Zalkind’s The Waltham Murders is a wildly engaging true crime book about the improbable murders the author is directly connected to growing up in Waltham, Massachusetts… But also, as the story blooms, a surprising connection to a major terrorist event and a statewide manhunt that resulted in one of the perpetrators dead and the other on federal death row, just a few miles from the murders (and from where I am currently writing this).
This was a Kindle First Reads selection I got for free, which was wild considering most of the true crime pieces that show up are of unknown murders, and that is somewhat how this one starts. But it evolves into being connected to one of the most notable and wildly improbable connected events that has ever happened where I grew up. I directly witnessed that particular crime scene as it was being investigated a few days after the events.
I was very surprised at how good this book was. What turned me on the most was the objective prose that is punctuated here and there by the author’s direct involvement in the lives of some of the main characters, pulled in by choices way outside of her control. But the control she has over the narrative and beautifully well-researched investigation she approaches with candor, feeling, and a true desire for the loose ends to be tied up not only because she cares for her subject as a writer, but as someone who lost a person quite close to her to some amateur sociopathic monsters intent on violent destruction. Being intimately familiar with the settings and events, and having forgotten about this aspect of the story but wanting to know more, made this hit a lot of intellectual and personal hot spots of mine.
Zalkind’s book is not only a gorgeous exploration of some tragic murders, but also a meaningful tribute to those she lost. She tries her hardest to find an explanation to some of her biggest questions about her loss, and sometimes in the book, she is successful, and sometimes she meets some dead ends. But her dedication to wanting to bring herself and our community closure doesn’t simply make for a great book, but makes for a portrait of who she lost and a window into the selfless, inspiring dedication she has to a young man who was taken from her way too soon. A great book, beginning to end.
Garrett Zecker 