If I Am Missing or Dead, Janine Latus
If I Am Missing or Dead, Janine Latus
15 Rating(s)
List: $17.99 | Sale: $12.59
Club: $8.99

If I Am Missing or Dead
A Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation

Author: Janine Latus

Narrator: Shelly Frasier

Unabridged: 8 hr 53 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 05/15/2007


Synopsis

In April 2002, Janine Latus's youngest sister, Amy, wrote a note and taped it to the inside of her desk drawer. "Today Ron Ball and I are romantically involved," it read, "but I fear I have placed myself at risk in a variety of ways. Based on his criminal past, writing this out just seems like the smart thing to do. If I am missing or dead this obviously has not protected me..."

That same spring, Janine Latus was struggling to leave her marriage—a marriage to a handsome and successful man. A marriage others emulated. A marriage in which she felt she could do nothing right and everything wrong. A marriage in which she felt afraid, controlled, inadequate, and trapped.

Ten weeks later, Janine Latus had left her marriage. She was on a business trip to the East Coast, savoring her freedom, attending a work conference, when she received a call from her sister Jane asking if she'd heard from Amy. Immediately, Janine's blood ran cold. Amy was missing.

Helicopters went up and search dogs went out. Coworkers and neighbors and family members plastered missing posters with Amy's picture across the county. It took more than two weeks to find Amy's body, wrapped in a tarpaulin and buried at a building site. It took nearly two years before her killer, her former boyfriend Ron Ball, was sentenced for her murder.

Amy died in silent fear and pain. Haunted by this, Janine Latus turned her journalistic eye inward. How, she wondered, did two seemingly well-adjusted, successful women end up in strings of physically or emotionally abusive relationships with men? If I Am Missing or Dead is a heart-wrenching journey of discovery as Janine Latus traces the roots of her own—and her sister's—victimization with unflinching candor. This beautifully written memoir will move readers from the first to the last page. At once a confession, a call to break the cycle of abuse, and a deeply felt love letter to her baby sister, Amy Lynne Latus, If I Am Missing or Dead is an unforgettable read.

About Janine Latus

Janine Latus has been a freelance writer and radio and TV personality for more than a decade. She has given numerous speeches across the country on both domestic violence and the art of writing well. She serves on the board of directors of the American Society of Journalists and Authors. Latus lives in Virginia with her daughter.


Reviews

Goodreads review by jv on August 17, 2021

This book had to be both excruciating and exhilarating (in a cleansing kind of way) to write. Ms. Latus brings the reader right into her family and she does not sugar-coat a thing. I found her story to be compelling and inspiring.......more

Goodreads review by Mystique on September 07, 2010

Wow, after reading some of the reviews down there, it's a wonder that Janine Latus doesn't pull every copy of her book off of the shelf and give up on women as friends, in addition to giving up on men. The book is a Sister's Story of Love, Murder, and Liberation. There are 3 things here and I think J......more

Goodreads review by Nadia on October 13, 2007

I notice some of the reviews here pointing out that this book is about the author rather than her sister. That's definitely true, but I think it's also part of the point of the book. The author was living through a series of abusive relationships while putting on a good face for her family - all the......more

Goodreads review by Pam on October 31, 2007

I was also confused as to why this book seemed to spend so little time with Amy. I've decided that the author couldn't write what she didn't know (what was going on in Amy's secretive relationship - Amy wasn't volunteering any information - maybe because she was embarrassed or ashamed - why write the......more

Goodreads review by Christina on June 04, 2014

I personally disregard all of the negative comments about this book! I find it quite apalling their could be so much dislike about this book when I myself thought it was a saddened, haunting, beautifully written with heartfelt emotions that drew me in. The fact that the sisters dealt with abusive me......more