Accolades:

New York Times Bestseller

Reviews:

"Olsen has done a superior job in not only researching and assembling the obscure and tangled facts of the case but also in telling the story in a mesmerizing manner that leaves the reader both haunted and fascinated by what they have read."
– Cleveland Plain Dealer

Author's Note:

ecause Eli Stutzman traveled so much I had to hit the road, too. Each place I visited — Ohio, Colorado, Texas, Nebraska — I met people who knew the man or the boy. Each had a shred of the story. An Amish couple I met in Ohio knew Eli Stutzman and his family and seemed saddened by the whole thing. But, as we talked, it was clear that the wife wasn't really sad for Ida (Eli's dead wife) or Danny (Little Boy Blue). They were dead, having been "called home" by God. She was concerned about me -- that I had become immersed in the tragedy. "It must be so terrible," she said, "to make a living looking into bad things like you do."

The Amish acted as though they weren't all that interested in the story. Oddly, Abandoned Prayers sold in huge numbers in their community. Lehman's, an Amish hardware store, in Kidron, Ohio, could barely keep it in stock.