Starred review from October 28, 2024
Journalist O’Neil debuts with a harrowing account of her mother’s involvement in the 1978 arrest of serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Drawing from interviews with her mother, Kim Byers, and access to her diaries, O’Neil details how Byers’s friend and coworker, Rob Piest, became the 33rd and final victim of the so-called Killer Clown. Byers’s report to the police—that Piest, whom she managed at a drug store in Des Plaines, Ill., told her he was meeting Gacy about a summer job before he vanished—directly led to Gacy’s arrest. Soon, a 17-year-old Byers was thrust into the spotlight, fielding questions from reporters and acting as the prosecution’s primary witness against Gacy. As O’Neil recounts her mother’s memories of the ordeal, she weaves in her own reflections about growing up in the shadow of Piest’s murder (“I could not reckon with what it would mean to lose a baby boy I already loved so much,” she writes, linking her anxiety about having a son to the “inherited” loss of Piest). By the time O’Neil and Byers return from visiting the scene of the crime, readers will have gained profound new insights into an oft-told American horror story. This is unforgettable. Agent: Ashley Lopez, Waxman Literary.