Safe Harbor: A Murder in Nantucket (St. Martin's True Crime...

Features

• Cover Type: Mass Market Paperback with 272 pages
• Published by: St. Martin's True Crime May 1, 2007
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0312938284
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0312938284
• Book Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 9.6 ounces

From Publishers Weekly
McDonald received praise for his memoir, My Father's Gun, about his family of cops, but he seems out of his element with this true-crime account of the murder of Beth Lochtefeld, a successful, outgoing lady who, at 44, was anxious to find a mate and settle down. In McDonald's account, Lochtefeld's desperation made her overlook the faults of Tom Toolan, a suave but seriously troubled man. After Lochtefeld tried to break off with Toolan, she turned up dead in her Nantucket home. In an awkwardly constructed narrative, McDonald further confuses matters by suddenly shifting voices, from omniscient narrator who seems to know Lochtefeld's and Toolan's thoughts (though his sources are unclear) to journalist ("Sources say"). Nor does he get beneath the surface of Toolan, an alcoholic with a self-destructive streak who had lost his Wall Street job and been caught trying to steal an $80,000 sculpture from an art gallery. McDonald further tangles his narrative by ending it shortly after the 2004 murder, without providing details of what happened after Toolan's arrest. (He has pled not guilty and has yet to stand trial.) 8 pages of black and white photos. (June)
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Product Review
“The story has all the elements of a grand tragedy, and Beth’s life deserves this respectful chronicle.”—Library Journal

Reader Reviews
The life story of Beth Lochtenfield (I know that I misspelled) was just about ideal and even perfect except she wanted to settle down, marry and have children like her siblings. Sadly, it never happened. The man in her life, Toolan, killed her brutally in lovely Nantucket, Massachusetts which she considered to be her sanctuary from the cruel world of men. I can relate to her desperation and the mistakes and signs that she missed along the way about Toolan. Beth was smart about a lot of things but not about men. When she realized it was too late, it was too late for her life. Beth's short life was filled with lots of things but the right man and Toolan was deeply troubled from the moment he met her only she was equally desperate to settle down and marry. Sadly, she could not have picked a worst choice than Toolan. This book could be useful to a lot of women out there including myself that finding the right man is not always the end all and be all of life. Beth's tragic and senseless murder was just that a tragedy. She was successful in business, with a loving family of siblings, nieces, and nephews, and parents, and she had lots of friends. My favorite photo in the book is one with her at a friend's wedding. I thought that it could have been her wedding. Beth's life was ideal but incomplete without that special someone to share it with her. Maybe he was really just around the corner or not there at all, somebody once said that you have to be complete first before finding a mate. This book sends the message that finding a mate may end in tragedy after all. The pressure for single women like myself and my sister and others to find a husband is almost painful to explain anymore to anybody else. Beth was one of those people who just wanted that right man and it's a myth because happiness and true love is almost impossible to find in our world and even in Beth's world where status, money, wealth, and prominence in society mattered so much more to Toolan. The book came out too soon in my opinion because the trial or the sentence hasn't begun.