Carrie Carolyn Coco: My Friend, Her Murder, and an Obsession with the Unthinkable

In this wrenching blend of memoir and true crime, novelist Gerard (True Love) unpacks the murder of her friend, Carolyn Bush, through conversations with the friends and family of both the victim and her killer. In 2016, the 25-year-old Bush was stabbed to death by her roommate, Render Stetson-Shanahan, in New York City. The two hardly ever interacted, casting a cloud of mystery over the killing. After Stetson-Shahanan confessed to the murder, his attorney claimed he was in a psychotic state brought about by smoking marijuana with his brother, and he was convicted of second-degree manslaughter in 2020 and sentenced to 5–15 years in prison. Plagued by the lack of motive at the center of the tragedy, Gerard interviewed the people who best knew Bush and Stetson-Shahanan at various stages of their lives, hoping to shed light on the case. What emerges is both a poignant portrait of a life cut short and a forceful examination of the cultural forces that shaped Bush’s murder, including gendered violence and inadequate attention to mental health issues on college campuses. It’s a devastating deep dive into a confounding crime. Agent: Adriann Ranta Zurhellen, Folio Literary Management. (July)

Correction: A previous version of this review misspelled Render Stetson-Shanahan’s name and misstated some of the details of his conviction. It also incorrectly stated that the author met Carolyn Bush at Bard College.