In Plain Sight

April 18, 2005
Despite the sensational subtitle, readers who have followed the kidnapping and eventual safe return of Utah teenager Elizabeth Smart won't glean any "startling" truths from this account, coauthored by one of the drama's prime players. But most will find the detailed account of police missteps disturbing and saddening. Smart's traumatic imprisonment riveted much of the country for nine months, from her abduction from her bedroom until the discovery that she was the veiled young woman accompanying a bizarre street preacher named Brian David Mitchell. Tom Smart, an uncle who came unfairly under suspicion and who devoted countless hours to exploring every lead, and journalist Benson craft a coherent narrative interweaving the official investigation with a reconstruction of Mitchell's movements; the numerous missed opportunities to locate Elizabeth and her captors make for agonizing reading. Tom Smart settles some scores: Fox News' Bill O'Reilly and Marc Klaas, the father of a murdered child, come across as journalistically unscrupulous. But Smart is also forthright about his own mistakes. While this is an interesting alternate perspective to that provided by Elizabeth's parents in 2003's Bringing Elizabeth Home,
the compelling story still awaits a definitive telling. 8 pages of color photos. Agent, Dystel/Goderich Literary Agency.

May 1, 2005
Smart, the uncle of Salt Lake City kidnap victim Elizabeth Smart, teams with journalist Benson to give a firsthand account of the events surrounding the much-publicized abduction of 14-year-old Elizabeth on June 5, 2002. Other books have been written on the subject, including "Bringing Elizabeth Home" by Ed and Lois Smart, Elizabeth's parents, but this work includes several previously undisclosed details of the police and FBI investigations, in which Tom Smart was heavily involved, as well as accounts of the family's encounters with the media, both good and bad. Smart also incorporates his and extended family members' personal accounts of the events. This is a riveting, emotional narrative of a case that captured the nation's attention. Recommended for public libraries. -Sarah Jent, Univ. of Louisville Lib., KY

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.