled by her side, alive. Initially the suspects seemed to be Tim, Tony, Christa’s dad and/or his girlfriend, a few members of Tony’s family. From everything I read I didn’t think any of them were the killer, except possibly Tony’s daughter’s ex-husband but even for him I don’t know what the motive would have been. The reason I didn’t think any of them were the killer was for 2 reasons. She was found with semen in and on her. It didn’t match any of them. Her front door was kicked in. Tim and Tony and her dad all had keys to her place so there wouldn’t be a reason to kick in the door. The book never did lean toward anybody as a prime suspect.
I guess the murder made National news at the time. It happened in Jan. 2002. Over 20 years ago. I don’t remember it. I Googled Christa after I finished the book and read that they did eventually arrest and convict a man, Chris McCowen, a local sanitation worker, of raping and murdering Christa. His arrest came 3 years after the fact due to DNA evidence. He says he’s innocent.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 10, 2018
Peeps love to whinge about how pretentious this book is (just look at the "hate" reviews on this site...) but the truth is it is very well written, albeit, show-off-y and sometimes cringe-y (RE: the author's writing style). The author can write, but her style is not for everyone. My knee-jerk reaction was to hate it too, but I got over it and just conceded she was a pretty good writer. Her writing may annoy many, but it kept me interested in reading every page.
What is interesting RE: this book was that it was written BEFORE Chris McCowen was arrested for the murder of Truro's Christa Worthington (a well-known fashion writer...who also was very talented...murdered on 1/5/2002). We get to know what Christa was like. The author's research is deep and very well done. We see Christa in more than 2 dimensions. It's good to know because we don't really get a robust feel for Christa in Peter Manso good book on the case ("Reasonable Doubt")...a book that rightly posits that Chris McCowen is innocent. We never hear of the wrongly convicted McCowen in this tome...it was too early for that. It gives us a fresh and untainted view.
The author had no clue who Christa's murderer was...so this is a different "True Crime" tome. That also may be why TC fans love to hate it. The flowery writing style sometimes made one forget they were reading TC. I liked the distraction. I also liked her research...very interesting, gossipy and wacky.
Try it for yourself if you're curious RE: the Christa Worthington murder. There are still so many unanswered questions regarding just what had transpired that cold and awful January weekend. At least with this book, we get to see what Christa was like as a living person. She was targeted for a reason and this tome shines a dim light on a few overlooked clues (I.E. Christa felt she was being watched in her home before she was slaughtered...this is a vital clue...).
What is interesting RE: this book was that it was written BEFORE Chris McCowen was arrested for the murder of Truro's Christa Worthington (a well-known fashion writer...who also was very talented...murdered on 1/5/2002). We get to know what Christa was like. The author's research is deep and very well done. We see Christa in more than 2 dimensions. It's good to know because we don't really get a robust feel for Christa in Peter Manso good book on the case ("Reasonable Doubt")...a book that rightly posits that Chris McCowen is innocent. We never hear of the wrongly convicted McCowen in this tome...it was too early for that. It gives us a fresh and untainted view.
The author had no clue who Christa's murderer was...so this is a different "True Crime" tome. That also may be why TC fans love to hate it. The flowery writing style sometimes made one forget they were reading TC. I liked the distraction. I also liked her research...very interesting, gossipy and wacky.
Try it for yourself if you're curious RE: the Christa Worthington murder. There are still so many unanswered questions regarding just what had transpired that cold and awful January weekend. At least with this book, we get to see what Christa was like as a living person. She was targeted for a reason and this tome shines a dim light on a few overlooked clues (I.E. Christa felt she was being watched in her home before she was slaughtered...this is a vital clue...).
July 21, 2019
Where to start with this?
If you're looking for a typical true crime "thriller" read (think Ann Rule) with photos and a long analysis of the crime, who committed it and why, etc, etc, this is not what you're going to get. Maria Flook takes a different approach and instead tries to bring you into the world inhabited by Christa Worthington, from her upbringing and teenage years, her college and adulthood, up through her untimely death. When taken from this perspective, it can be quite interesting to become "immersed" in Christa's world. Ms. Flook focuses on the "before" rather than the "after" which is an interesting contrast, and I guess one that many people might not enjoy as much. To my surprise, I felt that I really empathized with Christa Worthington through this style of writing. Rather than just seeing her as a murder victim - which i feel many crimes books do-I felt like this breathed life into the woman she was - the pleasant and not so pleasant aspects of her, as well as breathing life into the small town politics of a place like Truro.
It's true that at times I felt like it was a bit much in terms of describing the town life. I liked getting an idea as to the town and type of people in it, but at times we took detours that I just didn't care about and couldn't wait to be over, because I didn't feel they particularly added much to the story.
If you're looking for a typical true crime "thriller" read (think Ann Rule) with photos and a long analysis of the crime, who committed it and why, etc, etc, this is not what you're going to get. Maria Flook takes a different approach and instead tries to bring you into the world inhabited by Christa Worthington, from her upbringing and teenage years, her college and adulthood, up through her untimely death. When taken from this perspective, it can be quite interesting to become "immersed" in Christa's world. Ms. Flook focuses on the "before" rather than the "after" which is an interesting contrast, and I guess one that many people might not enjoy as much. To my surprise, I felt that I really empathized with Christa Worthington through this style of writing. Rather than just seeing her as a murder victim - which i feel many crimes books do-I felt like this breathed life into the woman she was - the pleasant and not so pleasant aspects of her, as well as breathing life into the small town politics of a place like Truro.
It's true that at times I felt like it was a bit much in terms of describing the town life. I liked getting an idea as to the town and type of people in it, but at times we took detours that I just didn't care about and couldn't wait to be over, because I didn't feel they particularly added much to the story.
