Sunday Synopsis

 

In Good Faith by Scott Pratt
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Does art imitate real life?  I think it does. Although this book, as most do, claims to be completely fiction and to bear no resemblance to any real person, crime, or case, that doesn't seem to be true. This book was published in 2012, but back in 1997, there was an actual crime that eerily matches the main crime in this book.

According to a show I watch (Deadly Women - this is a link to the actual episode) as well as three other documentaries (Six, Women Behind Bars, and City Confidential) and several news stories, Natasha Cornett (a bi-polar teen who dabbled in Satanism) and 5 friends were driving through Tennessee on their way from Kentucky to New Orleans. At a rest stop in Tennessee, they were approached by a Jehovah's Witness who wanted to preach to them. It made her so angry, they kidnapped the man, his wife, and their two children and stole their van. They drove out to a secluded area and shot all four members of the family. They were all shot in the eye and left in a star pattern. Then she drove the van over their bodies as another form of disrespect.

The beginning of this book is very much the same. A family of Jehovah's Witnesses are at a rest stop. They are all shot in the eye, left in a star pattern, and the bodies were driven over with the van. In the book, Ah Satan was carved into their skin (Natasha spelled backwards, which the real Natasha used to "prove" she was Satanic). A couple of differences... in real life, the little boy, the youngest, survived. Also in real life, the six were caught in the stolen van fairly quickly after committing the crime. The real Natasha did not have a twin sister like the Natasha in this book.

The Natasha in the book had other "powers," other murders and crimes were committed, and she was not caught so easily. Joe Dillard, one time defense attorney, is now working as an assistant DA, so there is some politics involved, and we meet some new and interesting characters in this book that were not in the first book of the series. There are also issues in his home life that complicated matters, so the book is not just about the murders at the Tennessee rest stop. There were several subplots to keep the reader interested and engaged.

I wonder if Scott Pratt meant to use this real story because there are too many similarities to be coincidence. That dropped my stars down from 4 to 3, but it was still a good book.  Book 2 in the Joe Dillard series.

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