What Ever Happened to Eddy Crane? is equally gripping as an account of a woman's maturing through loss and grief as it is as a murder investigation. Author Kate Crane's father disappeared one night when she was 12, after calling to say he was on his way home from work. His beloved Mercedes was found abandoned at the airport and, weeks later, the family dog who'd been with him was found unharmed. But nothing was heard from Eddy Crane again.
Kate Crane eventually threw herself into the search for answers, following years of waiting for the authorities to unearth new information, as well as seeing her story used as fodder for television crimes series. Driven by her need for closure, she began an exhaustive DIY inquiry, knocking on the doors of aging witnesses and meeting with anyone involved in the initial investigation. Her quest for truth was far from risk free. As Crane peeled back the layers of a decades-old conspiracy involving local corruption and betrayal, she realized that the people who wanted Eddie gone were still very much alive --and they hadn't forgotten the secrets they killed to protect.
What Ever Happened to Eddy Crane? fluidly blends genres, recounting Crane's personal experience of the 1980s while maintaining a propulsive, thriller-like pace. It is a rare work that manages to be both a rigorous piece of journalism and a tender, heartbreaking meditation on the lasting bond between a father and a daughter. There's no neat cinematic Hollywood ending, but instead this memoir concludes with a raw and candid look at the limits of justice and the limitlessness of love. --Elizabeth DeNoma, executive editor, DeNoma Literary Services, Seattle, Wash.