Kristian Hammerstad In The New York Times Book Review, Mimi Swartz reviews Robert Kolker’s “Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery.†Ms. Swartz writes:
In mid-December 2010, the Suffolk County police discovered the bodies of four women, each wrapped in burlap, on a desolate, bramble-covered stretch of sand called Gilgo Beach. The corpses were later identified as those of four prostitutes, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes and Amber Lynn Overstreet Costello. The work was believed to be that of a serial killer, and for several months to come, the media circus that accompanied the official investigation â€" centering on the search for another prostitute, Shannan Gilbert, who had disappeared after a nearby assignation the previous May â€" kept much of the New York area and the nation entranced. It was a gothic whodunit for the Internet age, replete with prostitutes, drugs, family dysfunction, investigative incompetence, not to mention a strange, insular beach community and, of course, the Web sites of Craigslist and Backpage, where the women had advertised for customers. Robert Kolker, who wrote about the murders for NewYork magazine in 2011, has produced in “Lost Girls†a compelling, nearly unputdownable narrative of the case and its attendant issues; a horrific, cautionary tale that makes for a very different type of beach read.
On this week’s podcast, Mr. Kolker talks about “Lost Girlsâ€; Julie Bosman has notes from the field; Chuck Klosterman discusses “I Wear the Black Hatâ€; Meghan O’Rourke on her essay about authors “recording their own deaths as they happenâ€; and Gregory Cowles has best-seller news. Pamela Paul is the host.
