A True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood
After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.
For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.
Review by Twinsie Angie
I purchased this audiobook.
This book …WOOOF…that is really all I can say. It is A LOT. I mean a lot a lot. There were days when I just couldn’t listen anymore because the story was just so much. Then I would shut it off and almost feel guilty. I could walk away from this horror but Nikki, Sami, and Tori couldn’t. What they girls lived through is unimaginable.
As a reader of true crime, when I saw this book I was very interested. I did a few google searches to see what I was going to be listening to. They did not prepare me for what horrors these kids and the adults around Shelly endured.
I just have to say listening to “The Wallowing” or when Karen was sliding down the icy hill and the after math the kids described I was completely undone. How these girls survive and endured is amazing.
I just want people to know they really need to be ready for this story. I just wish there was more about the investigation but maybe due to who told there want much. The fact that Shelly is out of jail right now is scary as heck!!
Throughout his career, Gregg Olsen has demonstrated an ability to create a detailed narrative that offers readers fascinating insights into the lives of people caught in extraordinary circumstances.
A #1 New York Times bestselling author, Olsen has written ten nonfiction books, ten novels, and contributed a short story to a collection edited by Lee Child.
The award-winning author has been a guest on dozens of national and local television shows, including educational programs for the History Channel, Learning Channel, and Discovery Channel. He has also appeared on Good Morning America, The Early Show, The Today Show, FOX News; CNN, Anderson Cooper 360, MSNBC, Entertainment Tonight, CBS 48 Hours, Oxygen’s Snapped, Court TV’s Crier Live, Inside Edition, Extra, Access Hollywood, and A&E’s Biography.
In addition to television and radio appearances, the award-winning author has been featured in Redbook, USA Today, People, Salon magazine, Seattle Times, Los Angeles Times and the New York Post.
The Deep Dark was named Idaho Book of the Year by the ILA and Starvation Heights was honored by Washington’s Secretary of State for the book’s contribution to Washington state history and culture.
Olsen, a Seattle native, lives in Olalla, Washington with his wife and Suri (a mini dachshund so spoiled she wears a sweater).