With a journalist's flair for language and a historian's eye for detail, Silvia Pettem takes her readers through all of the twists and turns of a real-life murder mystery spanning fifty years, leading from an exhumed grave in Colorado to San Quentin's gas chamber.
Someone's Daughter—replete with frustrating dead ends and tantalizing breakthroughs—is a compelling and accurate glimpse into the world of cold-case investigations.
— James C. Oleson, J.D., Ph.D., criminologist and crime policy chief
Cold case investigations, by definition, require digging into the past, but not all are as thoroughly researched as
Someone's Daughter. This Jane Doe case documents a unique partnership between law-enforcement, the forensic community, and a historian who worked together—and got the job done.
— Frederick A. Bornhofen, Chairman of the Board and Case Manager for the Vidocq Society
Silvia Pettem is a real-life Agatha Christie.
— Frank Bender, forensic artist and co-founder of the Vidocq Society
Silvia Pettem has written a book the reader will remember long after the last page has been turned. The power of her writing left me shaken and in grief for Jane Doe. I am already looking forward to her next book.
— Roy Hazelwood, retired FBI profiler and author of The Evil That Men Do and Dark Dreams
Someone's Daughter is a lot of fun. Pettem puts you right in her detective's gumshoes on almost every page, and you can't help but absorb some of her emotional connection to the case. ...[T]his well-written, exhaustively detailed investigation has helped bring a notorious Boulder cold case out of deep freeze.
— Daily Camera
Highly recommended reading!
— Defrosting Cold Cases