{"product_id":"killer-in-the-house-ten-days-of-terror-in-a-pennsylvania-sub-1669","title":"Killer in the House: Ten Days of Terror in a Pennsylvania Suburb","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Kathryn Canavan's Killer in the House is true crime writing at \nits best. Extensively researched and told with compelling insights and \ngraceful writing, the book tells the story of the gruesome Abt family \nmurders with humanizing details that give this decades-old crime new \nrelevance in our increasingly violent America.\" \u003c\/b\u003e-- Anne Hillerman, New \nYork Times bestselling author of the Leaphorn, Chee and Manuelito \nmysteries\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eA meticulously researched page-turner about one of the Philadelphia \nsuburbs' most shocking 20th-century crimes. A gunman broke into Jack and\n Peggy Abt's house moments after the last family member left for the \nday. He took a seat next to the upright piano in the living room and \nwaited silently for 11 hours. He didn't eat. He didn't sleep. He didn't \nwatch television.\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003ePeople expect things to go bump in the night, but, in 1976, most \nadults never fretted a stranger would invade the sanctity of their home \nin the middle of the day. Six people walked through the kitchen door one\n by one that afternoon, all expecting nothing more than a Friday night \nfish fry. The killer leaped out from behind the living room wall over \nand over and over and over and over and over again. He fired at them at a\n distance of less than 18 inches, the width of a dining room chair. \nAfter each murder, he dragged the body to the basement. Then, to \nmaintain the element of surprise, he sped back upstairs to tidy up for \nhis next unsuspecting victim.\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eThis first-person story from a news reporter who was on the scene 90\n minutes after the killer slipped away is built from autopsy reports, \nprison records, IQ tests, trial transcripts, the killer's own eidetic \nconfession, interviews with witnesses in 1976 and in the 2020s, and the \nauthor's experiences covering the case from the first night to the \nstunning courtroom moment when the announcement of six death penalties \nwas met with loud cheers.\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003eWith that research, it was possible to reconstruct the six murders, \nminute by minute. Tension builds as the six innocent victims turn the \nkitchen doorknob at 3:30, 4:15, 4:40, 5:15, 6:10 and at 6:30. Readers \nknow their fates, but they didn't.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTo get a story, journalist \u003cb\u003eKathryn Canavan\u003c\/b\u003e has reported at \ngunpoint, lived with the Moonies, negotiated with a killer and joined \nTug McGraw in the dugout. She has worked as a reporter or editor on \ndaily newspapers in four states. She is the author of two other true \ncrime books--Lincoln's Final Hours and True Crime Philadelphia. She has \nbeen featured on PBS, CSPAN-3 and the Discovery Channel. Her writing has\n been published in USA Today, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Daily Beast\n and the History News Network.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Kathryn Canavan","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52790449045789,"sku":"9781955041669","price":22.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0821\/9095\/8877\/files\/9781955041669.jpg?v=1787250278","url":"https:\/\/www.anovelideaphilly.com\/products\/killer-in-the-house-ten-days-of-terror-in-a-pennsylvania-sub-1669","provider":"A Novel Idea on Passyunk","version":"1.0","type":"link"}