The Case of the Vanishing Blonde and Other True Crime Stories

The six previously published true crime stories in this engrossing collection from Bowden (Black Hawk Down) showcase his gift for narrative nonfiction. “The Incident at Alpha Tau Omega” recounts the gang rape of a Penn college student in 1983, providing insights into how both the victim and the accused were treated in a different era, with the culprits eventually receiving what amounted to a slap on the wrist. Whodunit fans will relish “The Body in Room 348,” in which businessman Greg Fleniken was relaxing in a Texas hotel room one evening in 2010 when he was fatally “struck from nowhere” by a mysterious something. The lack of obvious wounds led the police to believe he died of natural causes, until an autopsy revealed severe internal injuries. Fleniken’s widow was fortunate to get PI Ken Brennan, who appears in other articles, to crack the case. In the book’s most memorable piece, “why don’t u tell me wht ur into,” Bowden reconstructs an online sting aimed at child predators via interviews with the FBI agent and the man eventually arrested, and raises thought-provoking questions about entrapment. New readers will want to seek out Bowden’s book-length nonfiction after devouring this. (July)