Reviews with content warning for Drug use - Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation

I liked the premise of the book and the way the author, Erika Krouse, interwove her history of child sexual abuse with the contemporary sexual assaults by the Univ of Colorado football team, told through the lens of researching a legal case. It’s part memoir, part expose of a university coverup at the highest levels. By including her own story within the legal case, Krouse turns a fascinating story of rape and deception into one of personal struggle and redemption.

There’s no truly happy ending - there were no criminal charges ever filed, the university faculty and staff got off scot-free, and not everyone who was assaulted received part of the settlement. But within the convoluted justice system in the US, a form of justice was achieved.

My only quibble was that all the names were changed even though the case, settled in 2007, is a matter of public record. However, I read an interview with Krouse in JNews where she explains more fully how she was doing all she could to protect the women by not tying them to assailants who might further retaliate. It was the best she could do under the circumstances.

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pollyhall's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

3.0

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toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

Described as part literary true crime and part memoir, this book is about Erika Krouse's early career as a private investigator who played a large role in cracking open a landmark sexual assault case. This details not only her interviews with survivors and details about the case itself, but personal stories about her life leading up to the investigation, during, and after. At first, I was worried that I was going to be bored with the memoir side of things. I thought that the true crime stuff was all I was going to care about, but what ended up happening instead was that I cared about both elements. Krouse's own story of survival intertwines with the story of this case in a way that never feels forced or shoe-horned in. The stories of her fraught relationship with her mother were heartbreaking, and her journey with mental illness was relatable. Another nice touch to this book was that there was information sprinkled throughout about all sorts of things that I didn't know much about. I learned about the first ever female private eye in the US, the inception of the Pinkertons, and much, much more. The only reason I docked this down half a star is because I feel....very weird giving a book based around sexual assault 5 stars, but that's a me problem. If you like true crime, memoirs, and non fiction, you should give this one a try: but please heed the trigger warnings online first.

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leahbindi's review against another edition

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mysterious medium-paced

4.5

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ravenpuff's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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marywahlmeierbracciano's review against another edition

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challenging tense medium-paced

5.0

Erika has a face that makes strangers tell her their deepest secrets. After a chance encounter with a lawyer in a bookstore, she finds herself starting a job as a private investigator, despite her lack of formal experience. The case that dominates the book concerns the pervasive rape culture and constant coverups of the University of Colorado football team. Herself a survivor of sexual violence, Erika becomes obsessed with the case, her investigation branching off into her own life, into her relationships with the family members who deny, or simply don’t care, that she was sexually abused as a child. Amidst descriptions of the Colorado landscape—breathtaking yet harsh—Erika learns the tricks of the P.I. trade, offering snippets of the profession’s evolution between recollections of her own research and interviews. She scrambles to gather enough evidence to make someone do something about the sexual violence faced by her plaintiffs, but it’s not just for them, it’s for her, too.

Tell Me Everything is stunning and fascinating—part memoir, part true crime, but entirely an investigation. Gabra Zackman’s narration complements the book beautifully.

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