Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine

by Joseph K. Loughlin, Kate Clark Flora

Overview

A dedicated policeman and a former assistant attorney general unveil a woman's murder-and the investigation that changed one Maine city forever.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780425218655
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	12/04/2007
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	352
Sales rank:	436,115
Product dimensions:	4.20(w) x 6.70(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Joseph K. Loughlin is a former assistant chief of police for the city of Portland, Maine. He served as the interim chief and retired from service in January 2010 after 30 years of police work. He has the historic distinction of achieving and serving in every single sworn rank within the Portland Police Department. Loughlin is a graduate of the FBI National Academy command training program in Quantico, Virginia. He holds a master’s degree from the University of Southern Maine and was acknowledged as a distinguished alumnus. Loughlin is the author of Finding Amy, a nonfiction account of the Amy St. Laurent homicide case in 2001. He has authored multiple editorials and magazine articles on the realities of police work.

Kate Clark Flora is the author of 14 mystery and true crime books. Death Dealer, her most recent true crime, was an Agatha and Anthony finalist. And Grant You Peace, a Joe Burgess police procedural, won the 2015 Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. Her other titles include the Thea Kozak mysteries and the starred-review Joe Burgess police series. Flora is a founding member of the New England Crime Bake conference and a founder of Level Best Books, where she worked as an editor and publisher for seven years, and has served as the international president of Sisters in Crime. In an earlier life she was an attorney, protecting battered kids and chasing deadbeat dads for the Maine attorney general's office, and representing the Maine Human Rights Commission. Flora teaches writing at Grub Street in Boston.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Prologue: Welcome to the Cop’s Life
Chapters 1 through 20
Epilogue: Amy’s Legacy
Notes

What People are Saying About This

Gary Braver

“What distinguishes Finding Amy from other books of true-crime reporting are the two intertwined narratives. The captivating whodunit storyline of noted mystery author Kate Clark Flora is interspersed with the sobering and sometimes moving first-person behind-the-scenes log of Captain Joseph K. Loughlin who headed up the search for Amy and her killer. The result is a highly compelling read from the opening page to the bittersweet final lines. This is true-crime reporting at its best.”

Margaret Press

"A remarkable chronicle of the search for a young woman that brought together multiple jurisdictions in an extraordinarily cooperative and focused effort. Loughlin and Flora give us a compelling and moving behind-the-scenes window on the investigation, trial, and--most of all--the impact of Amy's story on the lives and hearts of the investigators."
— Margaret Press, author of A Scream on the Water

Editorial Reviews

Loughlin’s recorded entries about the case—his thoughts, emotions and reactions to the investigation—amplify Flora’s straightforward but potent narrative as detectives search for the grave, find it (about halfway through the book) and build a case against a leading suspect. This is a feast for proceduralists, giving countless small details of the work-a-day slogging involved, an effort that leads the department to make good on the mystery, catching Amy’s murderer, and making the case stick.”—Publishers Weekly

“The tale is brimming with insights about police procedure, jurisdictional disputes, and politics. Over and over again, real life trumps fiction. For instance, after a five-hour standoff, the suspect surrenders one of his guns for a soda, the other for a cigarette. Put that in a novel and no one would believe it . . . The reader is never allowed to lose sight of the humanity of the victim, a young girl who accepted a ride from the wrong guy, then had the temerity to say no and mean it.”—Boston Globe

“Readers of true crime will find this chronological tale of the search for Amy and her killer especially compelling because of the personal account of Loughlin, who was lieutenant of the Criminal Investigation Department when Amy disappeared. Loughlin’s journal, woven into Flora’s painstaking recreation of the work of the detectives, highlights the intense discussions that took place among the key players and gives readers a look at the slow, steady progress of real detectives on a real case. There are no ‘CSI solutions’ that wrap up the case in a conveniently short time. There are no magic findings of DNA. What takes place in this true story is the passionate belief that they will find Amy, bring her killer to justice, and give closure to her family and to the people of Maine.”—Foreword

“This is one of the best true crime stories to be published in recent years...This book should reaffirm the public’s faith in the police, prosecutors, and Maine’s judicial system.”—Brunswick Times Record

From the Publisher