The Girl in the Leaves (Berkley True Crime)

This is an unusual true crime book. For the reader, the suspense is generated by whether an intended victim will be able to escape, not learning the killer’s identity. The author gives away who the bad guy is on the first page. I was compelled to keep reading to discover a girl’s fate rather than whether the police would catch the killer.Neighbors knew there was something wrong with Matt Hoffman’s behavior. Matt lived with his girlfriend and her young son. He seemed nice at first, but then he changed. Matt’s dogs disappeared. He and his girlfriend had a violent argument, and she moved out. The neighbors didn’t know half of what Matt could do.Miles away, Tina Hermann was busy being the single mom of two kids, Sarah, 13, and Kody, 11. One day as the kids came home from school, they were surprised that their mother didn’t greet them at the door. Then they saw the blood. As they moved further inside, they were rushed by a man. Sarah got away and ran to her bedroom. The man grabbed Kody. Before Sarah could escape, the man was in her room and subdued her with ripped-out electrical cords. Sarah was gagged and bound. She didn't know what had happened to her mother and brother.Tina didn’t show up to work, and her boss notified the police to make a wellness check. When the police entered the empty house, the tell-tale signs of blood everywhere alerted the officers to a terrible scene. They didn’t know that Tina’s best friend, Stephanie Sprang, was also missing. She had stopped by Tina’s house. When her boyfriend reported her as missing also, officers learned that now they had two women and two children who had disappeared.Meanwhile, Sarah had been taken to a house, left bound, and gagged in a dank, lightless basement. When the man came to visit her, she realized that everywhere she looked were leaves, bags, and bags of them. She was lying on a bed of leaves. To her horror, her situation was only going to get much worse.The book documents a gripping, suspenseful case where a young girl’s life was in the balance, and the opportunities for her escape were few. It’s an easy book to read, but the subject is the stuff of nightmares. True crime fans should find the book riveting.

I love true crime books, but I just don't care for Mr. Scott's style of writing. His style is almost "childlike" - hard to explain. Bad sentence structure, talking about characters in past tense as if they had died too. I'm kind of a grammar snob, and I found myself too often thinking of a better way he could have written the previous sentence. But that's just me. I live in northeast Ohio and had never heard about this horrific case. What made me extremely sad is that I looked up this family on Google and found that some time in 2013 Larry and his wife were in court for abusing Sarah. I'm glad I had already finished the book because I think that might have ruined the story for me. Hadn't this poor girl been through enough, without her biological father and his wife abusing her? Especially after all his pontificating in the book about how incredibly brave, special, and resilient she is? Outrageous. I am almost moved to write him a letter.

This was a great book , it arrived on time and came in good shape.

Such a horrific story to be written so poorly. Robert Scott clearly did not have his book edited before he finished it. I feel sorry for the family and their story. Bad spelling, elementary style writing and story telling. This story deserves someone who will do it justice.

Robert writes a good story of a horrific ordeal. He writes very concisely and to the point. I especially liked the end of the book when he spells out how the families of the victims were putting their lives back together after the trial and conviction. I will read his other books for sure.

True story that is very interesting. Kept me guessing

This was a twisted man

Love this author

This grabbed me from the start. I cannot imagine enduring the things this poor girl did or that there are people who are as evil as the person in this true crime story.

The story itself is interesting, but the way it's written is hard to follow. I actually stopped reading it halfway through because of it.

I bought this book by mistake clicking on the wrong image, I thought it was a work of fiction thinking I would just give it away as a present. When I received it I realised it was non- fiction and looked like a good read so I decided to keep it.

I bought this book for my wife. She heard about it on the Dr Phil TV show. It is an excellent read.

Amazing Read