Dead in the Water: My Forty-Year Search for My Brother’s Killer

The emotional devastation from a double murder permeates British journalist Farmer’s moving debut, an account of her decades-long search for justice. In 1978, 25-year-old Christopher Farmer, her physician brother, and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Peta Frampton, left England to travel the world. In June of that year, the couple ran into Duane Boston, an American who ran a charter boat business, in a bar on an island off the Belize coast. Christopher and Peta arranged passage to Honduras on Boston’s 32-foot sail boat, which was also transporting Boston’s sons, 13-year-old Vince and 12-year-old Russell. When the volatile Boston began beating Russell, Christopher intervened. While Boston appeared to calm down, the next evening he battered Christopher with a club and tied up him and Peta before dumping them overboard with weights attached. Their bodies were found in the sea off Guatemala a few days later. In 2013, Penny’s internet research led her to Russell, who provided an eyewitness account of the murders. In 2017, law enforcement arrested Boston, who claimed to have committed more than 30 other murders, though he died of an infection before he could stand trial. This engrossing, heartbreaking story is sure to appeal to true crime fans. Agent: Robert Smith, Robert Smith Literary (U.K.). (Apr.)