If I Can't Have You

March 24, 2014
Veteran true-crime authors Olsen (If Loving You Is Wrong) and Morris (Ted and Ann) do a solid job depicting the heartbreaking case of Susan Powell, a young wife and mother who disappeared from her home in a suburb of Salt Lake City in December 2009, and the murder of her two sons—seven-year-old Charlie, and two-year-old Braden—less than three years later. From the outset, Powell’s husband, Josh, oddly indifferent to her disappearance and possessing a spotty alibi, is the obvious suspect. In addition, the marriage had problems for years, amply documented in emails to friends in which Powell indicated that she feared divorce or worse. Readers also learn about the suffering endured by Susan’s parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, who had the loss of their daughter compounded by Josh’s deadly response to a custody battle, before he ultimately attacked his boys with an axe and blew up the house with all three inside. There are a few lapses, such as one passage describing an event that no one witnessed, but overall this is a powerful narrative of one family’s tragedy. Agent: Susan Raihofer, David Black Literary Agency.

April 15, 2014
In December 2009, Susan Powell, an attractive Utah wife and mother of two young sons, went missing. Local law enforcement and the FBI would spend three years in the largest missing-persons investigation in the nation and not find her, living or dead. But they had their suspicions from the first, when her husband, Josh, told a dubious story of a midnight camping trip in a snowstorm with two young boys, only to return to find his wife missing. Susan's parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, and her friends in the Mormon church pressed the West Valley City police and helped uncover a trove of ugly secrets about the Powells. Josh's father, Steve, had a sexual obsession with Susan; Josh's brother, Mike, may have been involved in Susan's disappearance; the entire family was so psychologically damaged that, with the exception of one sister, it represented a real threat to Susan and her sons. That threat was realized when Josh killed the boys and himself. Crime writer Olsen and investigative reporter Morris offer a behind-the-scenes look at a compelling true-crime mystery.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)