[Review] - Hell in the Heartland (True Crime)
Hell in the Heartland
Jax Miller
Released 16th July, 2020 in the UK, by HarperCollins UK.
December 30th, 1999 – Welch, Oklahoma. In the strange in-between days separating Christmas and New Year, Ashley Freeman celebrates her sixteenth birthday. Her best friend, Lauria Bible, spends the night at Ashley’s childhood home. The next morning, neighbours are drawn to the trailer as a fire rages. Ashley’s parents are both dead, and the girls are nowhere to be found. It would take eighteen years for any arrests to be made in connection to the fire, murders and abductions. But in that time, Lauria’s mother continues searching for her daughter, along with her family and the Freemans. Jax Miller travelled to Oklahoma in 2016, burying herself in strange, forgotten towns in an attempt to uncover the truth of what really happened on the eve of the new millennium.
Hell in the Heartland is an intriguing, infuriating, harrowing account, as Miller interviews a variety of people involved in the case, and lays bare the steps and missteps taken during the investigation. It’s clear almost from the start that law enforcement messed up when dealing with the aftermath of the fire. As Miller gets deeper into things, we see the places surrounding Welch, the impact of environment, poverty and drugs on these communities.
The theories seem, at times, almost endless. Prior to the fire, the Freeman family had various run-ins with the local officers, and it’s hard not see some (though slight) parallels with things like Making a Murderer, and the West Memphis Three case, in terms of police incompetence, anyway.
There are instances where Miller uncovers something honestly surprising, drawing the reader deeper into the rabbit hole with her, as names are whispered and we see communities held hostage by terror. Miller pieces together information, taking us back and forth from the night of the fire and the immediate aftermath, to her own investigations. She explains the strange, cryptic messages she receives, the threats, the indications that people out there want her to stop digging. And she shows us the people involved, gives a solid impression of the victims, the families, the investigators, as well as possible suspects. The writing is objective and clear, with Lauria’s mother, Laura Bible, playing a key role.
This is a strong, clear account, reporting the facts alongside sometimes unsettling, sometimes stark, sometimes beautiful descriptions of the various places Miller visits along the way. If you have an interest in true crime, this is definitely worth checking out.
Grade: A
Review by Elle Turpitt
@elleturpitt