Decades of Doubt by Eric Wilson

Despite the fact that this was written by the defense attorney (unless the author is a different person with the same name), I walked away thinking that Mike/Michael Ferreira (one of the two defendants) was one of the killers of John McCabe. Of course, the case is complicated, and there is no doubt that the defense attorney did his best, but I just had this feeling of guilt throughout the whole book.

Decades of Doubt covers the murder of John McCabe. The fifteen-year-old (FIFTEEN!) was found dead one night and despite the police chasing down every available lead, the case went cold. Forty years later, though, one of the killers finally confessed, bringing some closure to the family (until one of them walked).

I might have been more sympathetic to Michael Ferreira during the trail segment, but halfway through, the defense attorney suddenly got half a chapter (every chapter), where he gave his side of things. I thought that it was unnecessarily disruptive to the flow of the narrative and ended up skipping those sections, which could explain why I think guilty (although this is in terms of "he did it" and not whether he's legally guilty and how much and all that).

Apart from that, there were a few things that struck me as slightly odd. For example, the first half is very much written like a novel, with the thoughts of the detectives and all that. I can't remember if most true-crime books do that, but somehow, it was rather jarring to me.

Overall: the John McCabe murder is a tragic one, and there's no doubt that the trial was complicated and worth writing about. However, the bias was too strong and I ended up leaning in the opposite direction.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a free and honest review.