Similar Transactions

The author sets out to explore the unsolved murder of a teenage girl from her old neighborhood, picks up the cold trail of a serial rapist and his other victims and finds herself caught up in a real-life drama. Similar Transactions is the fascinating, award-winning true story of the author's seven-year quest to solve a 20-year-old murder. Sasha 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 (Bill) 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, she unearths a string of brutal kidnappings and rapes across the South, crimes that span decades. All evidence points to one man: convicted sex offender Larry Lee Smith. She meets with victims and former investigators who worked on the case. A picture begins to form. Patterns appear. 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." As his sentence runs out, Reynolds finds herself in a real-life drama. What transpires in this story is amazing on many levels. Reynolds writes a gripping and fascinating story, including how victims, former police and FBI investigators, and a savvy prosecutor come together on a mission to get justice for Michelle. Similar Transactions is the recipient of the IAN Outstanding True Crime Book of the Year Award, the 2017 eLit Gold Award for True Crime, and is among the top five books named The Best of Everything Nonfiction 2016 by author, critic, and screenwriter Emilio Corsetti III.