Register 12 Seats Remaining
True Crime Book Club
"Little, Crazy Children" by James Renner
Monday, December 21
1:00pm - 2:00pm
Westlake Porter Public Library
Craft RoomIn the summer of 1990 Lisa Pruett was viciously murdered near her boyfriend's home in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights. True Crime author James Renner sets out to discover what happened.
We will meet on the third Monday of every month, except July & December. This will be a great way to discover new and classic True Crime writing.
In December we will be reading James Renner's "Little, Crazy Children: A True Crime Tragedy of Lost Innocence."
From Amazon:
In September of 1990, in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights, sixteen-year-old Lisa Pruett, a poetry lover and member of a church youth group, was on her way to a midnight tryst with her boyfriend, when she was viciously stabbed to death only thirty feet from the boy’s home.
The murder cast a palpable gloom over the upscale community and sparked accusations, theories, and rumors among Lisa’s friends and peers. Together they wove a damning narrative that circled back to a likely suspect: “weird” high school outcast Kevin Young. Without a shred of evidence the teen was arrested, charged, and tried for the crime. His eventual acquittal didn’t squelch the anger and outrage among those who believed that Kevin got away with murder.
With a fresh perspective and painstaking research culled from police files, court records, transcripts, uncollected evidence, and new interviews, James Renner reconstructs the events leading up to and following that heartbreaking night. What emerges is a portrait of a community seething with dark undercurrents—its single-minded authorities, protective status-conscious parents, and the deeply peer-pressured teens within Lisa’s circle.
Who had the capacity for such unchecked violence? What monsters still lurk in the dark? After more than thirty years, questions like these continue to fester among the community of Shaker Heights, Ohio, still deeply scarred by wounds that remain hidden, unspoken, and unhealed.
View and print the list of books and check out the Book Discussion page for more book clubs and resources!
AGE GROUP: | Adults |
EVENT TYPE: | Books and Authors |
Westlake Porter Public Library
Westlake Porter Public Library is an independent public library serving the residents of the city of Westlake, western Cuyahoga County and eastern Lorain County. The library is located at 27333 Center Ridge Road in Westlake, Ohio. Anyone who lives, works, owns property, or goes to school in Ohio can register for a free library card.