Title: Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Historical (40s & 50s), Crime Fiction
Length: 368 pages
Book Rating: B+
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley
Summary:
Camden, NJ, 1948. When 11 year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth’s, she has no way of knowing that 52 year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, is watching her, preparing to make his move. Accosting her outside the store, Frank convinces Sally that he’s an FBI agent who can have her arrested in a minute—unless she does as he says.
This chilling novel traces the next two harrowing years as Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally while the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose, forever altering not only her life, but the lives of her family, friends, and those she meets along the way.
Based on the experiences of real-life kidnapping victim Sally Horner and her captor, whose story shocked the nation and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write his controversial and iconic Lolita, this heart-pounding story by award-winning author T. Greenwood at last gives a voice to Sally herself.
Review:
Set in 1948, Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood is a heartrending fictionalized novel based on the real life kidnapping of Sally Horner.
After seeing a group of girls become “blood sisters”, shy and friendless eleven year old Sally Horner agrees their “initiation” to their club. Despite her qualms about getting caught, Sally steals a composition notebook from Woolworth’s. She is caught leaving the store by a man claiming to be an FBI agent who tells her she is under arrest. Unbeknownst to Sally, he is in actuality, a recently released ex-convict named Frank LeSalle. In an effort to spare her widowed mother, Ella, the truth about her “crime”, Sally convinces her mom that Frank is taking her on a family vacation to Atlantic City with her daughter’s classmate. Ella has no reason to doubt the veracity of his story and she leaves Sally with Frank at the local bus station. Thus begins Sally’s harrowing ordeal at the hands of a skillful manipulator who is also a child predator.
Sally is a lonely young girl who does not want to upset or disappoint her mother after Frank catches her stealing. She naively believes everything he tells her and although she picks up on puzzling inconsistencies in his explanations, she blindly follows his instructions. When she does ask questions, Sally’s punishment is swift and violent. In a desperate attempt to return home, she inadvertently sets in motion their relocation to Baltimore.
In Baltimore, Sally continues to suffer horrific abuse yet Frank inexplicably enrolls her in school. He frightens her into keeping silent about their home life and she follows his order to the letter. Sally’s teacher, Sister Mary Katherine, instinctively realizes something is amiss with the young girl and she keeps a close eye on her new student. Yet when she finally decides to take action, Frank once again evades capture as he escapes with Sally and moves to Dallas, TX.
Now living in a trailer court, Sally remains firmly under Frank’s control while she forms a close bond with their neighbor Ruth. Unable to have children, Ruth spends many hours with Sally. It does not take long for suspicions to arise about what is going on in the trailer next door, but will Ruth be able to save the frightened young girl?
Rust & Stardust is a truly captivating novel that deals with some very difficult subject matter. The dark and distressing storyline is relieved by genuine moments of true compassion and caring from the people whose lives are touched by Sally’s plight. This intricately plotted novel is loosely based on real life events and T. Greenwood brings this long forgotten crime vibrantly and sensitively to life. I highly recommend this tragic yet fascinating re-imagining of a horrific crime.
