Books like A crime in the neighborhood by Suzanne Berne
During the summer of 1972, in a Washington, D.C. suburb, a twelve‑year‑old boy is found murdered near a shopping mall after being sexually assaulted. Marsha Eberhardt, only ten at the time, recalls the violence and the disturbing reactions it provokes in her and her family.
As an adult, she revisits that summer and the unresolved crime, alongside family upheavals and the national shock of the Watergate break‑in that kept announcers like Walter Cronkite on the air. Marsha’s memories of her father’s desertion, her siblings’ shoplifting, and her mother’s flirtations with a new neighbor paint a portrait of a neighborhood in crisis.
The novel questions how childhood witnesses of crime carry those memories into adulthood, exploring whether justice, healing, or revenge can ever truly resolve the injustice of the past.
First publish date: 1997
Genre: Mystery & Detective/Cozy Mystery
Authors: Suzanne Berne
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