Oh, The Drama!
Review by Kim Cantrell
Derek and Nancy Haysom had raised their blended family while liviving in different countries, had retired, and were now enjoying retirement in Nancy’s hometown of Lynchburg, Virginia. They spent their days gardening and playing Bridge with friends.
It was a quiet, simple life.
Until the evening of March 30, 1985.
On this evening, as the couple enjoyed a few pre-dinner drinks and Nancy prepared their final meal of the day, a knock sounded at the door. It was unusual for the Haysoms to have visitors at this time of night and Nancy watched anxiously from the kitchen as her husband went to the front door.
At the door stood Jens Soering, boyfriend of their daughter Elizabeth Haysom. Jens was well aware that the Haysoms did not like him and he had come to rectify the situation.
Author Ken Englade recalls the 1985 double homicide that stunned the community of Boonsboro, Virginia, and the hunt for the Haysoms’ killer in his 2004 book Beyond Reason. During their search, detectives will meet the couples’ overly dramatic British prep-schooled daughter and her Nazi-loving German-born son-of-a-diplomat boyfriend who will lead the investigation from rural Virginia to Maryland to across the pond in London.
Englade starts out very strong, following a tangled web of lies and lust for the first 230 or so pages, but then it becomes mundane and repetitive; not horribly so, there is some new info tossed in, but enough so it’s worth the warning that you’ll probably skim at least a few pages.
So, with all this in mind coupled with the fact that Beyond Reason is the only book about the case, it’s worth adding it to your reading list.
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UPDATES FROM THIS BOOK:
Elizabeth Haysom is currently incarcerated at the Fluvanna Correctional Facility in Troy, Virginia. She will be released in May 2032 when she is 68 years old.
In July 2011, Virginia’s Governor agreed to Jens Soering‘s request to serve his sentence in a German prison, but the current District Attorney refused to approve it. Jens remains behind bars at the Buckingham Correctional Facility in Dillwyn, Virginia. He has been eligible for parole since 2003, but his requests have been denied. Thanksfully, Jens will always have his marketed coping methods to help him through. (By the way, that’s sarcasm on my part.)
