MURDER AT TEAL'S POND, by David Bushman and Mark T. Givens

    

True Crime -- 2 1/2 stars

In 1908 Hazel Drew's body was found floating in Teal's Pond.  Her murder was never solved.  Over 100 years later, Mr. Bushman and Mr. Givens think they know the answer. ----- The subtitle to this book is Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks.  Having never watched Twin Peaks, I can't say if this claim is valid or not.  I will say that the two authors did a LOT of research for their book--maybe too much.  (Did I really need to know the population and distance from Albany for every township, tiny village, and speck on the map?)  Once I waded through that useless detritus, the story moved forward at a much better pace, though again, the authors let themselves get mired in more detail than was really necessary.  In the end, this is more a story of early 20th century hearsay reporting than one of crime solving.  Multiple uncoordinated investigations and political interference lead inevitably to a dead end.  The hypothesis put forward by Mr. Bushman and Mr. Givens is not a convincing ending to an unsolved mystery novel already overburdened by too many questionable "facts."