Missy's Murder

by Karen Kingsbury

On October 1, 1985, teenager Missy Avila was lured into the woods, beaten, tortured, and drowned. Karen Severson, Missy's best friend, publicly vowed to find the killer and moved in with Missy's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440207711
• ISBN13: 9780440207719
• Release Date: November 1991
• Publisher: Dell
• Weight: 0.48 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.0" x 4.3"

Customer Reviews

A page turner from beginning to end

With only the trial transcripts as source material, Kingsbury masterfully paints a picture of betrayal and vengeance. Top notch reading that will appeal even to people who don't ordinarily read true crime.

I Remember Missy!

All the people in this book are real people! I went to school with Missy, Karen & Laura! I remember Missy well! She was a sweet, good natured, well liked, beautiful girl. Karen WAS manipulative, mean, nasty, vendictive, just like the book portrays her to be. Karen beat me up outside the school one day because I was talking to her boyfriend! Laura was a follower and Karen's puppet. This book told it like it happened....as I remembered it when it happened. Plain and simple! The writer conveyed it well.

A story of true deception

I lived in California when this happened,and my sister was a friend of her's from home room class and it was very devistating for all in the school because she was a kind, sweet, popular girl. The people that have read the book and are giving a horrible review just becasue it didn't match the movie or because the author was not that good are not listening to the story of a young girl that was murdered. The story is true,horrible and very much disturbing.Especially when you think about the fact that these were to be her life long friends and it just goes to show you that you really never know anyone!!

I think the writing was sensational and well researched

I think the book was written in fantastic fashion. I can empathize with Mrs Irene Avila for losing her daughter in such a tragic way. Missy had not deserved to be treated the way the girls treated her just out of jealousy. The girls were jealous because Missy was beautiful and they felt threatened by her, because they were not beautiful. I disagree with the verdict I wish they had received the death penalty because they took Missy's life. I feel the Judge in the case was too leniant on the girls by giving them life in prison they deserve worse. I can only rest assured that they will be haunted for the rest of their lives every time they try to sleep because they deserve the same torture they made Missy endure. I am truly sorry for the Avila family it is clear they all loved her very much.The only thing I believe will help them through this nightmare is that in the end the girls will get what they deserve for being so evil. My sympathies are with you all I have never lost someone so young in such a tragic way but I know if I had it would be heartwrenching. My prayers and thoughts are with you Mr. & Mrs. Avila and Mark.

Shakespeare meets true crime!

In Shakespeare's play "Othello," Iago is such a beguiling villian because we watch him manipulate events over the course of the play, so as to drive the unknowing Othello to strangle Desdemona. In "Missy's Murder," Missy's best friend Karen, along with second-best friend Laura, kill Missy, and Karen (along with her two-year-old child) actually move in with Missy's family, determined (she says) to find the killer.For two years, Karen (like Iago) determines events and drives Missy's mother and brothers to pursue people Karen feels are in involved in the crime. One friend, Karen's former boyfriend, is severely beaten by Missy's friends, and, later on, nearly shot to death, after Karen determines that he is guilty of the crime.Karen also sits in Missy's chair, wears some of her clothes, and even dresses up her two-year-old child to look like Missy. Several times a week, she visits Missy's grave and talks to her headstone.But Karen cannot sleep in Missy's bed for, like Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, Karen is visited by a ghost. The case finally breaks when a witness, also haunted by Missy's spectre, is finally driven to disclose all.<An amazing and well-written story.