For me, the decision to write a true-crime book starts with a feeling, the inability to shake the details of the case, and the people whose lives it touched, changed, and—all too often—shattered. It’s a feeling I’ve had a couple of times before, with Filthy Rich (about Jeffrey Epstein) and All-American Murder (about Aaron Hernandez).
The Idaho Four began with a single photograph: a happy image of youthful promise horribly at odds with the breaking news that the four smiling college students in the picture had been, just hours later, fatally stabbed in their beds.
When I spoke with investigative reporter Vicky Ward about the case, it turned out that she’d had the very same feeling about the photograph of the victims. About the unspeakable loss of these four young people and the deeper meaning it carried for their families, their friends, their neighbours, and for all of us.
Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of their murders, is a former PhD student in criminology. His motive for committing these crimes has been a difficult one to pin down. It’s a question that’s explored in this book—and one that might also have come out at the trial that was scheduled for August 2025. But now that Kohberger has suddenly agreed to plead guilty to all counts, it’s unlikely that there will ever be a trial.
Watch the first part of my two-part conversation with Vicky. You’ll learn about the incredible, on-the-ground reporting and the news from the more than 300 original interviews and the ongoing conversations we’ve had victims’ families and friends, right up through the past few days. You may think you know what happened in this case, but you don’t—and won’t—until you read The Idaho Four.
Learn more about the book here.
