Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips
Asta Eicher is widowed with three
children and in danger of losing her home in Park Ridge, Illinois. Knowing that the relationship she had with
her husband was not an ideal, or even happy one, she is hoping for better luck
the second time around. She believes she
found the perfect husband; he’s kind, loving and has the means to support her
and her children. She found him through
a dating agency in the newspaper and they have been corresponding for
months. Finally the day comes for them
to meet and she leaves with him in his car for his home and marriage. A couple of weeks later he returns to
Illinois for the children, without their mother, to bring them to live with
them. Asta Eicher and her children are
never seen alive again.
The story is based on true
events. There are photographs
interspersed throughout the book of the Eicher family as well as the small town
of Quiet Dell, West Virginia to remind the reader that these crimes were really
committed. The warnings about online
dating and meeting in public places are so commonplace today, but back then, in
the 1930s, the idea of serial killers and sexual predators was
unthinkable.
The story moves quickly and is told
in a very literary style, yet it is more disturbing than most thrillers because
you know it actually happened. As with
most real events it almost seems too weird to be true like having the trial
take place in an opera house on stage because it was the largest venue around. There are some very unconventional characters
for the time, a gay reporter and an independent, sexually active single female
among others. At first I didn’t think
they fit well in the time period, since they were definitely not the norm of
the time, but it really worked. America
is changing and you get that sense throughout the book, especially with the
loss of the sense of innocence around this small town in West Virginia shocked
by multiple murders in their midst.
