The officer's daughter :

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Title :

The officer's daughter : a memoir of family and forgiveness / Elle Johnson.

Title:

The officer's daughter :

Author:

Johnson, Elle

Format:

Books

Physical Description:

213 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

ISBN:

9780063011328

Production / Publication Information:

New York, NY : Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, [2021]

Summary:

The author describes the life-altering tragedy she experienced as a teen, when her cousin was murdered in a robbery gone wrong and explains why she needed to meet one of the killers thirty years later at his parole hearing.

Language:

English

Personal Subject:

Johnson, Elle-Family.

Subject Term:

Murder -- New York (State) -- New York -- Case studies.

Forgiveness.

Holds: Copies:

Available:*

Material Type	Library	Call Number	Item Barcode	Location
Book	Searching... Andover - Memorial Hall Library	364.1523 JOH	31330008991170	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Dunstable Free Public Library	364.1523 JOH	32118001038639	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Haverhill Public Library	364.1523/JOHNSON L	31479007437766	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Ipswich Public Library	364.1523 JOHNSON	32122002833998	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lawrence Public Library	364.1523 JOH	31549004851472	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Lowell - Pollard Memorial Library	364.1523 JOH	31481005499400	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Manchester-by-the-Sea Public Library	364.1523 JOH 2021	32124001939578	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Merrimac Public Library	364.152 JOH	32125001417655	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Methuen - Nevins Memorial Library	364.1523 JOH	31548003331809	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Salisbury Public Library	364.152 JOH	32131000906524	Searching... Unknown
Book	Searching... Westford - J.V. Fletcher Library	364.1523 JOH	31990005021626	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"The Officer's Daughter is a masterpiece. More than that, it's the perfect book for our troubled time. Johnson has written the deepest, most emotionally resonant understanding of forgiveness and justice I have ever read."--Darin Strauss, bestselling author of Half a Life

The author reflects on a terrible tragedy that forever altered the fabric of her family in this remarkable memoir, a heart-wrenching story of love, violence, coming of age, secrets, justice, and forgiveness.

When she was sixteen, Elle Johnson lived in Queens with her family; she dreamed of being best friends with her popular, cool cousin Karen from the Bronx. Coming from a family of black law enforcement officers, Elle felt that Karen would understand her in a way no one else could. Elle's father was a highly protective, at times overbearing, parole officer; her uncle, Karen's dad, was a homicide detective.

On an ordinary night, the Johnson family's lives were changed forever. Karen was shot and killed in a robbery gone wrong at the Burger King where she worked. The NYPD and FBI launched a cross-country manhunt to find the killers, and the subsequent trials and media circus marked the end of Elle's childhood innocence.

Thirty years later, Elle was living in Los Angeles and working as a television writer, including on many police procedural shows, when she received an unexpected request. One of Karen's killers was eligible for parole, and her older brother asked Elle to write a letter to the parole board arguing against his release. Elle realized that before she could condemn a man she'd never met to remain in prison, she had to face the hard truths of her own past: of a family who didn't speak of the murder and its devastating effect, of the secrets they buried, of a complicated father she never truly understood.

The Officer's Daughter is a piercing memoir that explores with unflinching honesty what parents can and cannot do to protect their children, the reverberations of violence on survivors' lives, and the overwhelming power of forgiveness, even in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

Powerful reflections on crime, murder, punishment, and redemption. Johnson, a writer and producer for HBO's Bosch, among many other crime shows, opens on a harrowing note: "When I was sixteen, my sixteen-year-old cousin, Karen, had her face blown off at point-blank range by a sawed-off shotgun in a robbery gone awry at a local Burger King in the Bronx." That terrible crime occurred nearly 40 years ago, and though it never faded from memory, it was made immediate by a letter from the victim's older brother asking that Johnson make a plea to the parole board to ask that the killer not be released from prison: The author knew a thing or two about imprisonment and the parole process: Her late father had been a parole officer, which he called "the worst job in the world," while the victim's father was a police officer at the time of the murder. The three young men who were implicated in the crime, all imprisoned--and lucky for them, Johnson suggests, lest her father and uncle have tracked them down and killed them outright--had arrived at various stages of repentance. One had pledged to make his life virtuous to atone for the act while the actual shooter presented a more problematic case. "In ten parole hearings over the course of fourteen years," writes Johnson, "he never once said the words 'I'm sorry.' He forgave himself, but he had never asked to be forgiven. I didn't forgive him. I couldn't." The outcome of this poignant and provocative story arrives after numerous compelling twists and turns and many revelations, including the fact that the scenario of her cousin's killing was very different in reality from the one she had remembered for all these years. Still, the central truth remains: A young woman who would now be in her mid-50s has long been dead, her killers live, and Johnson is left to ponder whether--and how--justice has been served. A remarkable exploration of forgiveness by a veteran storyteller. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal Review

Screenwriter Johnson recalls the murder of her teenage cousin Karen Marsh in 1981. The author grew up in Queens, NY, in a law enforcement family; her father was a parole officer and her uncle a homicide detective. Johnson was enamored with Karen, admiring her ease and ability to navigate spaces with confidence, whether in her all-white Catholic high school or a sweet sixteen party in the Bronx with mostly Black friends. Karen's senseless death in a Burger King robbery gone awry traumatizes the family. Johnson's isolation from both her parents and her classmates at her mostly white school following the death of her cousin is felt keenly. Her father, mercurial and occasionally violent, wrestles with the tension between understanding how institutional racism and intergenerational poverty impact the behavior of his parolees, and frustration when they make poor choices. Johnson understands this tension and when Karen's killer is up for parole in 2014 and her brother Warren asks her to write a letter to the parole board urging them to deny parole, she must grapple with whether or not she really believes in rehabilitation or forgiveness. VERDICT A powerful meditation on the long aftermath of violent crime that will engage a variety of readers.--Barrie Olmstead, Lewiston P.L., ID