Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me access to this ARC in return for an honest review.

I will be recommending this book for EVERYONE I know! I could not put down this heartbreaking, eye-opening book. It was very well written and had me hooked from the beginning. Anyone interested in true crime needs to read this.

Wow! What a bloody book!!

This is a nonfiction book written in a most excellent way by Elaine Alice Murphy, she's reseached and written this to the utmost best of her ability. She leaves no stone unturned (pretty much like one of the lawyers involved with this case)

Such a sad, tense book as even though the subject matter is very interesting and informative it is ultimately someone's life who we are reading about; the wrong and injustices of his case.

Sean Ellis was just 19 years old when he was wrongly convicted of a cop killing which was totally wrong on so many levels. He wasn't released until he was 39years old. Can you imagine being in prison for that long knowing you hadn't committed the crime.

If you like crime this is a book for you.

Aside from the injustices of the book which really annoyed me the writing of this book is a really high standard. Mrs Murphy should be damn well proud of herself, not only writing about such a difficult situation/case (also one close to her heart) she managed to keep it in order (chronological as well as the scenes) - even jumping back and forward from the different time periods it always made sense, something I think would be quite hard to do.

Thanks to @netgalley for the copy of this book. All reviews and opinions are my own.

In For Life is the story of Sean, incarcerated for a crime that he did not commit. Many may be familiar with this story if they have seen the Netflix docu-series called "Trial 4". Not only was Sean convicted of murder once, but actually 3 times altogether. Murphy knew Sean since he was a child as he was friends with her son. Once she found out about his conviction she worked tirelessly to help free him. While this book is the story of Sean it also brings awareness to the corruption in Boston especially when it comes to the police and black men of the city. It also tells the story of her realizing how much different Sean's life could have been had he been on the other side of the city where wealth and whiteness is vastly different.

I would highly recommend this book to everyone interested in true crime, injustices in America and anyone who wants to read a truly heartfelt memoir. It was easily one of the hardest memoirs for me to put down.

I didn’t even know that Netflix Trial 4 existed when I requested this arc. I just saw it as a true crime story and that was enough to intrigue me.

Now that I have finished this book I can honestly say this was an eye opening read. I am privileged to have grown up living in a world where I was taught that the police are helpful and I should trust them. Reading this book made me stop and think that, just like everywhere in life, there are good police officers and bad police officers. In the same way that there are good people and bad people.

I was so pleased to read that Sean Ellis had his sentence overturned and he is now a free man. I was also saddened to realise that whoever killed the police officer is still free.

I’d recommend this book to anyone interested in true crime and also to anyone, like me, who grew up in a world of privilege because this was honestly an education and I’m thankful to have received it.

This book was deliciously good. It isn't the sort of book I would normally go foor but it is well worth a read.

Murphy's son was best friends with Sean Ellis. So when she finds out that he is now in prison, not just for murder, but for the murder of a police officer, she is dumbfounded. She is unable to believe the sweet boy she remembers from her son's school years could possibly be a murderer. She makes the decision to visit him in prison, and this results in changing the next 20 years of her life and of Sean's. Murphy jumps in with both feet to research Ellis' previous trials in an attempt to determine if there is any grounds for a retrial. From there, it feels like you are researching alongside Murphy. She delves into the details as she walks you through what she finds. The culmination takes some time to get to, but when you consider that the instances covered in this book occurred over 20 years, that makes sense.

Could not put this heart-breaking book down. Very well written and eye-opening to the broken justice system. A very emotional read that was very thought-provoking regarding the true-crime of this nature. Highly recommend for those interested in true crime.

I need to view this book in one of two ways. It’s not my normal read as I don’t typically read many non-fiction books but I do have an interest in various criminal cases and this is a high-profile example of a miscarriage of justice. The book itself is extremely informative, contains all information needed as we follow Elaine Murphy in her journey of proving her friend’s son’s innocence. That said it is so dry, there were times I was close to not finishing. Once I got about 60% in I found myself unable to stop reading though, whilst not enjoyable I was compelled to get to the end and find out what happened to Sean Ellis and the corrupt BPD.

Thank you to Netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As a writer of true crime myself I had to read this book. A fascinating and well-written account of a miscarriage of justice. Recommended.

Elaine's writing of the true story of her son's friend grips you from the very beginning and does not let you go. This tale is an old one. Wrong man convicted and the wheels of justice are as slow as ever. I appreciated the humanness Elaine highlighted about Sean, that she wasn't willing to play the same game you normally hear in reporting, black kid kills white cop, but that this was a personal account for her. Sean was a person who meant, and still does, something to her and her family. There was a lot of corruption that was shown in this debacle called justice, and I really really appreciated Elaine's approach to the whole situation, that while emotionally invested as she was, she still did right by presenting the truth and letting that be the guide that set the boundaries of the story. Let the facts stand and the truth will be revealed. I was unaware of the Netflix documentary, but will be looking for it after reading this. I'm especially glad to see that Sean finally did get justice, but the cost to him was mindboggling. Elaine, thank you for the window into Sean's struggle and so glad to see that his path ended in freedom. Sean, the best of luck to you in your journey moving forward.
*I received a copy of this book from NetGalley. This review is my own opinion*

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for approving me for this arc

This was a very insightful look into the case and it was very eye opening to get all these different accounts of the American judicial course

Instant hook! Excellently written story of injustice. I felt engaged the entire time, always needing to know what happens next. You can tell that the research was extensively done. Well done to the author for all the research done. It's crazy how the this trial turned out compared to the amounts of research done. I recommend this for everyone, it would be a great eye-opener for everyone about how the justice works and doesn't work. 5 STARS! Read this immediately!

