Last year's murders of professors Half and Susanne Zantop prompted three books recounting the shocking crime from very different perspectives.
One book, by Eric Francis, is due for release on April 1, just a few weeks before the trial of suspect Robert Tulloch is slated to begin.
Francis, a freelance writer for People, the Boston Globe and the New York Times, has followed the case from the beginning. Following the conventions of the crime genre, his book will describe in detail the investigation that followed the murders.
Francis said he was first drawn to the case because he lives in the area and knows the Dartmouth campus well.
As a freelance writer, he has covered events at Dartmouth extensively before, such as the appearances of presidential candidates in Hanover during the primary season. He also uses the Dartmouth library system to do research for his articles, he said.
Francis' book will focus heavily on the details of the investigation following the murders.
He plans to look closely at how investigators followed leads, such as a possible shared interest in rock climbing among the Zantops, Tulloch and James Parker. He will also examine the interrogations of a student who was questioned extensively at the beginning of the case.
As closely as Francis has followed the case, he was "extremely surprised" by the recent release of an indictment which alleged that Parker and Tulloch had been planning such a crime for seven months.
In order to meet his deadline for publication, Francis will have to squeeze this new information into an epilogue, which he is currently writing. "It's literally a stop-the-presses kind of situation," he said.
Carole Owens, a psychologist based in Stockbridge, Mass., has been preparing her account of the Zantop case from quite a different angle. She is planning to explore the motivations and psychology of Parker and Tulloch, she said.
Owens originally became absorbed in the Zantop case because her parents were also both college professors.
However, Owens has long been interested in determining what pushes adolescent males to commit violent acts.
She said that she did "discern a pattern with regards to the issue of male adolescent patterns of violence" but declined to elaborate on what that pattern might be.
Owens is also interested in observing the ways that communities react to and heal from the effects of violent acts. To that end, she has interviewed families in Chelsea and counseling services at Dartmouth.
Owens was unsure when her book would be published.
Dick Lehr, a writer for The Boston Globe's Sunday magazine, first became interested in the Zantop case after he wrote a lengthy magazine article about the Chelsea community. He and Globe new writer Mitchell Zuckoff will draw on this experience when describing the dynamics of the Chelsea and Hanover communities in their book.
Lehr and Zuckoff are now doing background research on the case. They do not intend to begin writing until after Tulloch's trial this spring, Lehr said.
Lehr was unsure when the book would be ready for publication.
