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  • The Darkest Night

  • Two Sisters, a Brutal Murder, and the Loss of Innocence in a Small Town
  • By: Ron Franscell
  • Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
  • Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
  • 4.2 out of 5 stars (41 ratings)
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The Darkest Night cover art

The Darkest Night

By: Ron Franscell
Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
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Summary

Casper, Wyoming: 1973. Eleven-year-old Amy Burridge rides with her 18-year-old sister, Becky, to the grocery store. When they finish their shopping, Becky's car gets a flat tire. Two men politely offer them a ride home. Yet they were anything but good Samaritans. The girls would suffer unspeakable crimes at the hands of these men before being thrown from a bridge into the North Platte River. One miraculously survived; the other did not.

Years later author and journalist Ron Franscell - a childhood friend and next-door neighbor to the girls - can't forget his hometown's shocking story of abduction, rape, and murder. Exploring the nature of a small town's memory and the poison of survivor guilt, The Darkest Night races toward a shocking ending. The result is one of the most provocative true-crime stories of the decade, told by one of the nation's finest narrative journalists.

©2007 Ron Franscell (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"This uncommon story has every chilling component of human terror, drama and suspense that readers of true crime look for." (Vincent Bugliosi, author of Helter Skelter)

What listeners say about The Darkest Night

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Fantastic tale

Where does The Darkest Night rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

One of the best

Who was your favorite character and why?

The sister who survived because she was so selfless and thought only of her younger sister

Which character – as performed by Rob Shapiro – was your favourite?

The same

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Worse evil off all is MAN

Sad story like all these stories that happen man is truly the most evil thing in the world hard to believe in god and heaven when i here storys like this ( who was a guy whos wife threw the ashtray at i got lost with that part ) second part is boring do the court case

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Too Hard To Follow

I would say that maybe this could be an interesting story but the way this is told drags on about anything and every thing that has nothing to do with the story. Normally I would always finish a book but after listening to six chapters I had to give in!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Well worth a listen

This is well written book about the most tragic circumstances, the performance was emotive and really drew me in.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Just heartbreaking

As a forensic psychologist, I'm rarely surprised by the accounts of crimes I encounter or read about, but I had this on my mind for weeks. The language was compelling and the story told sensitively. A truly heartbreaking tale of so many lives ruined by acts of such callousness that I would genuinely struggle to work with the perpetrators. The language was beautiful in parts and the narration was excellent.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Tragic and harrowing

This author has that rare knack of being able to immerse you into the story.
Beautifully written, poignant , empathetic, soul wrenchingly tragic and sad .
The killers STORY at the end was a welcome relief ,never heard such nonsense.
Want to read more by this author

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

not a case I knew.. glad I listened

Well researched, for me structure was fine.
I didn't know the case. So shocking.
Narrator does a superb job. He makes it heart wrenching and anger provoking.
Well worth a listen

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Profoundly shocking

As an avid reader of true crime and with a deep interest in the psychology of evil this brilliant telling of an event that I had never before heard of, shook me to the core. Sensitively and beautifully written, Ron Franscell gives us an account of a stand-alone crime and it’s aftermath and the lingering personal guilt and horror still felt amongst an entire community. Having read hundreds of true crime biographies of murder, serial killing and psychopathy, this one affected me more than any other. I thought I’d read and heard it all but no - It’s impossible for me to ever comprehend the extreme acts of depravity and cruelty some human beings are able perform and feel nothing at all.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Not too sure

The story us very captivating and that’s why I held on but not without a challenge.
Quite hard to follow because slow reading of the rapid switches of points of view. One min it’s Becky the next is the killer, and bace to Becky again. There is no vocal indication of that either. One long monotone read.
However switching speed to 1.10-1.15 has massively improved the it and started enjoying it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Gruesome real life story.

Harrowing true crime story well written by Ron Franscell and masterly narrated by Rob Shapiro.

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