The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America's Coldest Cases by Deborah Halber

The Skeleton Crew: How Amateur Sleuths Are Solving America's Coldest Cases by Deborah Halber is a non-fiction title that reads like a page turner.  It is gripping and suspenseful, and if you love reading mysteries or true crime, this book is a must read for you.  It's a fairly quick read because it's hard to put down.  It reminds me a lot of Marilyn Johnson's books that looked at the worlds of obituaries, libraries, and archaeology, all of which have been reviewed here on the blog (click the links to read those reviews).

Like Johnson, Halber immerses herself in the world of these amateur web sleuths and interviews several big players in the cold case solving field.  She also exposes the drama and competition that happens on the online discussion boards that lead to irreparable rifts between the sleuths and online forums.  In addition to profiling several sleuths who have solved some of the most notorious cold cases and given names to unidentified corpses, Halber also details the cases and the victims.  The true stars of the book are the victims, their stories, and the long journeys to identifying them and bringing them home to their families--for some it's taken decades, for others, they still wait.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie