The Last Stone
A Masterclass in Criminal Interrogation
by Mark Bowden
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Pub Date 4 Jul 2019 | Archive Date 11 Jun 2019
Atlantic Books | Grove Press
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Description
From the bestselling author of Killing Pablo, a haunting and gripping account of the true-life search for the perpetrator of a hideous crime-the abduction and likely murder of two young girls in 1975-and the skilful work of the cold case team that finally brought their kidnapper to justice.
On March 29, 1975, sisters Kate and Sheila Lyon, aged ten and twelve, disappeared during a trip to a shopping mall in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. Three days later, eighteen-year-old Lloyd Welch visited the Montgomery County Police headquarters with a tip: he had seen the Lyon girls at the mall that day and had watched them climb into a strange man's car. Welch's tip led nowhere, and the police dismissed him as a drug-addled troublemaker wasting their time. As the weeks passed, and the police's massive search for the girls came up empty, grief, shock and horror spread out from the Lyon family to overtake the entire region. The trail went cold, the investigation was shelved and hope for justice waned.
Then, in 2013, a detective on the department's cold case squad reopened the Lyon files and eventually discovered that the officers had missed something big about Lloyd Welch in 1975. In 1975, at age 23, Mark Bowden was a rookie reporter for a small Maryland newspaper reporting on the Lyons sisters' disappearance.
In The Last Stone, Bowden returns to his first major story, taking us behind the scenes of the cold case team's exceptional interrogation of Lloyd Welch, the man who - nearly forty years after the crime - quickly became the most likely suspect in the Lyon case. Based on extensive interviews and video footage from inside the interrogation room, The Last Stone is a thrilling and revelatory reconstruction of a masterful investigation.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Hardcover |
| ISBN | 9781611856316 |
| PRICE | £16.99 (GBP) |
Featured Reviews
Denise S, Educator
The Last Stone gave a fascinating insight into a cold case investigation. At times the facts were disturbing, horrifying and sickenening but were part of the case so needed to be included. The detectives worked so hard to find out what had happened to two little sisters who had disappeared years before. What their poor family have gone through is heartbreaking.
How the detectives remained calm throughout their questioning of a suspect and his family is beyond me. The suspect was evil and a liar, game player and an attention seeker and he made my skin crawl.
Extremely well written.
Lottie A, Bookseller
In turns gripping and revolting, Mark Bowden has penned an unputdownable page-turner of the first water.
Greville W, Reviewer
I have never really been an aficionado of true crime books but as claimed this truly is a‘Masterpiece of Criminal Investigation.’
I have read a few books by Mark Bowden and recognise and applaud his ability as a wonderful writer of non-fiction.
This is a forensic re-eamination of a terrible unsolved crime that haunted him as a young cub reporter who covered the crime at the time and he follows the investigation as a cold case that is re-opened and finally solved.
The level of detail is exhausting and you can only pay tribute to the exhaustive patience and diligence of the police who finally got to the bottom of a terrible, terrible crime almost 40 years later.
I cannot say that I enjoyed this harrowing account but it is a fine addition to the ranks of true crime books.
Susan R, Reviewer
This is a true crime book about a Cold Case. In 1975, two sisters, aged ten and twelve, disappeared from a shopping mall in Maryland. The girls are never found and nobody is ever charged with the crime. In 2013, a cold case detective, finds something previously overlooked, which links events to Lloyd Welch, currently in prison, for a crime against a child.
At first, the detectives hope that Welch will provide them with evidence implicating a man they felt was the main suspect. However, after initial interviews, it seems that Welch may be of more interest than they first imagined. Over the pages of this book, we see the investigators gradually try to get to the bottom of events, which happened nearly forty years before.
Welch is currently in prison, serving a thirty three year sentence for the sexual assault of a ten year old, but he can see the light at the end of the tunnel. However, as the questioning commences, it seems that, despite realising it is in his best interests not to reveal details of those events, Welch, firstly, can’t resist talking to the investigators and, two, is completely unable to keep his story straight. The investigators patiently, over a number of visits, tease details from Welch about the unsolved crime.
Now, for those who like books where everything is neatly tied up and packaged, this is not for you. Real life is rarely neatly ended and, those involved with this case, are to be applauded for trying to bring some resolution to the parents of those two girls. However, with so much time having passed, it is difficult for this to be resolved perfectly.
That said, I found this a fascinating glimpse into the case built up against the suspect, the way that the investigators did everything they could to try to discover what happened and how Welch was revealed as, not only a maladjusted individual, but as the member of an incredibly dysfunctional background. A fascinating, if difficult, read. I received a copy of this book from the publisher, via NetGalley, for review.
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