On Thursday, April 5th, the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library will host investigative journalist and author Karen Spears Zacharias for a reading from her recent memoir, A Silence of Mockingbirds: The Memoir of a Murder.
A Silence of Mockingbirds is the true crime tale of the murder of Karly Sheehan of Corvallis, Oregon. It is also the troubling tale of a father’s love for the daughter he was unable to protect. Zacharias never anticipated that she would become one of the characters involved in a high-profile murder. But when she reconnects with a young woman named Sarah, who lived in the Zacharias home at one time and was treated like family, Karen discovers that something unspeakable has happened to Sarah’s daughter, Karly. Compelled to consider her own culpability in this tragic case, Karen pieces together what happened to Karly through court documents, investigators’ interviews, and interviews with friends, family, law enforcement officials, and key witnesses.
On her blog, Zacharias writes “It was not the nightmare that Karly Sheehan endured that propelled me to write this story. Rather it was knowing how deeply David Sheehan loved his daughter, and how desperate he was to protect her.”
The author has been featured on Huffington Post, Good Morning America, & CNN. Her commentary has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, and on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and “Morning Edition.” Karen blogs at Patheos.com and teaches journalism at Central Washington University. Karen wrote this book while serving as writer-in-residence at the Fairhope Center for the Writing Arts, Fairhope, AL. She divides her time between the Deschutes River in Oregon and Mobile Bay in Alabama.
The event will take place from 7:00 to 8:30 p.m. in the Main Meeting Room at the library located on 645 NW Monroe Ave., Corvallis.
Books are available for purchase from Grass Roots Books & Music, 227 SW 2nd., Corvallis or online at www.grassrootsbookstore.com.
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