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Catch the Sparrow
- A Search for a Sister and the Truth of Her Murder
- Narrated by: Julia Locascio
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
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Summary
Bloomsbury presents Catch the Sparrow by Rachel Rear, read by Julia Locascio.
The gripping story of a young woman’s murder, unsolved for more than two decades, brilliantly investigated and reconstructed by her stepsister.
Growing up, Rachel Rear knew the story of Stephanie Kupchynsky’s disappearance. The beautiful violinist and teacher had fled an abusive relationship on Martha’s Vineyard and made a new start for herself near Rochester, NY. She was at the height of her life - in a relationship with a man she hoped to marry and close to her students and her family. And then, one morning, she was gone.
Around Rochester - a region that has spawned such serial killers as Arthur Shawcross and the 'Double Initial' killer - Stephanie’s disappearance was just a familiar sort of news item. But Rachel had more reason than most to be haunted by this particular story of a missing woman: Rachel’s mother had married Stephanie’s father after the crime, and Rachel grew up in the shadow of her stepsister’s legacy.
In Catch the Sparrow, Rachel Rear writes a compulsively listenable and unerringly poignant reconstruction of the case's dark and serpentine path across more than two decades. Obsessively cataloguing the crime and its costs, drawing intimately closer to the details than any journalist could, she reveals how a dysfunctional justice system laid the groundwork for Stephanie's murder and stymied the investigation for more than 20 years, and what those hard years meant for the lives of Stephanie’s family and loved ones. Startling, thrilling and deeply moving, Catch the Sparrow is a retelling of a crime like no other.
Critic reviews
"Catch the Sparrow is true crime at its most personal and purposeful - heartfelt and intimate, noble and determined, meticulous and brave." (Robert Kolker, New York Times best-selling author of Hidden Valley Road and Lost Girls)
"Catch the Sparrow is a one-of-a-kind true crime narrative, meticulously reported and compellingly written. The real twist in Rachel Rear's pursuit of this cold case murder is the stunning relationship of the teller to the tale. No novelist could have invented it." (Jonathan Dee, author of The Locals and The Privileges)
"A poignant and honest memoir combined with a suspenseful tale of a vibrant young woman's senseless murder and the lengthy and often shocking investigation that followed, Catch the Sparrow is my favourite type of true crime book - compassionate, compelling and achingly, heartbreakingly real. I will be thinking about this book for a long time to come." (Alison Gaylin, Edgar Award-winning author of The Collective)