Don't Say a Thing: A Predator, a Pursuit, and the Women Who Persevered

In a powerful true-crime memoir, an Emmy Award-winning journalist seeks closure in a decades-long series of crimes and freedom from her own personal demons. In April 1999, reporter Tamara Leitner woke to an active crime scene outside her Arizona apartment. Her neighbor had been sexually assaulted by a man who would later be identified as Claude Dean Hull II, a serial rapist who escaped justice for decades. New identities. New states. New victims--more than one hundred suspected across the country and thousands more victimized in myriad ways. Tamara's twenty-year compulsion to follow the investigation began. She needed to question a failed system. She needed to know the women whose lives were irrevocably altered. And she needed to face the root of her obsession with Hull and his crimes. In interviewing, befriending, and profoundly connecting with Hull's survivors, Tamara crafts a unique true-crime narrative. It not only reveals the struggles of the justice system to help victims of sexual violence but explores how these resilient women--and Tamara herself--strove to reclaim their power in the wake of indelible trauma.

About the Author :
Tamara Leitner is a twelve-time Emmy Award-winning broadcast and print investigative journalist. She worked as a network correspondent, regularly reporting on the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and MSNBC. Before joining NBC News in 2016, Leitner worked for local news outlets in New York City, Chicago, and Phoenix. She is the recipient of a 2011 George Foster Peabody Award, a 2012 Edward R. Murrow Award, and a 2018 GLAAD Media Award and lives in Southern California. Tamara Leitner is a twelve-time Emmy Award-winning broadcast and print investigative journalist. She worked as a network correspondent, regularly reporting on the Today Show, NBC Nightly News, and MSNBC. Before joining NBC News in 2016, Leitner worked for local news outlets in New York City, Chicago, and Phoenix. She is the recipient of a 2011 George Foster Peabody Award, a 2012 Edward R. Murrow Award, and a 2018 GLAAD Media Award and lives in Southern California.

Review :
"Reporter and narrator Tamara Leitner provides listeners with a unique true-crime narrative in this audiobook.... This audiobook explores the way survivors of sexual violence in general are treated in the U.S. and how these particular survivors took back their lives. Leitner narrates her own work, giving listeners the experience of hearing her frustration with the justice system and her empathy for the survivors. Her strong performance gives their stories an opportunity to be heard, even if the message is a difficult one." --AudioFile Magazine "Emmy- and Peabody-winning journalist Leitner uses an emotionally charged tone when narrating her memoir about the investigation of Claude Dean Hull II, a serial rapist who sexually assaulted hundreds of women across the U.S., including the author's neighbor.... Although she is clinical when reporting details about each highlighted case, there is an edge to her words that hints at the PTSD she developed because of the investigation." --Library Journal "Leitner, an investigative journalist with familiarity behind the mic, narrates the story delivering facts, yet it almost reads like a fictional thriller. Suspense is built with her ability to express frustration and anger at the justice system. Her empathy for the victims resonates through her strong delivery. She speaks to the resiliency of the victims and how they put back together their lives after living a nightmare." --Booklist "This title will satisfy readers who seek out true crime written from a personal angle, like Erika Krouse's Tell Me Everything (2022), and those who appreciate precisely detailed and unflagging police and journalistic work in search of justice, like Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark (2018)." --Booklist