Journalist Elaine Alice Murphy was living in Montreal when she inadvertently discovered that a former childhood friend of her son's had been convicted of robbery and murder of a police officer and was serving a life sentence in prison without parole. Remembering the kind, sweet little Black boy who had been bused to their school district and, who had become her son's best friend, she could not believe it. Ms. Murphy began to dig into the case and soon began to uncover a tangle of corruption in the criminal justice system and what she felt was a miscarriage of justice. Sean Ellis went through three trials for the crimes he was accused of before the jury found him guilty. Ms. Murphy began a quest to secure a new trial for Sean Ellis and she spent countless hours, which turned into years, going through volumes and volumes of police reports, court transcripts, witness statements, etc., and traveling to various locations to talk with witnesses and others involved in this case.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC of this extremely well researched, documented and well written book which I thoroughly enjoyed.

In for Life by Elaine Alice Murphy. is the story of Sean Ellis who at the age of just 19 was convicted of the murder of a Boston police officer in the 90s. This true story of corruption in the police force is something that has become all too common in my opinion. Elaine Murphy knew Sean from her son's childhood, they became friends during a school racial integration project. Elaine and her son Mark went to visit Sean and Elaine soon spent her free time investigating the case and writing this book about the case and its misgivings. It becomes clear the more you learn about the case that firstly, justice was not served and secondly the evidence given more than adequately gave reasonable doubt in this case .
I can understand why Elaine Murphy went in to so much detail as she wanted to cover the whole case and all the suppressed evidence and coerced interviews. Unfortunately it did probably go into too much repetitive detail in the middle of the book, and I would till have found this book to be an interesting read. It saddens me to think that so much of this so called "justice" goes on, even today!

I recently finished In for Life by Elaine Alice Murphy. This book is the story of Sean Ellis who was convicted at the age of 19 for the murder of a Boston police officer in the early 90s. Elaine learned of the conviction and recognized Sean as her son's childhood best friend who had been bused to the suburbs in a racial integration program. Elaine went to visit Sean and soon spent her free time investigating the case and writing about it. She became friends with Sean and visited him in jail with his mother frequently taking notes along the way. It becomes clear the more you learn about the case that justice was not served. There is certainly reasonable doubt. The book did go into probably too much detail in the middle or so that could have been cut out but it was still an interesting read. There is a Netflix documentary called Trial 4 that I will check out now that I've read the book.

Though this isn't fiction, it almost feels like it is. The story is so unbelievable to me though it happens every day. Murphy was able to capture the confusion (not because of the writing but because of the circumstances) so well. I sometimes have a hard time reading nonfiction because I find a lot of it dry but Murphy kept the story going.

Firstly, thank you for the opportunity of reading this.
I had heard of Sean Ellis prior to requesting this read and was very interested to find out more.
The book does go into lots of legal details regarding the trial but I didn’t struggle to understand it at all. In fact I feel I understand the procedure more now.
I was hooked but this is because these are the kind of books I really enjoy.
I would recommend to others!!

I just finished a book about one family's quest to get a man's false conviction overturned. It took over 20 years... but they succeeded. Their only link to him was that for two years in elementary school he was best buds with the son in the family. The young Black boy, Sean, was bused in from a poorer neighborhood and then switched back to a school in his own neighborhood because of the bullying he was encountering in the "white" school district. It wasn't much better in his own neighborhood, where he was sometimes beaten bloody by other teens until he associated with a gang for protection. Regardless of anything pertaining to his life, he was innocent of the crime of killing a police officer but framed by crooked cops. This is just the tip of the whole account which was compiled and written over 2 decades by Elaine Alice Murphy, In For Life.

I recommend this book for anyone, but especially those interested in nonfiction, prison to courtroom accounts, or just an interest in fairness in society.

This book hooks you right from the start with a murdered cop and it's tale of dirty cops, drugs, and other forms of police corruption.
I find it so crazy that out of THREE trials no jury could find him not guilty. As soon as Elaine started investigating, it was clear to me that something was fishy.
This book was just a bit too long for me. I got a little lost/bored in the middle because there was so much trial/legal stuff. Random note- I swear I'm one of the only people on the planet without Netflix 😂 so I've never seen Trial 4. I would be curious to see if they cut out some of the middle stuff, or made it more engaging somehow.
I enjoyed the ending and hearing about Sean's life once he got out. It was evident that former inmates need so many supports after incarceration; luckily he had it. As he stated, at the time of his release he had spent more years behind bars than as a free man (child, really). It had a happy ending feeling when we got to read about Sean taking the time to appreciate nature, quiet time, a shower❗ (things we take for granted), and even being silly with his family.
I don't often say this, because I love the convenience of ebooks, but this book would be better if you read the physical copy. There are a LOT of characters and it was hard to keep track of them all at times. There's a section in the back of the book with character descriptions and notes from each chapter that would have been useful to flip to and reference throughout, which in my opinion is easier to do with an actual book. I didn't realize those sections existed until the end of the book 🙃
The murder of Mulligan is still unsolved today and I have to wonder if Sean knows who really did it? He was always so scared of not snitching so who knows 🤷🏻‍♀️
Overall, 3.5 stars for me, rounded up.

I was interested in this book as I remember watching the netflix documentary on Sean Ellis but the book focused heavily on the court case and the legalities so I didn’t find myself as interested or hooked.