Where the Crawdads singThe first novel of the new series is set to release in theaters. The first novel of Delia OwensInternational best-seller due in part to endorsement by Reese WitherspoonIt is a novel, but there is a disturbing past behind its creation. It is the story of a real murder. Let’s discover the story.
The Novel was met with critical acclaim
The 2018 novel Where the Crawdads singTwo interconnected storylines are used to tell the story about a girl growing in a marsh and a murder investigation in the larger community where she lives. Witherspoon selected it for her Hello Sunshine Book Club in September 2018, and Barnes & Noble named it one of its best books. To date, it’s sold over 12 million copies. For perspective, that’s just a hair shy The Old Man and the Sea. It’s a megahit that has dominated bestseller lists for years.
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Witherspoon bought the film rights and is now set to release a movie adaptation. Daisy Edgar-Jones is getting rave reviews as the film’s lead, but the movie overall is not a critical darling. It’s resting at 37% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Dark Backstory
Owens spent decades in Africa with Mark Owens before becoming a novelist. They’re conservationists. The two have written three memoirs about their time on the continent, but they’re not allowed to return. That’s because they’re wanted for questioning in a murder. An account of the story was published in 18,000 word New YorkerStory.
1986 was the beginning of this era. Delia and Mark started to assist the Zambian governmentAfter being kicked out Botswana. The two wanted to preserve the local animal population but discovered poachers were ravaging the local elephants for their tusks—the ivory market is extremely profitable. The poachers were not being detected by the local park service, so the Owenses made the decision to take action. “help.”
The following is an extract from the New YorkerThe couple then raised funds to pay better wages and purchase more equipment. Mark was allegedly the leader of the scouts that began to hunt poachers. Mark proudly claimed in a dispute letter that his Scouts had killed two poachers. “are just getting warmed up.”
In 1996, an ABC News segment on the subject brought all of it to a halt. “shoot to kill” policy. The murder of a poacher, allegedly by the Owenses’ son Christopher Owens, was caught on film. Christopher Owens and Mark Owens are still wanted for questioning. Shortly thereafter, the family fled the country.
The Owens Family Denies All
Delia Owens, Mark Owens, and Mark Owens have denied that such allegations are true. They were however warned by the US government to stay out of Zambia. There are numerous connections to Owens’ personal life in the novel, so it’s certainly possible the “shoot-to-kill”Popular stories have been marred by policy and subsequent manhunts.