The Accidental Truth

March 9, 2015
A grieving daughter’s emotional memoir—a blended personal journey and police procedural—chronicles the years she spent investigating the case of her mother’s mysterious death in Mexico. In March 2006, Jane Kling’s body was found in Baja, apparently murdered. Over the next four years, Taylor takes the investigation into her own hands by reaching out to private investigators, profilers, and the media to keep the case active and help get it solved. Progress was made in fits and starts, with long gaps of no activity at all; working with a foreign government, personnel changes among the investigating bureau, and misplaced evidence complicated the endeavor. Taylor encountered surprising revelations about her private mother, including tattoos and a possible prescription drug addiction, and debated their relevance to her death. Noted former FBI profiler Candice DeLong joined the case as a consultant, and recruited high-profile forensic pathologist Michael Baden to advise. It is their collaboration that eventually led to the best-guess—“with a high degree of certainty”—conclusion that closed the case. Taylor’s own anxieties are deftly woven into the narrative, including her complicated relationship with and unresolved feelings about her mother, and a family health challenge. While the emotional toll on the author overshadows the suspense of the situation, her personal achievements—a new sense of confidence and empowerment—are the book’s best takeaway. Agent: Bill Gladstone, Waterside Productions.

An Orange County woman details her four-year investigation into the violent death of her mother in Mexico in this debut memoir.On March 15, 2006, Taylor received word from her sister that their mother, Jane Kling, had been missing for several days. While Taylor wasn't surprised since "Mom had checked out of her life before, without much regard for our feelings, and then returned without explanation," Kling hadn't asked anyone to look after her dogs, and she had just opened her own business. Taylor had kept aloof from her four times-married mother in recent months, but she initiated a missing person campaign, and the Mexican police contacted the family a week later. Kling's partially undressed corpse, with evidence of physical (but not sexual) assault, had been found in a remote part of Baja, and her van and valuables weren't taken. Navigating Mexican and California police bureaucracies, Taylor fought to keep the case open and solicited the help of former FBI profiler Candice DeLong and forensic pathologist Michael Baden to review the investigation and autopsy photos that she managed to acquire. Four years later, Taylor was able to help close the case on how her mother died-although certain mysteries remain. Taylor's debut memoir is a gripping account of her diligent search for answers. Kling is a highly memorable, colorful "ghost" presence throughout the account; various red herrings reveal that Taylor's mother likely had been living some kind of double, secret, or at the very least compartmentalized life. A particularly dramatic moment is Taylor's astonishment, upon viewing her mother's corpse, that Kling had a "porno-belt" of flower tattoos in her pelvic area plus recently put similar markings across her breasts. Some of Taylor's narrative strands, such as the appearance of a woman who claimed to have been Kling's best friend, are not fully wrapped up. Still, such open-endedness rather suits this story, an evocative tale of seeking, if not getting, complete closure.A fascinating journey into an enigmatic case and equally elusive parent. COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.