Murder at Teal's Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks

As a Twin Peaks fan, I ordered Murder at Teal’s Pond as soon as I had heard of it. As a person with a bad memory, I promptly forgot about it until I interacted with co-authorDavid Bushmanon Twitter.I’m glad that I was reminded of it: not only was this page-turner selected as the Oxygen True Crime Book Club January pick but I also couldn’t personally put it down until it was done. David Bushman and Mark T. Givens spent years chasing down all of the clues that they could in order to write about ‘Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks,’ and their fastidious investigation has rendered an interesting narrative that follows the many strands of this fascinating case.Twin Peaks, whose inciting event was the murder of Laura Palmer, spent an enormous amount of time trying to figure out exactly who Laura Palmer really was. This also happened with the people who had to investigate her historical counterpart, Hazel Irene Drew, who was murdered and her body dumped in Teal’s Pond in 1908. Hazel’s murder takes us on a narrative tour of the history and politics of Sand Lake, New York as well as nearby Troy, as Hazel, a woman of modest means, was connected to some of the most influential people in her environs.Much like with the case of Laura Palmer, to understand Hazel Drew’s murder case also means that we must understand not only the place in which it happened and her possible murderers — but those investigating the crime as well. Bushman and Givens give background information on the political allegiances and overarching philosophies of those with the most power to steer the investigation.I enjoyed the style of the narration itself which was never shy about plunging into detail, while also maintaining a lovely musicality to the prose. The authors’ sensitivity towards the subject herself was also deeply refreshing: there are several points where time is taken to explain how the male gaze influenced this case, as well as other cases at the time.The level of detail is also top-notch: as a seamstress and Victwardian fangirl, I was delighted to hear the level of detail about Hazel’s clothing (which are actually important clues to the murder). Well-organized and with a clear structure, the book examines a number of facets about the investigation, people, and town that it is focused on. As clues about Hazel and her life are uncovered, we are treated to exceptional investigative detail on this cold case, which includes everything from ghost stories to a possible conspiratorial cover-up.It’s also fascinating how much Hazel Drew’s murder really does resemble that of Laura Palmer in some of the tiny details: from heart-shaped necklaces to bounteous secrets, the two murders have more than just a water-logged victim in common. That’s particularly fascinating, because Mark Frost talks about the ghost story that inspired him in the foreward — a ghost story that at that point didn’t even include the victim’s name, which makes the coincidences even more fascinating.As with many books of the genre, the book closes with the author’s thoughts on what might have really happened. While we may never know for certain what happened to Hazel Drew, I am grateful to the authors for making sure I knew more about who she was in addition to what happened to her.

An Amazon First Read this month, "Murder at Teal's Pond: Hazel Drew and the Mystery That Inspired Twin Peaks" is an incredibly well researched account of 1908 murder of 20-year-old Hazel Drew, a murder that is said to have inspired the Laura Palmer story thread in "Twin Peaks."Fans of historical true crime stories with revel in the detail provided by David Bushman and Mark T. Givens as they explored the world in which Drew, a domestic worker with no obvious controversy about her at the time, actually lived and the key players in her community and in her family. The historical depth provided here gives tremendous weight to the effort to finally solve this mystery, though I struggled quite often with the way the story is presented and elements of the literary structure in "Murder at Teal's Pond." Seldom, if ever, did I feel truly immersed in the story even as I found the actual facts fascinating.I must confess that I'm not particularly a fan of revealing all the key players up front, though I do understand it given how many different players are involved here. However, front-loading facts just feels like a less literary approach to storytelling.Do the authors actually solve the mystery? They certainly do put forth a great argument that will intrigue crime buffs and "Twin Peaks" fans. Is it required to be an actual "Twin Peaks" fan to appreciate the story here? Of course not, though the authors refer to the show multiple times and that will make multiple parts of the book less satisfying.Overall, this is a solid, mid-range true crime story for me that satisfies more from a historical perspective than a literary one. I was fascinated by the story. I simply wish it had been presented more engaging manner.

The book is supposed to be the inspiration for the television series Twin Peaks. I must admit, that I have never watched the show, not did I have any idea of what the show was about. That being said, this book has made me want to watch it. The real life crime is the unsolved murder of Hazel Drew. The authors recount the murder and subsequent investigation of it. We are introduced to friends, family, and acquaintances of Hazel. We learn that she lived a rather extravagant lifestyle for a girl that worked only as a domestic. The murder remains unsolved to this day, but the authors state who they believe did it and why. The book is definitely worth reading.

