Little, Crazy Children, James Renner
Little, Crazy Children, James Renner
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Little, Crazy Children

Author: James Renner

Narrator: James Renner

Unabridged: 9 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 06/27/2023


Synopsis

In September of 1990, in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, sixteen-year-old Lisa Pruett was on her way to a midnight tryst with her boyfriend, when she was viciously stabbed to death only thirty feet from the boy's home.

The murder cast a palpable gloom over the upscale community and sparked accusations, theories, and rumors among Lisa's friends and peers. Together they wove a damning narrative that circled back to a likely suspect: "weird" high school outcast Kevin Young. Without a shred of evidence the teen was arrested, charged, and tried for the crime. His eventual acquittal didn't squelch the anger and outrage among those who believed that Kevin got away with murder.

With a fresh perspective and painstaking research, James Renner reconstructs the events leading up to and following that heartbreaking night. What emerges is a portrait of a community seething with dark undercurrents.

Who had the capacity for such unchecked violence? What monsters still lurk in the dark? After more than thirty years, questions like these continue to fester among the community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, still deeply scarred by wounds that remain hidden, unspoken, and unhealed.

About James Renner

Journalist James Renner is the author of several books, including The Serial Killer's Apprentice, True Crime Addict, The Man from Primrose Lane, and The Great Forgetting. His true crime stories have been published in the Best American Crime Writing and Best Creative Nonfiction anthologies.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Scott on June 07, 2024

This book was a giveaway by the author and publisher. It will be available in bookstores in May 2023. A new James Renner book is cause for celebration in my world, and, yes, I know my world is very weird. Author of the excellent “True Crime Addict”, a memoir about his fixation on solving (or trying t......more

Goodreads review by Valerity (Val) on February 23, 2023

I stayed up all night reading this one. It held my interest to the end, well-written and laid out. The true crime story of the 1990 murder of a sixteen year old girl and too many suspects. An interesting case I hadn't heard of before and lots of drama. A neighborhood that had a lot more going on tha......more

Goodreads review by Brandon on May 21, 2023

When James Renner reached out to me asking if I'd like an advanced copy of his new book, I jumped at the chance as in 2016, I had the pleasure of reading another of James' books TRUE CRIME ADDICT, which I thoroughly enjoyed.  In this new book, LITTLE, CRAZY CHILDREN, James looks at the brutal 1990 k......more

Goodreads review by Jessica on May 21, 2023

The first half of this book was so well-researched and written. James Renner pulled so much content from case notes, court documents, and personal interviews with those that knew Lisa Pruett in the unsolved 1990 murder case. Her acquaintance and classmate, Kevin Young, was many things, a racist, ent......more

Goodreads review by Courtney on May 16, 2023

Another fantastic true crime book written by James Renner! Thank you to the author, NetGalley, and Kensington Books for an ARC. Pub date: 6/27, the perfect true crime poolside read. Briefly: During the early 90s in Cleveland, OH, teenager Lisa Pruitt was brutally murdered. Everyone has a different t......more