Reviewed by Viga Boland for Readers' Favorite

I’ve always been a huge fan of true crime, whether I indulge in it through books, TV, or film. But too often I’ve found the books a rather dry reporting of sequential facts, interesting to read on an intellectual level, but not engaging emotionally. Such is not the case with Hometown Betrayal by Emily Benedek. Here is a writer who knows that people, what they say and do, how they act and react to what life throws at them, are what readers will relate to because that character could have been us. Hence, as I, also a victim of childhood sexual abuse, read about Valarie Clark Miller’s undeserved and prolonged sexual abuse at the hands of a relative and an older member of law enforcement in her hometown, I cringed mentally and physically, even more so when the cop eventually threw her into a reservoir to drown. She didn’t drown but until her sad death at 61, how she suffered! Her fear kept her from speaking up, especially in her tightly meshed Mormon community. When, as an adult plagued by resurfacing, repressed memories, she found the courage to share some details with her husband, and, with his support, attempted to find justice for what she’d endured… and failed…her life and that of her husband and children fell apart. As Valarie slid into addiction, I wept for her, and the millions of other abuse victims who spend their lives burdened by the “dirty secrets” they are afraid to share, and when they do, are rarely believed. 

Where such victims don’t write their memoirs, it’s wonderful to find someone like Emily Benedek who captures the fragile emotional and mental state of Valarie Clark Miller with such sensitivity. While readers learn the ugly facts of Valarie’s story, it’s how it affected her, her two husbands, and her children that we relate to and remember most. I was most intrigued to learn in Part Two that a book titled Mindhunter (which became a TV series I enjoyed) gave Valarie’s son, Ryan, the idea of launching an investigation into what had happened to his mother as a child. Had she been telling the truth? Were those she claimed had abused her responsible? And were the abusers ever brought to justice? Find out the answers and so much more by reading the excellently written true crime piece, Hometown Betrayal.