May 25, 2021
Invisible Eden, the story behind Christa Worthington's brutal murder although bone-chilling, was missing key components of a true crime novel acting more as a biography of Christa's life. Although the book was insightful in setting the stage for the crime as the suspects and Christa's life were unpacked, the writing style and limited information about the crime itself was upsetting. Following the publication of the book and 4 years after the murder, Christopher McCowen, a trash collector was convictited of the rape and murder of Christa. Despite improvements to DNA testing and delays in the investigation, I find the lack of information or mention of McCowen throughout the book or the initial investigation troublesome. Violent crimes such as Christa's are motivated by money, power, or love which leaves a multitude of suspects (Tony, Tim, the Worthington's, etc.) more likely or motivated then McCowen and the circumstances signify a crime of passion. After reading the book and learning more about the case I am left with many unanswered questions. Was it a stroke of scientific luck that the killer was caught, was there a cover-up in the small seaside town, or was it a case of trying to make connections that do not exist resulting in the wrongful imprisoning of a Black man?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 27, 2018
My favorite thing about this book may have been that my friend Jim was interviewed and so turned up in a couple of places, which delighted me. To be fair, it may have also suffered from unrealistic expectations on my part. I was expecting a more straight-up true crime style narrative, which this most decidedly was not - it was more of a profile of the victim and meditation on class/social history on the Cape. I should probably place a little blame on the Somerville Public librarian for putting it in a display on true crime books, as well as my having just finished the Killing On The Cape podcast. Anyway, tt was well-written and I found the author's interactions with the police chief (?)/sheriff (?) [can't quite remember his title now] amusing, if at times a bit condescending on her part. Worth a read, especially if you know what to expect going in.
August 6, 2021
I disagree with the negative comments about this book. I thought it was extremely insightful, haunting, very well written, fascinating, and an excellent account surrounding life on the Cape, in Truro and the people and events surrounding what was known at the time about Christa Worthington and the murderer at large, who has since been convicted.
The author does display some parallels to Worthington which is evident in her writing. All in all you can't deny it's a very interesting read. The made for TV movies make the story and her character trashy and thin, and don't do it ANY justice and IMO is a travesty to the novel.
I feel for her daughter and hope that she wound up having a happy childhood and life.
The author does display some parallels to Worthington which is evident in her writing. All in all you can't deny it's a very interesting read. The made for TV movies make the story and her character trashy and thin, and don't do it ANY justice and IMO is a travesty to the novel.
I feel for her daughter and hope that she wound up having a happy childhood and life.
August 28, 2017
I don't typically read true crime but this one must have crossed my path and interested me since I requested it but now I have no idea where I heard about it. An interesting detailed look at the circumstances surrounding a murder in the early 2000s in Maine. Made me want be more tidy in case I am randomly murdered and judged by how dirty my house happened to be that day. While the investigator identifies possible suspects there is no resolve at the end. After finishing the book I looked the case up and it appears a person was found guilty that I don't believe was mentioned at all. This made the whole exercise seem a bit pointless.
August 16, 2018
I made the mistake of starting this book after I had already seen the movie version on TV. I know there is no solution, no major revelation in the end. The author offers lots of nice detail beyond what was in the movie but I dawdled so much, not picking the book up for weeks at a time and then reading only a page or two, I had a problem keeping up with who's who. Finally 342 pages into it and within site of the end, I just got tired of it.
July 16, 2017
I really enjoyed the different approach that the author wrote this book in. By giving more of a historical background to Christa and the area she was from, the reader is more invested into this true story. However, I felt that the story was drugged out for too long and several parts seemed to be repetitious.
December 27, 2017
A great deal of research. Work on paragraph structure.
The author did not skimp on research. She included copious amounts of character history which was needed for consideration of a possible killer. Story was at times difficult to read when topic 'skipped around.' Paragraphs did not follow a single theme. Still an extremely interesting account of a tragic event on Cape Cod.
The author did not skimp on research. She included copious amounts of character history which was needed for consideration of a possible killer. Story was at times difficult to read when topic 'skipped around.' Paragraphs did not follow a single theme. Still an extremely interesting account of a tragic event on Cape Cod.
July 27, 2023
Engrossing
Christa Worthington was an Everywoman from a particular time and place. She was like many girls in NYC in the 1980s and 90s-talented, professionally successful, and very attractive. Sadly, she was an only child with estranged parents who never learned how to navigate romantic relationships. I am deeply saddened by her violent death.
Christa Worthington was an Everywoman from a particular time and place. She was like many girls in NYC in the 1980s and 90s-talented, professionally successful, and very attractive. Sadly, she was an only child with estranged parents who never learned how to navigate romantic relationships. I am deeply saddened by her violent death.
March 5, 2018
See review of Peter Manso's "Reasonable Doubt." Her writing is so terrible, it's hilarious. She actually writes that after Christa Worthington found out she was pregnant, she looked out at the bay which resembled "a giant blue diaper pail."
November 30, 2020
I have only not finished about three books. This is one I should have left unread. It took me about as long to read it as it did for the DNA to come back. It reads like a dissertation and not a story. I found the story of Christa Worthington fascinating bit Flook’s writing boring.
June 22, 2022
I didn't enjoy this book. Lots and lots of superfluous info, more like a biography of Christa (who isn't particularly interesting)than an in-depth questioning of who dun it. Just wasn't what I was looking for.
December 21, 2017
Interesting story, poorly written. Unneeded information about the sideline characters and their habits and attempts to hook up with the author.
October 25, 2019
i found it a boring story about a rather interesting event.
September 17, 2020
2.5 stars
May 17, 2021
After reading this...I didn't care for Christa as a person
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