Reviews

In Edward Humes' THE FOREVER WITNESS, we learn about the case of the murdered young Canadian couple Jay and Tanya, who came to Seattle on an errand for Jay's father. After reading this book, I felt very conversant about the circumstances around their disappearance and murders.

I loved the Pacific Northwest setting with routes and places I'm familiar with. Toward the end of this book the author brought up the case of Sarah Yarborough, which was an infamous slaying in my small city.

Edward Humes is quite a writer. His style is clear, and he discussed complex topics like genetic genealogy with a deft hand. I came away with a good foundational understanding of the technology, how it's used, and the ethical issues involved. After reading this, I feel like I have enough knowledge to deep dive into the topic if I want to and perhaps even understand a book one of the genetic genealogists would write.

I do have one small objection to this book. Jim Scharf, the cold case detective, is given too much of a stage in the book, touting his own horn (or that would be Humes touting Scharf's horn). Back when I read a lot of Ann Rule books, she would turn the investigators into deities, and this portrayal was almost like that. Obviously, Humes had to interview him for this book, and Humes did say he would go on a lot of tangents to give the reader a view into what being around Scharf was like. But he put a lot in the book about Scharf that might not have been necessary. I did like the playing cards of unsolved murder victims that Scharf took from the terrorist playing cards of the early aughts.

As I think more, what I learned from this book about the specific case and genetic genealogy outweighs my minor quibble of there being too much Scharf in the book. So I won't take away any stars, but I will note it.