Do you love a good whodunit? Join others who have a similar interest in true crime at our book club! Each month we will read and discuss a true crime, non-fiction title from the library's collection. Meetings are scheduled for the 1st Sunday of the Month at 2 p.m. in the Meeting Room at the Tower Road Branch Library.
Book club copies of the current title will be available for checkout at the Tower Road Branch Circulation Desk on a first-come, first-served basis. To confirm availability, please call 352-333-2840 or email Sabrina. We will also try to make copies available in eBook/eAudiobook formats on Libby whenever possible.
While Idaho Slept: The Hunt for Answers in the Murders of Four College Students by J. Reuben Appelman
Sunday, August 4 at 2 p.m. | Tower Road Branch - Meeting Room
"Just after 4:00 am on November 13, 2022, four University of Idaho students were viciously stabbed to death in an off-campus house. The killings would shake the small blue-collar college town of Moscow, Idaho, dominate mainstream news coverage, and become a social media obsession, drawing millions of clicks and views. While a reticent Moscow Police Department, the FBI, and the Idaho State Police searched for the killer, unending conjecture and countless theories blazed online, in chatrooms and platforms from Reddit and YouTube to Facebook and TikTok. For more than a month, the clash of armchair investigators and law enforcement professionals raged, until a suspect—a 28-year-old Ph.D. candidate studying criminology—was arrested at his family home 2,500 miles away in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania on the day before New Year’s Eve.
While Idaho Slept is a thought-provoking, literary chronicle of a small-town murder investigation blistering beneath the unceasing light of international interest, as traditional investigators, citizen sleuths, and the true-crime media acted—sometimes together, often in conflict—to uncover the truth. As J. Reuben Appelman brings this terrible crime into focus, he humanizes the four victims, examining the richness of their lives, dissects the mind and motivations of their presumed killer, and explores the world of northern Idaho, a rugged, deeply conservative stronghold steeped in Christian values and American patriotism.
Going deep inside the case, Appelman addresses a crucial question: With so many millions of citizens armed by access and hungry to take part in a true crime hunt of their own, has the nature of homicide investigations permanently changed? Rising above the sensational, While Idaho Slept illuminates the intrinsic connection between today’s media, citizen sleuths, our societal mania for murder tales, and an impatient public’s insatiable appetite for spectacle as never before. Running beneath, the pulse of the story is a heartbreaking narrative of the people we love, the dreams we all share, and the uncertain time left for sharing them." (Amazon)
Upcoming Meetings
September 1 - We Were Once A Family by Roxanna Asgarian
October 6 - My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams
November 3 - We Thought We Knew You by M. Williams Phelps
December 1 - At Any Cost by Rebecca Rosenberg
You can also take a look at what true crime titles we currently have in our library's collection. To catch up on past book club titles, check out this list.
Interested in other book clubs? The Alachua County Library District has several. You can find more information on our Book Clubs page.