What Ever Happened to Eddy Crane?

 

What Ever Happened to Eddy Crane? by Kate Crane
4/7/26; 304 pages
Hanover Square Press 

What Ever Happened to Eddy Crane? by Kate Crane is a recommended half memoir/half true crime investigation. 

When Kate Crane was twelve her father Eddy called to say he was on his way home. He never came home and his family had no resolution. Although it was clear something happened to him, Baltimore cops had it filed as a missing-person cold case rather than a homicide cold cases. The case remained cold until twenty years later when Kate Crane, now a journalist in New York City, began to dig for answers, including contracting retired detectives and Baltimore’s Cold Case Unit.

The first half of the book is a very personal memoir which open and honestly covers Kate's mental state in detail as she deals with the grief of losing her father, teenage angst, and the toxic mix of the two in her life. Honestly, while I sympathize with her need to share the turmoil and pain along with the feeling of isolation and post-traumatic dysfunctionality she experienced, I wasn't expecting such a detailed, deep-dive memoir covering her formative years leading into into adulthood and beyond. On the other hand, she is very open and honest about everything. 

Once she begins to look into her father's disappearance as a journalist, and all the individuals and facts tangentially involved in various ways to his case, the narrative becomes more interesting. Justice may never be found, but actually investigating it on her own and asking the questions she needed answered, helped her find some closure for her own life, if not for her father's case. 

Although Crane purposefully chose to start her story as a personal memoir and then switch to the viewpoint of a journalist/crime investigator, this choice didn't work well for me. While the book was described as a blend between a memoir and true crime, the focus on the memoir for almost half of the book was too much. Perhaps it would have helped to start the narrative when, as an adult, she began to her look into her father's disappearance while also including some personal struggles she experienced while growing up. 

What Ever Happened to Eddy Crane? will be best appreciated by those who enjoy memoirs. Thanks to Hanover Square Press for providing me with an advance reader's copy via Edelweiss. My review is voluntary and expresses my honest opinion.