I knew two things about the subject of Karen Spears Zacharias’ new book A Silence of Mockingbirds: The Memoir of a Murder going in: it was about the brutal murder of an innocent child, and this murder was preventable. This wasn’t going to be light reading, but I knew it was necessary. Especially as a former educator, I felt the weight of responsibility to see signs of abuse others had missed. This wouldn’t be pleasant, but hopefully it would be informative and in that sense, redemptive.