Murder on Birchleaf Drive: The True Story of the Michelle Young Murder Case Paperback – Import, 1 June 2019

I love true crime. I rarely give a book 5 stars, but I might give this book 10 stars if I were able. This book was amazing, especially since it is author Epstein's debut book. I always want pictures in a true crime book, and this one had plenty.I was familiar with this story from TV. That is probably what prompted me to read the book. There was no direct evidence tying Jason Young to his wife's and unborn son's murder, just much circumstantial evidence which the police had painstakingly uncovered. There were several trials in the book and then continuing court hearings afterwards. This adds to the suspense. I heartily recommend this book, and I happy to see Mr. Epstein has written more true crime books.

Oooh i did like it. You read till the end not knowing who and how it's going to finish.

At the start it read almost like a novel. The savage murder of a young pregnant mother with her young child in the house was quite heartbreaking. Her husband had a pattern of behaving like a jerk, but the dynamics within the family, particularly the personality and involvement of his mother in law, inspired some sympathy. He was an immature, narcissistic person but despite feeling he was probably guilty but from the outset of the first criminal trial I was left incredulous that in the light of the back story, his could be considered a fair trial.

I wavered between a 3 star and 4 star rating, finally settling on the 4, because this is a first work and because I discovered in the acknowledgement section that the author did attempt to interview the subjects, they simply refused to talk. I am from the area, and remember the case well (even some of the involved people) but wanted to know what I didn’t know. The book is well written for that purpose. Very factually laid out, accurate, not overly slanted to any one side, and interesting.As a true crime book, it misses the human element that the best of this genre tends to offer. Perhaps the author would have better served the story if he had spent time trying to get to know the “players” emotionally...maybe they would have shared their thoughts. How do other authors manage to get them to share?At any rate, I would recommend the book with the understanding that it reads very much like a well written, book-length news report.

I really did think that this was a thought provoking read.I don't know that I needed every single detail and it did get repetitive ,which I found frustrating.But that was just me. I can't even begin to imagine how you would extract all the information in the case in order,with so many people adding,changing their story.So hats off to Mr Epstein for presenting a really complex case which went on for a ludicrous amount of time and doing so in a readable way.If you love detail and true crime this is the story for you.