Acclaimed author Sarah Gerard turns her keen observational eye and penetrating prose to the 2016 murder of her friend Carolyn Bush, examining the multi-faceted reasons for her death?personal and societal, avoidable and inevitable?as ânuanced and subtly intimateâ (NPR) as her lauded essay collection, Sunshine State.
On the night of September 28, 2016, twenty-five-year-old Carolyn Bush was brutally stabbed to death in her New York City apartment by her roommate Render Stetson-Shanahan, leaving friends and family of both reeling. In life, Carolyn was a gregarious, smart-mouthed aspiring poet, who had seemingly gotten along well with Render, a reserved art handler. Where had it gone so terribly wrong?
This is the question that has plagued acclaimed author Sarah Gerard and driven her obsessive pursuit to understand this horrific tragedy. In Sarahâs exploration of Carolynâs life and death, she spent thousands of hours interviewing Carolyn's and Renderâs friends and family, poring over court documents and news media, reading obscure writings and internet posts, and attending Carolynâs memorials and Renderâs trial.
What emerged from Sarahâs relentless instinct to follow a story and its characters to their darkest ends is a book that is at once a striking homage to Carolynâs life, a chilling excavation of a brutal crime, and a captivating whydunit with a shocking conclusion.