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Summary
Summary
In 1959, Olathe, Kansas, was made famous by the murder of the Clutter family and Truman Capote's groundbreaking book on the crime, In Cold Blood . But fewer know that Olathe achieved notoriety again in 1982, when a member of Olathe's growing Evangelical Christian population, a gentle man named David Harmon, was bludgeoned to death while sleeping--the force of the blows crushing his face beyond recognition. Suspicion quickly fell on David's wife, Melinda, and his best friend, Mark, student body president of the local Bible college. However, the long arms of the church defended the two, and no charges were pressed.
Two decades later, two Olathe policemen revived the cold case making startling revelations that reopened old wounds and chasms within the Olathe community--revelations that rocked not only Olathe, but also the two well-heeled towns in which Melinda and Mark resided. David's former wife and friend were now living separate, successful, law-abiding lives. Melinda lived in suburban Ohio, a devoted wife and mother of two. Mark had become a Harvard MBA, a high-paid corporate mover, a family man, and a respected community member in a wealthy suburb of New York City. Some twenty years after the brutal murders, each received the dreaded knock of justice on the door. A Cold-Blooded Business provides fascinating character studies of Melinda and Mark, killers who seemingly returned to normalcy after one blood-splattered night of violence. Featuring a new afterword by the author covering the events of the past five years, this fast-moving true crime narrative is a chilling exploration into the darkest depths of the human psyche.
Author Notes
Marek Fuchs is a teacher, journalist, and volunteer firefighter. After six years as a stockbroker, he became a journalist, in which role he has written columns for the New York Times , the Wall Street Journal , Yahoo Finance, and TheStreet. Fuchs speaks regularly on business and journalism issues, and currently serves as a member of the writing faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. He lives in a loud house with three children in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
In his debut book, journalist Fuchs provides an underwhelming account of how a decades-old Kansas cold case came to be solved. In 1982, 25-year-old David Harmon was savagely bludgeoned to death while he slept in Olathe, Kans. His wife, Melinda, was unharmed and her flimsy account made her the prime suspect, along with family friend (and Melinda's possible lover) Mark Mangelsdorf. Despite stories full of holes, the two were not charged, due in large part, Fuchs says, to the power of the town's growing Nazarene Church, in which Melinda's father was highly placed. In 2001, the case was reopened and two Olathe detectives tracked down Melinda, happily married to an Ohio dentist, and Mark, a Harvard Business School graduate and former v-p at Pepsi. Melinda was convicted but reached a deal for a reduced sentence, and Mark eventually reached a plea agreement. Fuchs never delves deep enough into the crime or the killer(s)' motivation in this compelling case. Despite frequent references to In Cold Blood (murderers Smith and Hickock began their journey in Olathe), Fuchs fails to capture the intensity and lyricism of Capote's tale. 16 b&w photos. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Kirkus Review
A brutal unsolved murder case is cracked after 20 years of silence. The town of Olathe, Kan., was already notorious for the 1959 slaying of the Clutter familyimmortalized by Truman Capote's In Cold Bloodwhen it was again rocked by a vicious killing in the winter of 1982. An unknown assailant bludgeoned David Harmon, a newly married 25-year-old evangelical Christian, so severely that "his face had been rendered featureless," reports New York Times contributor Fuchs. Harmon's wife Melinda and her young friend Mark Mangelsdorf, a popular student at the town's MidAmerica Nazarene College, were the prime suspects; there were rumors of an affair between the two, but both had relatively solid alibis and were never formally charged with the crime. The case was eventually closed. Melinda and Mark left the area and went on to live separate, notably successful lives until late 2001, when the file was reopened and investigations resumed after an inquiry by Olathe Police Department Detective Bill Wall. Together with Sergeant Steve James and Assistant District Attorney Paul Morrison, Wall reexamined DNA evidence, reconstructed the crime scene and cautiously revisited both suspects in their respective residences. Melinda, "strangely malleable and yet equally manipulative," recounted a radically different scenario from her original story. Both her interrogation and Mark's contained enough inconsistencies to warrant indictments; ultimately, the investigation exposed a premeditated crime of passion. Readers will be riveted by Fuchs' debut, which begins with background stories on the major players and testimony by the Harmons' neighbors, but soon moves on to list key components surrounding the case. A breakneck pace is maintained right up to the final pages, which describe Melinda's and Mark's convictions. Justice prevails in this focused true-crime drama. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
Verdict: The author is talented but should read his Ann Rule before attempting another true-crime book. Optional. Background: This is a short but compelling account of the 1982 murder of David Harmon, a case that Fuchs covered for the New York Times. Harmon and his wife, Melinda, were members of an evangelical church in Olathe, KS, a town famous as the site of the crimes covered in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. When David Harmon was found beaten to death in his bed, his wife and Mark Mangelsdorf, a close family friend, were considered the primary suspects. But owing to a string of police errors and the lack of DNA testing at the time, the case was cold until 2003, when Melinda and Mark were indicted for murder. The narrative is good but could have been fleshed out quite a bit more; Fuchs doesn't provide an in-depth portrayal of either perpetrator, leaving the reader unsure of the real motive for the crime.-Daisy Porter, San Jose P.L., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
