Shadow of the Bridge: The Delphi Murders and the Dark Side of the American Heartland

Spouses Cain—a journalist—and Greenlee—an attorney—debut with a chilling account of the murders of two middle school girls in the Midwest. On Valentine’s Day 2017, the naked, bloodied bodies of 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German were found in the woods outside Delphi, Ind., near the Monon High Bridge. At first, the only clue was a grainy iPhone video that appeared to capture an unidentified man approaching the girls. It took authorities five and a half years to arrest and charge Richard Allen, a middle-aged CVS manager who had severe mental health issues, with the crime. Cain and Greenlee meticulously detail the clerical errors that led authorities to overlook Allen for years, the social media fascination with the case, and Allen’s fraught 2024 trial, which drew skepticism from true crime hobbyists who doubted his guilt. By the time the narrative arrives at Allen’s conviction, Cain and Greenlee have painted a robust, emotionally exhausting portrait of a tight-knit community ravaged by tragedy and the internet’s intersection with modern murder investigations. This will get under readers’ skin. Agent: Gideon Pine, InkWell Management. (Aug.)