Review by Booklist Review
True crime is all the rage; the mystery of someone's disappearance or death compels people to find answers. Here, Rear methodically unravels the death of her stepsister, Stephanie, in the Rochester, New York area in 1991. Rear's mother married Stephanie's father after Stephanie's death, so Rear never knew Stephanie in life. At first, the author is puzzled by the fact that someone with such a zeal for life, love of music, and gift for teaching violin could just disappear. Bit by bit, though, a fuller picture of Stephanie appears; she had once been in an abusive relationship. She suffered from low self-esteem and had been behaving erratically. At the time, former and current boyfriends were investigated. The case had long gone cold, even though there had been a dedicated detective at the time of the murder. A corrupt police department hampered further investigation, and the detective retired. This book is a love letter to her stepsister, and readers will appreciate the detail and care Rear takes to reach the culmination of the case.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Rear debuts with an engrossing account of her search for the truth about her stepsister's murder, which leads to painful discoveries and frustrating answers. Stephanie Kupchynsky, a music teacher, disappeared in 1991 at age 27. In 1998, when Rear was 20, her mother married Kupchynsky's father, shortly before his daughter's decomposing remains were found in a creek close to Kupchynsky's last home in an apartment complex in Greece, N.Y. Rear, who never knew her stepsister but was haunted by the tragedy, began her own inquiry, meeting with both people who had dated Kupchynsky and those in law enforcement who searched for her and her killer. Meanwhile, in 1994, Edward Laraby, a sexual predator who had been a maintenance worker in Kupchynsky's apartment building, was arrested in a rape case and convicted that same year. In 2011, Laraby confessed in prison to killing Kupchynsky, laughing as he did so, but he died in 2014 before he could be tried for that crime. Rear's personal connection to the case, and resonances between her own experiences of being victimized by men, as well as her stepsister's experiences of being victimized, give this account a hefty emotional impact. This combination of true crime inquiry and revelatory memoir will linger in readers' minds long after they finish it. Agent: Dan Conaway, Writers House. (Feb.)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In 1991 Stephanie Kupchynsky, the author's stepsister, disappeared from her apartment in Greece, NY, before a trip; her bones were found years later in a nearby county. Although they never met (Stephanie had already gone missing when Rear's mother married Stephanie's father), Rear (a public-school language arts teacher, writing her first book) felt drawn to her stepsister and compelled to tell her story. As Rear explored Stephanie's life, particularly the days leading up to her death, she discovered similarities between her own life and her stepsister's, which deepens her connection. Rear describes the investigation into the disappearance, particularly the lengths that Stephanie's loved ones went to in order to find her. Police suspicion eventually fell on Ed Laraby, a maintenance worker in Stephanie's apartment complex who'd been previously convicted of rape, and police obtained a confession from him. Rear's work is both thoroughly researched and deeply intimate as she details her own life, speculates about Laraby's mindset, and conveys the impact of Stephanie's death on friends and family. VERDICT An insightful, moving tribute that will resonate with readers who appreciate a blend of true crime and memoir, such as Ellen McGarrahan's Two Truths and a Lie.--Rebekah Kati, Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A New York City public schoolteacher's account of her quest to discover the truth behind her stepsister's brutal murder. Rear was 14 when her stepsister, Stephanie, vanished from her Greece, New York, apartment in 1991. At the time of Stephanie's disappearance, the author still lived with her mother and father, "who was a cruel man, abusive by any measure." Rear's mother married Stephanie's widowed father seven years later; not long after that, Stephanie's remains were discovered in a shallow creek several miles outside of town. Rear unsuccessfully tried writing about her stepsister, a "beloved violin teacher," months before her stepfather died in 2009, but it would not be until 2015, six years after a Greece police chief had quietly reopened Stephanie's case, that the author decided to investigate her death. "She's become more than my muse now; she's my creation. I see her now when I look in the mirror," writes the author. The details that slowly emerged told a troubling story that began with the gentle stepfather Rear had known. Friends revealed that Jerry had been mentally and physically abusive and that Stephanie had been in therapy since childhood. Further research revealed that Stephanie, who was periodically depressed, had endured further trauma from a boyfriend who forced her to have an abortion. The gradual revelations Rear makes about her gifted stepsister's life--along with the tense cat-and-mouse story of how two police investigators elicited a confession from the psychopathic serial rapist who killed Stephanie--make for compellingly suspenseful reading. But the book's greatest strength by far is the way it evokes the "fragility of [human] existence" while reminding readers of the terrifying and random violence to which women continue to be subjected, both at home and in the world. A chillingly candid memoir and work of true crime. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
