{"id":7693,"date":"2026-10-28T09:43:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-28T09:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=7693"},"modified":"2026-10-28T09:43:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-28T09:43:08","slug":"the-jacklighter-by-carla-conti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=7693","title":{"rendered":"The Jacklighter by Carla Conti"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 50-year true crime saga that underscores the shocking darkness\u2014and unending lightness\u2014of the human soul<\/strong><\/h3>\n

jack\u00b7light\u00b7ing | \u02c8jak-\u02ccl\u012bt-i\u014b |<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Noun<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The hunting method of shining artificial light on game at night to stun or freeze it in place\u2014exploiting the \u201cdeer-in-the-headlights\u201d effect to make it an easy target.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By extension, the kill itself: an amoral killing of defenseless prey, illegal in most states, including Pennsylvania, where it was outlawed in the late 1800s.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1976, in Montrose, Pennsylvania, two men who were supposedly friends went skeet-shooting together out in the woods. Only one of them returned alive. Marty Dillon, son of Mayor Larry Dillon and popular pick for the upcoming Montrose defense attorney election, was shot\u2014by accident, claimed Steve Scher. The fact that Scher, a doctor, was having an affair with Marty\u2019s wife, a nurse, was an open secret.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em><\/strong>[Montrose was] a cozy hamlet in the state\u2019s northeast corner where rumor and innuendo flowed from the hospital to a club whose members were better at keeping secrets than most.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But Scher was a popular doctor, and the town soon tore itself in two: those who believed the Dillons suffered a tragic accident and those who believed Scher was willing to do anything to get what he wanted\u2014which, in this case, was Pat Dillon. A devout Catholic, Pat was adamantly opposed to divorce and would not have left Marty by choice. So, the whispers went, Scher made the choice for her. As Larry Dillon liked to say, \u201cOnly two kinds of people show up at Gunsmoke. Those who are invited and those who are lost.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

On June 2, 1976, Scher was both.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He maintained his innocence, however, even after he married Pat, became stepfather to Marty\u2019s two kids, and moved them out of state. The fact that it took 20 years for the Montrose DA to properly investigate Marty\u2019s death and bring charges\u2014despite constant nagging from Marty\u2019s parents\u2014seemed to corroborate this. But then, in the mid-1990s, the evidence against Scher snowballed. That the case played out in parallel with the O.J. Simpson case, and even included a select few of O.J.\u2019s \u201cDream Team,\u201d made its news coverage all that much more tantalizing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/em><\/strong>[The police] knew that whatever they gathered now would be eventually picked apart by lawyers on both sides, just as it was unfolding in the O.J. trial. For the troopers,<\/em><\/strong> how<\/strong> they built the case would matter as much as what they found.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The narrative is a poignant one, with moments sure to stick with the reader well past the final page. Take this interaction between Marty and his then five-year-old son, Michael, only three days before Marty\u2019s death. The two are at an Indy 500 race day watch party with a clutch of Marty\u2019s good friends, when a disastrous crash comes on TV.<\/p>\n

[Michael]: Dad, what happens when people die? Does everybody just forget about them?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[Marty]: The sad thing is, Michael, that\u2019s exactly what does happen sometimes.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Or take this tongue-in-cheek response Ann gives to reporters during the trial, after she\u2019s subject to hours of cross-examination regarding her ex-husband\u2019s cruel treatment of her: \u201cPeople don\u2019t really know how to deal with this,\u201d [Ann] told the paper. \u201cHallmark doesn\u2019t make a card for this occasion.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Conti\u2019s coverage is thorough, but layered within is an awkward tension unrelated to the murder: Conti\u2019s own publishing journey, which can steal the narrative spotlight, at times overly prioritizing her grievance with certain editors and presses, the industry overall, and the author who landed the contract for Secrets from the Grave<\/em>. The book wholly fulfills the promise of educating and entertaining, but as Conti quotes from the rejections she received along the way, readers are also left with an uncomfortable sentiment: \u201cPoor little crushed me.\u201d\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Spanning 1976 to 2026, this immersive, sharply detailed account walks readers through the entirety of the Dillon-Scher tragedy, outlining the joys and hardships of three generations. For lovers of true crime, police procedurals, and history, it checks all the boxes for a well-worthy addition to your TBR pile.<\/p>\n

The post The Jacklighter by Carla Conti<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 50-year true crime saga that underscores the shocking darkness\u2014and unending lightness\u2014of the human soul jack\u00b7light\u00b7ing | \u02c8jak-\u02ccl\u012bt-i\u014b | Noun The hunting method of shining artificial light on game at night to stun or freeze it in place\u2014exploiting the \u201cdeer-in-the-headlights\u201d effect to make it an easy target. By extension, the kill itself: an amoral killing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}