Anyone who was living in 1981 probably remembers the horror of the abduction and murder of Adam Walsh. Parts of this book were very hard to read, but I was surprised at all the things I did NOT know about what occurred in the investigation of this murder. The Hollywood Florida police department and particularly the lead investigator chose to ignore mounds of evidence and refused to solve a very solvable crime. Had the man who did this not been guilty of so many other heinous crimes for which he was jailed for the remainder of his life, he might have gotten away with this murder and never been punished.

What is so remarkable to me is that John Walsh took this unimaginable tragedy and transformed it into a life of helping others who were victims of the same kinds of horrors he and his wife, Reve, had lived through. He was instrumental in founding almost every piece of legislation and every major step toward tracking and finding missing children in this country. That they had to wait so many years to know the truth about what happened to their son when the proof was in the hands of police within two years of the murder is appalling.

I cannot say I enjoyed this book, it was too heartbreaking to ever employ that word to describe what I felt, but I can say that I was enlightened by it. My heart goes out to everyone who has ever had to suffer to loss of a loved one in such a way and especially to those who do not know what happened to their children and never will. The Walshes did not let this tragedy stop them from living, raising children, and having a meaningful life. They did a great deal of good that they never would have done otherwise, and in the end they won an almost impossible battle. They looked evil in the eye and didn't flinch. ( )

Bringing Adam Home is the result of extensive research on the Walsh family, the investigation into six-year-old Adam Walsh's 1981 disappearance, and Ottis Toole, the alleged murderer. This book is written by a writer of popular detective stories and the investigator who finally "closed" the Adam Walsh case, Joe Matthews. It is, as you can imagine, anything but unbiased.

Standiford and Matthews have so much they want to tell you about Ottis Toole. He is a bad, bad, man, who told everyone who would listen that he murdered Adam Walsh, but the Hollywood police department bungled the case because they are incapable, bumbling cops who should never have been on the case in the first place. The best thing that ever happened to the Hollywood police department was Joe Matthews... now that guy is cool. To illustrate just how cool he is, Standiford has included several stories about Matthews, including how he dared to write a parking citation for a fellow police officer. Now that takes daring! It doesn't matter that Matthews had no new evidence when he finally got the case or that Ottis Toole was long dead... he closed it, because he is the best cop ever.

As much as Standiford, Matthews, the Walshes, and Toole himself wanted Ottis Toole to be the villain behind Adam Walsh's disappearance... the truth is that there isn't much evidence at all to support his guilt. This book inspired me to dive head first into a rabbit hole that revealed many interesting tidbits, such as the original transcripts of Toole's confession, released 20 years, where it is very apparent that he had little to no knowledge of the specifics of Adam's kidnapping, the improbability of Toole's confession, and the bizarre theories that the decomposed head found didn't even belong to Adam. I definitely recommend scrolling through Reddit, including this thread and the Bizarrepedia page.

Please don't let this book be your introduction to the Adam Walsh case. ( )

This is most likely the most difficult book I've read. When six year old Adam Walsh was abducted and murdered in July of 1981, America changed. As a child, my sisters and I could let the screen door slam and tole our mother that we would be back later. There was no fear that something could happen to us, no fear that a pedophile, and very sick man by the name of Ottis Toole would lure us into his vehicle and violently rape, chop our heads off, and partake of some of our bones while he burned and buried thee remains.

But, since this occurrence, nationwide, parents learned of just what could happen if children weren't kept by their sides and kept close.

ReVee Walsh took six year old Adam to a local Hollywood, Florida Sears store. While she looked at lamps for a few minutes, Adam was left with other children who were playing video games at the Sears store. When she returned, he was gone. As she panicked and continued to call for Adam, seeking help from mangers, little did she know he was already headed ten miles away where he was tortured and murdered.

Another travesty occured when the detectives time and time again missed or buried the truth that a man on their radar was indeed the killer. Toole had bragged to numerous sources what he did to little Adam. But, the men in charge, simply refused to take Toole at his word.

When Adam's 34th birthday occurred, finally, under the direction of Detective Sergeant Joe Matthews, who painstakingly spent countless hours going over each and every document, tracing the dots and all the errors that were made and was finally, without a doubt, able to prove that Ottis Toole was indeed the man who killed Adam.

By then, Toole had died, a victim of liver failure, he cried on his death bed to God that he was so very sorry about that little boy. However, the Walsh family finally had the legal team on their side and the state attorney's office made the decision once and for all the Toole was the murderer.

Through their grief and pain, the Walsh's worked to host a TV show, America's Most Wanted, which advocated for missing children.

The crime was horrifying, the written description of what happened to Adam was very difficult to read. But, I was reminded why to this day when my granddaughter is ten minutes later than she said she would be, I try not to panic. But, still my mind wonders What IF!

While I rate this five stars, it was indeed incredibly hard to learn the details. ( )

This story - about the investigation into Adam Walsh's murder, not exactly what the title seems to imply - has the potential to be interesting, but the author is so adamantly against the Hollywood PD that it becomes tedious to read about their incompetence. (Moreso given that the book doesn't address the over-confessions of Henry Lee Lucas, at least not in the 300+ pages I read of it. And moreso again given that the author seems convinced that one good polygraph would have solved everything, given what we know about the reliability of polygraphs.) I had to give up on it. ( )

The Adam Walsh story has changed America whether you know him or not. The abduction and death of this little boy was a tragedy that facilitated the change in how our laws protect our children. The book itself is well written and the story is compelling, not to mention educational. ( )