Murder & Merlot: Shadow of the Bridge

Murder & Merlot will meet on the third Tuesday in August. Murder & Merlot is a true crime book club that normally meets on the second Tuesday of every month at Mimi's Retreat. Join us for a glass and a discussion of classic and modern works of true crime. The books we read will be selected by members. All attendees must be over 21 and have valid ID. On August 18th, from 6:00 - 7:00 pm, we'll discuss Shadow of the Bridge: The Delphi Murders and the Dark Side of America's Heartland by Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee. Description of Shadow of the Bridge from Simon & Schuster: On February 13, 2017, two teenage friends went for a walk in the woods just outside the small city of Delphi, Indiana. They should have been safe — but Liberty German and Abigail Williams never made it home. The next day, searchers found their bodies in a clearing. The two girls had been brutally murdered. Incredibly, in the final moments of her life, Liberty somehow managed to capture a video of the man who would soon murder her and her friend. This blurry recording showed a man lumbering toward the girls and then gruffly commanding them to go “down the hill.” A fascinated public obsessed over those clues. Speculation about the killer’s identity ran rampant on social media. Meanwhile, a sprawling law enforcement investigation led to some of the darkest corners of the heartland. Still, the case remained unsolved for years. Everything changed in October 2022 when authorities announced the arrest of Delphi resident Richard Allen. But as the case began to make its way through the justice system, many began to question whether the small community had what it took to prosecute the case. They also wondered whether or not the police had even arrested the right man. Investigators, officials, prosecutors, and the defense attorneys found themselves stuck in an unprecedented firestorm of online controversy and subterfuge, with so-called internet sleuths hyping up conspiracy theories and trading leaks. Now, Áine Cain and Kevin Greenlee, the investigative team behind a series of bombshell reports on the case have put forth the only definitive account of the entire investigation. Shadow of the Bridge: The Delphi Murders and the Dark Side of the American Heartland goes deeper and offers more detail than what was shared on the popular Murder Sheetpodcast, answering many of the questions that have haunted so many since the deaths of Libby and Abby. Most importantly, in working closely with the German and Williams families, Cain and Greenlee tell the stories of who these two warm, bright, and promising girls were to all who cared for them. With rigorous research and captivating prose, Shadow of the Bridge is a powerful narrative of a complicated, twisting story of tragedy and a community's determination to see justice. ______________________________________ “The truth, of course, was much weirder: I was foregoing a fancy Hollywood party to return not to my sleeping infant but my laptop, to excavate through the night in search of information about a man I’d never met, who’d murdered people I didn’t know.” - Michelle McNamara, I'll Be Gone in the Dark