It’s a case reminiscent of the explosive story of Susan Smith, convicted in the drownings of her two young sons in South Carolina. However in The Unforgiven, three young children are in the back seat of a car powered by Amanda Hamm’s partner as it slips into an Illinois lake. Amanda and her partner survive. Her three children do not.

The question of whether it had been a horrible accident or a murderous plot divided relatives and buddies and traumatized the entire community. The short but extreme about The Unforgiven: The Untold Story of One Woman’s Seek out Appreciate and Justice police analysis included seven interviews Hamm voluntarily offered police without the benefit of counsel. The outcome remains controversial to this day and comes full circle with state kid welfare workers’ concern about kids blessed to Hamm because the fateful day at Clinton Lake.

The Unforgiven coauthor and journalist Edith Brady-Lunny covered the case from start-to-finish, beginning the night time from the drownings. Her coauthor Steve Vogel lives close by. His Reasonable Doubt, considered a genuine crime traditional, was a New York Times bestseller. Together they have considerable first-hand understanding of the case and access to just about any record linked to the courtroom proceedings.