Similar Transactions: A True Story
S. R. Reynolds
Paperback
(Simpson Point Press, Dec. 5, 2015)
S. R. Reynolds has never forgotten the mishandled case of fifteen-year-old Michelle Anderson, a vibrant beauty who went missing from Reynolds' Knoxville, Tennessee, neighborhood years earlier. Aided by her old professor, famed forensic anthropologist Dr. William Bass--founder of the University of Tennessee's "Body Farm"--Reynolds picks up the trail of this long-cold case. As she presses neglected pieces of the puzzle into place, Reynolds unearths a string of heinous kidnappings and rapes across the South, crimes that span decades. She meets with victims and former investigators who worked on the case. A picture begins to form. Patterns appear. And all evidence points to one man: convicted sex offender Larry Lee Smith. As a result of Reynolds' efforts, the Knoxville Police Department reopens the cold case of Michelle's disappearance, but Larry Lee is about to be released from a Georgia prison, where he served time for a related crime--a "similar transaction." What transpires in this story is amazing on many levels. The book was recently among the top five non-fiction books named by Everything Nonfiction's Emilio Corsetti.azing on many levels.