Finding Susan

By Molly Hurley Moran and Associate Professor Molly Hurley Moran PhD

Book Overview

A woman's heartrending search for her sister

Advancing with the suspense and deft reportage of the true-crime genre and fueled by the poignancy of a literary memoir, Finding Susan is Molly Hurley Moran's pointed exploration of the disappearance of her sister and her family's descent into the surreal world of psychics and detectives they once dismissed as the stuff of Lifetime movies.

Susan Hurley Harrison disappeared from upscale Ruxton, Maryland on August 5, 1994. Her body was discovered in the woods of northern Maryland two years later and her death was ruled a homicide. Although Susan's case drew substantial media attention-- including a spot on Unsolved Mysteries-- no one, to date, has ever been charged with her murder. In piecing together a mosaic of Susan's final years, Moran grew to believe her sister was a victim of domestic violence.

An academic by trade, Moran employs a scholar's precision and razor-sharp feminist analysis in this valiant effort to come to terms with Susan's life and death and to understand her sister in a way she did not when she was alive. " Finding" Susan refers to both the search for Susan's body and the search for the formative forces of her life.

Mirroring elements of high-profile cases from Laci Peterson to Nicole Brown Simpson, Finding Susan is one woman's chronicle of loss and remembrance that arrestingly details the helplessness experienced by families of missing persons and calls critical attention to our alarming blindness to domestic abuse. Including appendixes of domestic violence resources, Finding Susan serves as a guide for concerned family members and friends of at-risk women to help identify the warning signs of domestic abuse. Thirty-six illustrations are a powerful complement to the volume.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0809325195
• ISBN13: 9780809325191
• Release Date: October 2003
• Publisher: Southern Illinois University Press
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 6.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.0" x 1.0" x 5.0"

Customer Reviews

A sad end to a sad story but necessary to be told!

This book was very well written and the personalities very well portrayed. Wish I'd been able to know and love Susan. The abuse that she endured (and dished out) is incomprehensible to me but I know it happens all too often. I just wish peeps in this same kind of situation could read this book and determine to GET OUT of their own nightmare!

A tragic story of a talented woman murdered - a must read

I want to thank Molly Hurley Moran for writing this book. Her sister, Susan Hurley Harrison, was murdered in 1994 and the crime is still, to this day, unsolved. This story came to my attention when it was featured on Unsolved Mysteries back in late 1996 - ironically, shortly before Susan's body was discovered. Moran's novel brings you into the life story of her sister, and after reading it you feel like you know Susan personally. It is a tragic story of a talented woman who was a loving mother to her two sons but was affected by spousal abuse which may ultimately have played a role in her murder. Was Jim Harrison, her husband, also her killer? The Maryland state attorney general declined to file charges, but that doesn't mean Harrison had no involvement in Susan's murder. Read Moran's book and study the evidence involved.

Susan's Tragedy

Combining a wealth of fact with a lucid, readable style, Molly Moran records her family's torment in seeking justice for a murdered relative (the author's sister, whose killer has never been prosecuted). Having lacked, at first, the proof of homicide which was later to come with the discovery of Susan's skeletal remains, Moran amasses evidence of the spousal abuse which points to Susan's second husband as the murderer. Of overarching interest is the character of the sister who unwittingly replicated, in her second marriage, the alcohol-driven chaos of the childhood home (I respect Moran's courage in looking at this dimension of her sister's past, since it is of course a part of her own past, too). Careful to show us Susan's weaknesses and limitations, Moran also reveals Susan's generous and gifted side--compassion for friends, devotion to her sons. These admirable qualities underscore the power of the psychological forces (lack of self-confidence and of self-regard) which kept Susan in an abusive marriage. The book makes an urgent plea for other victims to "get out now"--and for law enforcement to pursue justice for those who cannot escape.

an eye-opener for those who trust our Justice System

As the mother of a murdered daughter, Kaitlyn Arquette, whose unsolved case could easily have been solved in the first two weeks of the (non)investigation, I was fascinated, but not surprised, by Molly Moran's well-written and heartbreaking account of her family's futile efforts to achieve justice for their murdered loved one. Molly should be commended for exposing the flaws in a Justice System that looks good in theory but simply DOESN'T WORK. To read a capsuled account of Susan's case along with dozens of others that were incompetently and/or corruptly handled by law enforcement, visit the Real Crimes web site at www.realcrimes.com. Truth is certainly stranger and definitely more horrible than fiction.Lois Duncan author of WHO KILLED MY DAUGHTER?

A definite read (and a long review)

When the average person reads in a newspaper about a murdered person and the subsequent investigation, the idea that there is a long-lasting effect on the family is not always completely considered. Molly Moran's book brings her sister Susan to life to such a point that I felt I knew Susan and probably would have had a lot in common with her. Moran gives us an in-depth look at the devastation that brought her sister, a vibrant and talented woman, to continue in an abusive relationship and her downward spiral with alcohol. What stunned me most was Appendix A - the 28 police and doctor reports (from 1987 to 1994) told in an almost matter-of-fact tone. To think that there were so many documented times that Susan could helped herself and yet she continued with the one relationship that she knew was no good for her.This book should be required reading for all high school freshmen girls (presumably when they start dating). They may not appreciate fully all of the family dynamics that are encompassed in the book. Perhaps, though, if girls at that age learn about the pattern of spousal abuse early on, it might help one of them...or they might be able to help a loved one get help.A definite read...and sorry for the long review.