Tuesday Review Day: "Chasing Alice"

I read “Chasing Alice: How the Life, Murder, and Legacy of an English Teacher Changed a Delmarva Community” (Salt Water Media, LLC; Illustrated edition, November 1, 2020) at the beginning of the year after hearing the author on a podcast. A true crime fan—that doesn’t sound right, so let’s say avid reader—and as someone who remembered the story, I picked the book up. I was so busy writing my own book and getting it ready for release that I fell behind on reviews and didn’t get to writing this one until this past weekend. Yesterday, when I planned to get it finished and published, life happened.

Since Dad felt well enough today to go to the casino in Delaware, I decided to get things done on the way and while he played the slots. He helped by holding the book while I took a photo. So, here you go:

Almost ten years ago (2011), a 55-year-old English teacher went missing on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. At the time, I lived a county away, and I remember the story unfolding. Everyone was alarmed. All of us were horrified. At the same time, a young woman, the author of this book, a former student of Alice Davis (the subject of this book), heard the news. She was particularly devastated as Mrs. Davis had been pivotal in her life during a tough time and instrumental to her becoming the award-winning writer she became. Six years later—after spending those years extensively researching and interviewing family members, friends, former students, anyone who could help a reader know Alice Davis, Stephanie L. Fowler, determined that her dear teacher, mentor, and friend—would be remembered for more than her worst day, published "Chasing Alice."

So often, in true crime, the victim is one-dimensional: "She was always cheerful." "She was a wonderful teacher." "Everyone admired her." "We all miss her." Then the focus moves to the investigation, the suspects, the perpetrator, and those left behind. I am often left at the end having forgotten anything about the subject except that someone died. Not so here.

In "Chasing Alice," we come to know Alice Davis, her family, her dreams, her life before college, during, after, her methods of teaching, her married life... And, without one gratuitous description or phrase, we learn how she lived, how she died and who killed her.

In her mission to assure that we remember Alice for more than being a victim of murder, Stephanie L. Fowler succeeded. I couldn’t put her testimony to that down.

“Chasing Alice” is available wherever books are sold.