On February 25th, 1975, nine-year-old Marcia Trimble walked across the street of her Nashville, TN, neighborhood to deliver Girl Scout cookies.  Her body was found the next month, on Easter Sunday, in a neighbor’s garage.

It was evening when Marcia disappeared, other neighborhood kids, including Marcia’s brother, were playing basketball in the driveway; strolling along the streets; parents were arriving home from work.  When she wasn’t home by dark, her parents, Virginia and Charles, called the police and began to search the neighborhood.  What ensued was one of the largest searches in Nashville history.  One of the most frightening aspects of the Trimble case is that her killer wasn’t brought to justice until thirty years later.

Growing up, I had heard about the Marcia Trimble murder, and I had seen reports on the news on the anniversary of her abduction and death.  I didn’t really know too much about it though until recent years when her murderer was finally discovered and apprehended.  A Season of Darkness, by Douglas Jones and Phyllis Gobbell, isn’t a glittery true crime novel by a long shot.  It’s sparse and detailed with just the facts, and it’s breathtaking in it’s drive to the heart of the matter:  a little girl was murdered, and the police were as baffled as the rest of Tennessee, and ultimately misguided over the course of the investigation.

For thirty years the detectives in the Trimble case pursued every lead that came across the desk, and thanks to the “good ol’ boy” way of doing things for so many years, the wrong people were hounded and the truth remained unknown.  Even knowing the eventual outcome, it’s frustrating reading as the investigators go down the wrong path chasing dead ends.  To their credit, though, they wanted the killer captured as much as anyone–it was a case that haunted them.

A Season of Darkness is compelling reading, it truly is.  Jones and Gobbell have captured a picture of a Nashville that, in reality, is not so distant in the past, yet feels lightyears from the modern day.  It doesn’t answer all the questions surrounding the murder satisfactorily, but maybe all the answers haven’t come to light, still, three decades on.

Place this one at the top of your reading list.

4.5 out of 5
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