Cold Blooded Business: Love, Adultery, and Murder in a Small Kansas Town

In his debut book, journalist Fuchs provides an underwhelming account of how a decades-old Kansas cold case came to be solved. In 1982, 25-year-old David Harmon was savagely bludgeoned to death while he slept in Olathe, Kans. His wife, Melinda, was unharmed and her flimsy account made her the prime suspect, along with family friend (and Melinda’s possible lover) Mark Mangelsdorf. Despite stories full of holes, the two were not charged, due in large part, Fuchs says, to the power of the town’s growing Nazarene Church, in which Melinda’s father was highly placed. In 2001, the case was reopened and two Olathe detectives tracked down Melinda, happily married to an Ohio dentist, and Mark, a Harvard Business School graduate and former v-p at Pepsi. Melinda was convicted but reached a deal for a reduced sentence, and Mark eventually reached a plea agreement. Fuchs never delves deep enough into the crime or the killer(s)’ motivation in this compelling case. Despite frequent references to In Cold Blood (murderers Smith and Hickock began their journey in Olathe), Fuchs fails to capture the intensity and lyricism of Capote’s tale. 16 b&w photos. (Mar.)