"Who kills a man kills a reasonable creature. God's image. But he who destroys a good book, kills reason itself, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye."
Greeted with unqualified raves upon its hardcover publication, Shallow Grave in Trinity County is the story of how a suburban dream morphed into a murderous nightmare. The story starts with two characters: Stephanie Bryan, a pretty 14-year-old from Berkeley,
and Burton Abbott, a lanky 27-year-old student who lives nearby. One day, Stephanie vanishes. Three months later her purse, and then her glasses and brassiere, are found in Abbott's basement. As California comes alive with phantom witnesses and wild rumors,
Farrell's taut narrative hones in on the charismatic egoist Abbott -- executed for killing Stephanie and burying her in a forest, without ever confessing to the crime. Through interviews, research, and close scrutiny of long-buried police files, veteran journalist
Farrell finds in this tale a dark parable of evil in suburbia.
Shallow Grave in Trinity County
