Claudia Rowe (1) (1966–)

Overall, I enjoyed the book. I very much liked the authors voice and writing style. I know that the book is not only about Kendall Francois but also about the author but I was much less interested in her and her history and her journey than I was with the killer and his crimes. Even much of the background info about him, the interviews with his old friends and teachers, were tedious and boring to me.

Not a book I'd read again but I don't regret the experience. I'd definitely read a novel by Rowe if she goes that way. I really do like her writing voice.… (més)

"He didn’t know the healthy infants in those snapshots, but they show up in other pictures through the years, growing into children, sprouting into teenagers."

Time Out
by Claudia Rowe

3.5 stars.
This book is about Williard Jimerson. It is a true story.

Williard Jimerson was convicted of murder after shooting a 14 year old girl by the name of Jamie Lynn Wilson in the back. Williard himself was only 13 at the time.

He was tried as an adult. And he was given a long sentence, over twenty years.

Much happens in those years but what Time Out focuses on is the human growth and changes Williard goes through while in jail. He becomes a voracious reader, earns a college degree, and eventually makes a new life for himself, both while behind bars and after he gets out. He also weds his childhood sweetheart, Yinka.

On one hand, I liked this book. Actually I really did overall enjoy the story. I always love to read redemption stories, be they fiction or Non fiction. Williard, in one sense, did not stand much of a chance. He was from Seattle, from a family where his dad was notorious on the streets and Williard himself was often on those very streets, seeing himself as someday being his dad's successor.

The murder happened at a time when Seattle's streets were plagued with crime and people couldn't take it anymore. There were many who thought that a 13 year old should never have been tried as an adult but his circumstances and also the circumstances of Seattle , made it impossible for that not to happen.

The book is on the short side, more a Novella and I kind of wish it had been longer. There were questions I had that were not answered. But most of all there was Jamie.

Jamie Lynn was the victim and there really was no reason for her to be killed except peer pressure. At the time of the murder, she was running through the streets away from Williard and his crowd and they gave chase. Williard and another boy shot her for no apparent reason.

As other reviewers have mentioned. I wanted to know more about the murder itself. Why were the kids mad at Jaime? Why did they follow her? What happen ed to the other boy who also participated in the murder? This stuff is never explained.

The writer does provide pictures of many of the people in this book including Jayme, who looked like a lovely and kind person. Although I had sympathy for Williard and was very glad he turned his life around..against all odds...the victim should not be forgotten either. I realize the focus of the book is Williard himself and his journey but I'd have still liked more information on the questions I raised above.

Still..the writing was excellent. It is an easy to follow story that can and did stir up emotions. It would make an excellent book club selection as there would almost certainly be differing opinions on this story.

To summarize , this was a well written and engrossing read that I would recommended to people, particularly true crime readers or people who enjoy reading about the Justice system.… (més)

This tale of a journalist and a serial killer is chilling and unnerving at times. The author is a young journalist in a smaller town outside of New York City and struggling to find her own identity when the town is surprised by the sudden confession of a serial killer who is responsible for disappearance of eight women. The case is gruesome in its details - the killer kept the women's bodies in the house he shared with his families for years - and the author, either bravely or stupidly, commences a correspondence with the killer, beginning a strange dance in which she struggles to both get the story she wants and to come to terms with her own past. Overall, I found this book to be compelling and, by the end, frighteningly insightful.… (més)