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Title details for Children of Darkness and Light by Lori Hellis - Wait list

Children of Darkness and Light

Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell: A Story of Murderous Faith

by Lori Hellis
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In this gripping work of true crime, a criminal lawyer takes readers inside the notorious Lori Vallow case and the devastating "doomsday murders."
A blonde beauty queen, missing children, six suspicious deaths, and the twisted Mormon doomsday writings of her fifth husband are only the beginning of a tragic crime saga that gripped Americans and instigated frantic searches all over the country.

It all started when Lori Vallow met Chad Daybell at a doomsday prepper event. Their story grew like a wildfire that creates its own weather, and what happened next will shock even the most experienced true crime reader.

Clinging to and manipulating one another, Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell believed the return of Jesus Christ was imminent and that God had chosen them to lead the 144,000 and usher in the new millennium. When the people closest to them began dying, it became clear they would stop at nothing to be together and fulfill their mission. When the bodies of Lori's missing children—J.J. and Tylee—were discovered in Chad's backyard, the strange and complex story of their fundamentalist Mormon beliefs were revealed in all their true horror.

Author Lori Hellis, a retired criminal lawyer, had just moved to Arizona when news of J.J. and Tylee's disappearance broke, and there were reports about these missing children that linked them to a neighboring community. She began to follow the case closely, trying to understand this perfect storm of people and circumstances that culminated in the death of innocents. In Children of Darkness and Light, Hellis digs deep into the investigation, trial, and verdict to craft a haunting narrative that illuminates one of the most confounding crimes in recent memory.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    September 24, 2024

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781639367115

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781639367115
      • File size: 4815 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 8, 2024
      Retired attorney Hellis (The No-Nonsense Guide to Divorce) delves into 2019’s “doomsday murders” in this shocking work of true crime. Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell, who were both raised Mormon, met at a prepper conference in 2018 and were instantly drawn to each other. Vallow, a blonde former beauty queen who was on her fourth husband, and Daybell, a married author of religious-themed erotic fantasy, leapt into an affair animated by their end-of-days beliefs and their mutual conviction that they were reincarnations of former lovers and leaders of the Mormon church. In order to be together and fulfill their destiny to lead saved souls into “the new millennium,” the pair “removed” obstacles in their path, including their spouses and children. Just 17 days after Daybell’s wife died under mysterious circumstances, the couple was married, and in early 2019, both of Vallow’s children disappeared. The details of how police pieced together the evidence implicating Vallow and Daybell in five killings make for grimly propulsive reading, and Hellis provides fascinating context about radical Mormon beliefs. Readers will be horrified. Agent: Max Sinsheimer, Sinsheimer Literary.

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from September 20, 2024

      Readers may be familiar with this case from the grim headlines of 2019, but former attorney Hellis's well-researched and page-turner book dives deeper into the environments that Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell were raised in and the resulting chaos. Her book shows that Vallow appeared to be a charming Mormon housewife when she met Daybell. Believing themselves to be visionaries of the end times, the two (tried separately) were charged and convicted in connection with the deaths of Vallow's two children and Daybell's ex-wife. Daybell's specific ranking system by which he determined whether souls are "light" and the verbose text messages the pair sent while they were married to other people are just some of the exclusives offered in this comprehensive view of the case. The book also includes the perspectives of family and friends who didn't see warning signs. VERDICT Readers who enjoy true crime will love this chance to go beyond the headlines and discover the whole story of the horrors that landed this couple in prison. Daybell was sentenced to death; Vallow's sentence was life without parole.--Jennifer Moore

      Copyright 2024 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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