Before six-year-old Adam Walsh’s abduction and murder in 1981, there were no children’s faces on milk cartons, no Amber Alerts, no national Center for Missing and Abused Children, no federal databases for crimes against children, no registration of pedophiles. Kids innocently played outdoors, unmonitored by nervous parents. The shock of Adam’s murder and the inability of police to find his killer altered parental behavior, and, due in large part to the efforts of Adam’s parents, John and Revé Walsh, law enforcement transformed its practices to better protect children.

But while our lives have been significantly changed by the Adam Walsh case, few of us know the whole story—how, after 27 years of relentless investigation, decorated Miami Beach homicide detective Joe Matthews finally identified Adam’s killer.

Bringing Adam Home is the definitive account of this harrowing crime and its aftermath, a true story of tragedy, love, faith, and dedication. It reveals the pain and tenacity of a family determined to find justice, the failed police work that allowed a killer to remain uncharged, and the determined efforts of one cop who accomplished what an entire system of law enforcement could not.

Harrowing yet ultimately uplifting, Bringing Adam Home reminds us that hard work, dedication, and love can triumph, and goodness can overshadow evil.

“Bringing Adam Home is a maddening, terrifying and ultimately triumphant book. Les Standiford explores the injustice and finally justice surrounding the murder of Adam Walsh. You will cry and rage but you will not be able to put this book down until you finish it. My God! What a book!”
--Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle