An Hour To Kill by Dale Hudson and Billy Hills

After 17-year-old Crystal Todd was found brutally murdered in her South Carolina hometown in 1991, her best friend, Ken Register, was the last person anyone would suspect. But when DNA tests confirmed he repeatedly raped and stabbed Crystal, the town of Conway was stunned. This true story is told through first-person accounts, and includes eight pages of photos.

Ken Register was a clean cut,polite to a fault and respectful of his elders.He was the kind of guy that parents wanted their daughters to date.After Crystal's body was found he even checked in every day to console Crystal's mother and to enquire about the murder investigation.

Because of this book I am forever wary of "overly polite" teenagers.It also confirmed for me how children are affected by overly strict parents.Ken Register's father was to me a bully.I still believe that Ken was too sensitive a child to be raised by such a man and having a mother who just stood by and allowed this unfair treatment must have just aggravated the situation.Obviously there is no excuse for murder but it is interesting that very few murderers had an idyllic childhood with excellent parenting.

This book is well written and I was impressed with the foreword which assured that all conversations are true to fact and that a lot of trouble was taken to ensure that only real facts were written about.

This book is so tragic to me as the victim Crystal was the only child of her mother and whose father had already passed away,prior to Crystal's murder.As a mother I cannot even imagine losing a child so this book is really close to my heart.The picture of Crystal's grave is heartbreaking.

If you are interested in seeing some photos of Crystal and also an interview with author Dale Hudson about how he came to write this book and other interesting info

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I read this book in August 2007