During the early 1980's a young newspaper carrier named Johnny Gosch vanished early one morning while he was out on his newspaper route. He was never seen again. Or, perhaps he was. Nobody is certain if the supposed sightings of him over the years were real. Two years after he went missing another paper carrier, also in Des Moines, went missing too. That boy, Eugene Martin, has not been seen again either.
I was living in my hometown of Des Moines when these terrible occurrences took place and they felt deeply personal. I had been a newspaper carrier myself and it made me wonder if guardian angels had been watching over me when I had been only 12 years old and walking the dark streets of Des Moines at 3 o'clock in the morning.
The novel "The Monsters We Make" by Kali White was inspired by those sad incidents in Iowa. Kali was a young girl living in Iowa when those boys went missing and it felt rather personal for her, too. She has taken the facts of those cases and turned them into a twisty and relentlessly compelling story of tragedy and perhaps, redemption.
The Book Nook on WYSO is presented by the Greene County Public Library with additional support from Washington-Centerville Public Library, Clark County Public Library, Dayton Metro Library, and Wright Memorial Public Library.
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