Amy: My Search for Her Killer: Secrets and Suspects in the Unsolved Murder of Amy Mihaljevic
Written by James Renner
Narrated by James Renner
4/5
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About this audiobook
So begins this strange and compelling memoir, which delves into the investigation of one of Northeast Ohio's most frustrating unsolved crimes.
Ten-year-old Amy Mihaljevic disappeared from the comfortable Cleveland suburb of Bay Village in the fall of 1989. Thousands of volunteers, police officers, and FBI agents searched for the girl. Her picture was everywhere-anyone who watched the local TV news remembers the girl with the sideways ponytail.
Tragically, Amy was found dead a few months later. Her killer was never found.
Now, fifteen years later, journalist James Renner picks up the leads.
Filled with mysterious riddles, incredible coincidences, and a cast of unusual but very real characters, his investigation quickly becomes a riveting journey in search of the truth.
Contains mature themes.
James Renner
JAMES RENNER is the author of the novels The Man from Primrose Lane and The Great Forgetting, as well as several works of nonfiction, including The Serial Killer's Apprentice. His true crime stories have appeared in The Best American Crime Writing anthology, Cleveland Scene, and Cracked.com. His method of using social media to solve cold cases was the subject of a CNN profile, in 2015. He lives in Akron with his wife and children.
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Reviews for Amy
37 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A good read. I too found myself wondering how or if this case was connected to the Jacob Wetterling case. I would recommend listening to one of the many true crime podcasts of Amy’s story before listening to the book.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I really enjoyed reading this book. It is a very interesting case and there are a lot of twists that keep you wondering. As someone who reads a lot of true crime I really appreciated James Renner's connection to Amy and his dedication to finding answers to what happened to her. I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys the true crime genre.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5This book is about a young reporter’s unceasing quest to find out what happened to Amy Mihaljevic. Amy Mihaljevic disappeared in 1989 when she was ten years old. In early 1990 her body was found. James Renner, around the same age as Amy at the time, had been following the story about the cute little girl with the side ponytail. When Amy’s body was found James was devastated. The perpetrator was never caught. Sixteen years later, James, now a fledgling reporter for Scene magazine, revisits the story about Amy, hoping to uncover what really happened to her. As he gathers information from family members, friends and detectives who worked on the case, James quickly discovers there were a number of viable suspects who walked away, a few of them still living, and that one of them could be responsible for Amy’s death. As his investigation intensifies and he tracks down and interviews some of the suspects, along with those who knew them, James is struck by the deviance and depravity that surrounds him, and he becomes obsessed with finding Amy’s abductor.James Renner’s tenacity in pursuing the Amy Mihaljevic case was captivating. Although a fledgling reporter at the time, Renner’s interviewing techniques were impressive. He cautiously spoke with anyone he could find that was connected to the case or considered a suspect, regardless of the danger to his own life. Each new chapter seemed to present another suspect or perspective regarding what happened to Amy, and I couldn’t stop listening to this book until I’d devoured the entire second half in one sitting. The suspense was such that I couldn’t tear myself away from it. There were real-life bogeymen, conspiracy theories, cover-ups, and almost too many suspects to keep straight. Some of it was very sad too though, like the impact that Amy’s death had on her mother, Margaret. She’d appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show in 1992—the show was about unsolved child murders. Margaret had a rough go of it after Amy died. I won’t divulge what happened to her, but it was sad. It’s fascinating to me how some seemingly ordinary people are really cold, calculating, and manipulative at their core; capable of committing heinous crimes. People we see in restaurants or who we have casual conversations with as we go about our daily lives are these same people. It’s frightful imagining the number of disturbed individuals who lurk among us. Renner’s book exposes us to some of the personalities of such characters. This book was compelling. In the end, I was hoping to learn that justice had been served for little Amy, but it was not to be. I didn’t receive the closure that I thought was sure to come. The investigation is still ongoing nearly thirty years later. Nevertheless, the story gripped me, enlightened me and educated me in a way that I won’t easily forget.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A very interesting and scary look at the suspects in the Amy Milhajevic case from Bay Village, Ohio in 1989. One man's quest to find the killer of a little girl when the case affected him deeply as a child. The only thing I really didn't like about the book was that there is really no conclusion, it is not his fault, but it would be so satisfying to know who really killed this innocent child.