#1 of 10 Best True Crime Books of the Year by Marie Claire Named Most Anticipated Crime Book of the Year by CrimeReads A chilling true storypart memoir, part crime investigationreminiscent of Ann Rule's classic The Stranger Beside Me, about a little girl longing for love and how she found friendship with her charismatic babysitterwho was also a vicious serial killer.Growing up on Cape Cod in the 1960s, Liza Rodman was a lonely little girl. During the summers, while her mother worked days in a local motel and danced most nights in the Provincetown bars, her babysitterthe kind, handsome handyman at the motel where her mother workedtook her and her sister on adventures in his truck. He bought them popsicles and together, they visited his ';secret garden' in the Truro woods. To Liza, he was one of the few kind and understanding adults in her life. Everyone thought he was just a ';great guy.' But there was one thing she didn't know; their babysitter was a serial killer. Some of his victims were buriedin piecesright there, in his garden in the woods. Though Tony Costa's gruesome case made screaming headlines in 1969 and beyond, Liza never made the connection between her friendly babysitter and the infamous killer of numerous women, including four in Massachusetts, until decades later. Haunted by nightmares and horrified by what she learned, Liza became obsessed with the case. Now, she and cowriter Jennifer Jordan reveal the chilling and unforgettable true story of a charming but brutal psychopath through the eyes of a young girl who once called him her friend.