With this story come many questions. We know not all can be answered because those answers are gone with the dead, but fleshing out a time-line would be helpful to review windows of opportunity. This story requires maps and timetables with visual cues for each participant.

This is a tragic story which exemplifies the impact politics can have on people's lives and deaths. The investigation was flawed by political gain.

The story of Hazel Drew, her life and death was well researched and came to a logical conclusion .Anyone intrigued with murder mysteries will like this book.

Did not finish book couldn't get into it .

I enjoyed the details of the story but some parts were prolonged! I agreed with who the authors believed were the suspects who escaped Justice. It’s sad to be poor as Hazel’s family were.Will recommend to my friends who are avid readers of true crimes. I gave the rating of 5 stars because I believe the authors thoroughly researched this crime in my opinion!

In 1908, the body of a twenty-year-old woman was found floating in Teal’s Pond, Sand Lake, New York State. With the neighbourhood of various mountain folk and charcoal-makers thrown into disarray, the police inundated with potential suspects and dubious testimony, and speculation running riot in the daily press, the multi-doctor autopsy lacks the conclusive wallop required to definitively point to a likely perp.Thus, the story of Hazel Drew is relegated to the annals of history and campfire legend until the emergence of the TV series, Twin Peaks: created by a man who heard the story as a child and considered it a source of inspiration for his show.This novelised true crime investigation into the murder of Hazel Drew is hampered by two things.Firstly, the writers have researched the area, the key players and possible suspects for five years, and as such, there’s far too much detail for the reader to keep track of. There are too many characters, with too little characterisation to make them memorable. The imagined thought processes of the key players are laborious and speak to many hours of writing, rewriting, tweaking and overthinking; as such, they lack plausibility.The book starts with the Dramatis Personae, which helps as a quick reference but is intimidating once you realise there are so many characters to be introduced. Then, after the bulk of the story is dealt with, there’s a very brief Here’s What We Think Happened section, and we’re straight into the Author’s Note and Acknowledgements. Thus, the book feels overstuffed and then, quite suddenly, flat as a pancake.Secondly, and I don’t like myself for saying it, but there’s no getting past the idea that this book is written by two fanboys who want to impress the creator of their favourite show. The authors’ love of Twin Peaks is clear and runs right the way through the story. I suspect it goes some way to explaining the incongruous imagined thoughts of the main characters. These are fans, with an interest in forensic investigation, but I’m not sure they’re really writers.For a while, I held out hope:“Who was Hazel Drew? Because almost all of the people who controlled the narrative contemporaneously - chiefly investigators and reporters - were men, the story was filtered through the male gaze, and Hazel - like Laura Palmer and her antecedent, the eponymous protagonist of the 1944 Otto Preminger film noir Laura - became a projection on a screen, absorbing whatever qualities or shortcomings these unreliable narrators assigned to her: woman as defined by male obsession.”6% in, Introduction, Murder At Teal’s Pond by David Bushman and Mark T. GivensAnd okay, it’s a run-on sentence, but it gave me hope that these authors wouldn’t give a pantomime facsimile of a lead female character. Unfortunately, as Hazel is imagined, walking fearlessly through the woods at night, near the pond where she’d be found a few days later…“She wipes at her brow with her sleeve. Her hair has dampened and matted in the heat. How many men had complimented her on her radiant blonde hair and glittering blue eyes.“The young woman chuckles to herself. ‘If they could see me now.’”6% in, Chapter One, Murder At Teal’s Pond by David Bushman and Mark T. GivensDang it. I don’t care if it’s 1908 and Hazel is somewhere she knows. Women have never walked in so cavalier a fashion. No woman goes anywhere alone at night, her shoes caked in mud, with no torch, keys between her fingers or weapon of any kind, without thinking that an attack is imminent. And I’m sorry, fellas, but even if she does feel impossibly safe and undaunted, she doesn’t devote all her thoughts to what various faceless men think of her.I'm sure inadvertently, but the authors have retained the female victim as the film noir femme, and removed any real depth from her thoughts, actions and murder.Exhaustive and exhausting.