Helltown: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod

Sherman (Hunting Whitey: The Inside Story of the Capture and Killing of America’s Most Wanted Crime Boss) tackles another true crime story, this time focusing on Tony Costa, a Cape Cod hippie who claimed that the mental health condition of dissociative identity disorder caused him to murder young women passing through town in the 1960s. There is a backstory to be told of Costa’s childhood, but Sherman centers on the period when he committed the murders and was tried for his crimes. Details about the murders, interrogations, and courtroom scenes are striking, though not for the faint of heart, as Sherman does not shy away from sharing grisly details. Along with the facts, Sherman includes imagined conversations and suppositions, as well as side stories about Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer competing to write about Costa. Sherman narrates the book with a charmingly authentic, though not overwhelming, Massachusetts accent. Listeners may miss elements from the physical book, including photos of key places and people and notes that indicate where fictional license has been taken.