Lost Girls, Kolker - B

                                              The subtitle of this true crime book is 'An Unsolved American Mystery'.  It is the heart breaking story of the five Craigslist prostitutes whose corpses were found near Gilgo Beach on Long Island's south shore barrier island in 2010.  The book is in two halves: the first tells the women's  backstories; the second details the oft-criticized performance of the Suffolk County police and the bickering among the highly dysfunctional families that created these poor young women.  Their five stories are obviously different, but have so much in common that the NYTimes reviewer said, "..their histories bleed together in one long chronicle of childhood abuse, neglect and sorry choices".  Poverty, ignorance and limited choices that lead to teenage mothers having children out of wedlock is the repeated theme. Jobs at MacDonalds, Dunkin Donuts, call-centers and cleaning jobs at night along with truly useless men leads to a repetitive circle of despondency and desperation.  Eventually all of them leave their hometowns in Maine, N.C., Buffalo, Connecticut and upstate N.Y.  Ironically, the success of the police departments in and around metropolitan NYC in shutting down 'escort services' put these girls on the street and eventually onto the internet, where they could be self-employed and not need to share with their pimps.  The downside of what is known as an 'outcall' is that you have no protection and no chance to assess the john.  Exactly how they met their end and who the killer is is, as the subtitle says, unsolved.  The appalling media frenzy, epitomized by Nancy Grace and her ilk, is painful to read about. The only thing worse is the telling of how the families, one mother in particular, adopted their new roles of public grievers seeking out the spotlight and someone to sue or blame.  Ever since 'In Cold Blood' scared me decades ago, I've avoided true crime. Not a bad idea.