Review: "In Light of All Darkness" by Kim Cross

 

In Light of All Darkness by Kim Cross
Published October 2023 via Grand Central Publishing
★★★★

A parent's worst nightmare: Polly Klaas was safe at home, in her bedroom, having a slumber party no less—and then she was gone, and despite her friends' eyewitness accounts investigators had barely a clue of who had taken her or whether she was still alive. The odds were against them, and against Polly.

Although true crime (in this case a decades-old, solved case) is not Cross's usual material, she had unusual access to information about the case: her father-in-law was the FBI agent who ran the case at the time. While the simple facts of the story are common knowledge, then, Cross had access to research material and interview subjects that most journalists would not. I didn't have much knowledge of the case going in—you know early on in the book how it ends, but I avoided looking things up until I'd finished reading—but I read Cross's earlier book of narrative nonfiction (result: I will never live in Alabama) and was impressed by the blend of research and storytelling. The same holds true here: Cross knows how to build a story and a set of characters, and she knows how to weave in the critical details that bring the case to life.

In some ways what makes this most interesting—since, again, it's not a new or recent case—is the discussion of various changes that came about because of the Polly Klaas case. These ranged from procedural (which agencies worked together, and how) to policy-based (learning to not treat witnesses who were children as, basically, suspects) to legal (California's much-debated "three strikes" law and its many problems). I'm also fascinated by the work done to create sketches of the suspect. Two were released to the public—one done early on, after initial interviews with the friends Polly was with when she was kidnapped, and another later on, by a different sketch artist who had a different approach. I haven't been able to find the first sketch online, but there's a picture in the book, and what's striking to me is that the second one is better, but—maybe it's just my untrained, unartistic eye, they're both actually very good. It's impossible to know, but I'm curious about what the lasting impression of the first sketch would have been had the second one not been done. (Much was made of the possibility that the kidnapper had (or hadn't) been wearing a yellow bandana, and I have to say that I did spend much of the book wondering "But when is somebody going to point out that he could just take the bandana off?")

All told, a gripping—and carefully told—story. I like my true crime meticulous rather than salacious, and Cross hits the mark here.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.