Title: hard to justify
Review: Treadway's a writer with a distinctive voice and deft eye for detail. However, she lamely and shamefully transposes a real life tragedy from Bethlehem, NY in 1982. Call it lazy writing as well; she changes the name of the town but retains so many actual place names and school details from Bethlehem that you have to wonder why she didn't just opt for a Jon Krakauer sort of non-fiction account instead. As for the adaptation of the actual murder-suicide, Treadway takes huge liberties. In short, her novel reads like a sensationalized episode of Law and Order, "ripped from the headlines." For those who lived in the town and knew the family (I was a classmate of the girl who was murdered by her deranged father), this so-called "novel" offers no peace; it prompts disgust.
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