It was frustrating for me, unbearable for his family.

A book "that every cop in America should read," said one of the taglines to the book Bringing Adam Home. And they may be right.

I had intended on finishing up a few books on vacation, but I didn't get to all of them. Hey, it was vacation. But, I did get through this one, which I originally picked up for my wife, Diane.

Bringing Adam Home is the story of the investigation of the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh, son of John Walsh of America's Most Wanted Fame. In the book, you feel the palpable frustration of a mystery that is not solved until very recently, in spite of John's efforts to bring numerous other fugitives to justice.

The reasons that the investigation took so long involve the ego, the unsubstantiated pre-conceived notions of the investigators and the bureaucratic stonewalling of the agency.

In this fascinating story, the lead investigators had numerous confessions of a suspect that had substantial information that only the killer could have, yet this was overlooked and ignored. I still am not sure if the primary motivation was laziness or a desire to have the credit for finding the killer. But either way, the story spells out the grindingly frustrating investigation and the department's later lack of elan in working the case, due to it's concern about avoiding embarrassment regarding it's most prominent case.

The book also brings light to how the abduction of Adam Walsh led to many of the things that missing children and missing person investigators now take for granted, like Amber Alerts and Nationwide databases.

The chilling descriptions of young Adam's abduction and murder, as well as the descriptions of other murders his killer was involved with, make this book one to avoid for the faint of heart. But it holds much for anyone interested in this case, the machinations of an investigation, or those simply looking for an interesting read.

For more info about the book, go to: Bringing Adam Home