The Officer's Daughter: A Memoir of Family and Forgiveness

by Elle Johnson

Overview

"The Officer’s Daughter is a masterpiece. More than that, it's the perfect book for our troubled time. Johnson has written the deepest, most emotionally resonant understanding of forgiveness and justice I have ever read."—Darin Strauss, bestselling author of Half a Life

The author reflects on a terrible tragedy that forever altered the fabric of her family in this remarkable memoir, a heart-wrenching story of love, violence, coming of age, secrets, justice, and forgiveness. 

When she was sixteen, Elle Johnson lived in Queens with her family; she dreamed of being best friends with her popular, cool cousin Karen from the Bronx.  Coming from a family of black law enforcement officers, Elle felt that Karen would understand her in a way no one else could. Elle’s father was a highly protective, at times overbearing, parole officer; her uncle, Karen’s dad, was a homicide detective. 

On an ordinary night, the Johnson family’s lives were changed forever. Karen was shot and killed in a robbery gone wrong at the Burger King where she worked. The NYPD and FBI launched a cross-country manhunt to find the killers, and the subsequent trials and media circus marked the end of Elle's childhood innocence.

Thirty years later, Elle was living in Los Angeles and working as a television writer, including on many police procedural shows, when she received an unexpected request. One of Karen’s killers was eligible for parole, and her older brother asked Elle to write a letter to the parole board arguing against his release. Elle realized that before she could condemn a man she’d never met to remain in prison, she had to face the hard truths of her own past: of a family who didn’t speak of the murder and its devastating effect, of the secrets they buried, of a complicated father she never truly understood. 

The Officer's Daughter is a piercing memoir that explores with unflinching honesty what parents can and cannot do to protect their children, the reverberations of violence on survivors’ lives, and the overwhelming power of forgiveness, even in the face of unspeakable tragedy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063011342
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	12/15/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	219
Sales rank:	207,219
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Raised in Hollis, Queens and educated at Harvard, Elle got her first writing job on HOMICIDE: LIFE ON THE STREETS. Her credits include everything from THE FOSTERS and FINDING CARTER to LAW & ORDER and THE GLADES. She is currently co-showrunning MADAM CJ WALKER at Netflix and has done everything from working in Cairo after graduation to riding a bike across country for a cause. 

Editorial Reviews

★ 12/07/2020

Screen writer Johnson debuts with a beautiful and emotional memoir of a family tragedy. In 1981, her cousin and best friend, 16-year-old Karen Marsh, was killed in a botched Burger King robbery in the Bronx. In 2014, Karen’s brother asked her to write a letter to the parole board asking to keep the convicted killer in prison, which prompted Johnson to revisit the incident and the devastating effects it had on her family. At the time of the crime, Johnson’s father was an NYPD parole officer and her uncle was an NYPD homicide detective, and before the suspects were caught she overheard them talking about finding and killing them. Her relationship with her father, a controlling man who beat her mother, was already strained, and overhearing this made it more so. Eventually, two teenage boys involved in the robbery turned themselves in, and the shooter was tracked to California and returned for trial. All received lengthy prison sentences and were denied parole multiple times, but they were eventually released. Johnson never did write the letter, because she waited until it was too late. By researching the case and revisiting her past, though, she finally found forgiveness, for the robbers and her own father. Assured prose bolsters the personal insights. This searing story deserves a wide readership. Agent: Eric Simonoff, WME. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

"The Officer’s Daughter, by Elle Johnson, is a masterpiece. More than that, it's the perfect book for our troubled time. Johnson has written the deepest, most emotionally resonant understanding of forgiveness and justice I have ever read."  — Darin Strauss, bestselling author of Half a Life

"Immensely moving." — New York Times

"A powerful portrait of one family's 'grief that will never end'."  — People

“This fierce, probing memoir beautifully explores the powerful aftershocks of staggering loss. How does a family go on, after senseless, random violence claims one of their own? Buried secrets fester until someone is brave enough to go digging. Elle Johnson has written a gift of a book — one that instructs and inspires, even as it breaks your heart.” — Dani Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of Inheritance 

"The Officer’s Daughter is a powerful dissertation on the legacy of violence; a telling journey to the place in the heart where forgiveness is found. Elle Johnson’s words are beautiful, poignant and painful; and always deeply resonant with truth. This book has an echo that stays with you well after you have turned the last page." — New York Times bestselling author, Michael Connelly   

"Screen writer Johnson debuts with a beautiful and emotional memoir of a family tragedy...This searing story deserves a wide readership." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Powerful reflections on crime, murder, punishment, and redemption...A remarkable exploration of forgiveness by a veteran storyteller." — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From the Publisher

"The Officer’s Daughter, by Elle Johnson, is a masterpiece. More than that, it's the perfect book for our troubled time. Johnson has written the deepest, most emotionally resonant understanding of forgiveness and justice I have ever read." 

Darin Strauss

"Immensely moving."

New York Times

"The Officer’s Daughter is a powerful dissertation on the legacy of violence; a telling journey to the place in the heart where forgiveness is found. Elle Johnson’s words are beautiful, poignant and painful; and always deeply resonant with truth. This book has an echo that stays with you well after you have turned the last page."

New York Times bestselling author

"A powerful portrait of one family's 'grief that will never end'." 

People

This fierce, probing memoir beautifully explores the powerful aftershocks of staggering loss. How does a family go on, after senseless, random violence claims one of their own? Buried secrets fester until someone is brave enough to go digging. Elle Johnson has written a gift of a book — one that instructs and inspires, even as it breaks your heart.

Dani Shapiro

03/01/2021

Screenwriter Johnson recalls the murder of her teenage cousin Karen Marsh in 1981. The author grew up in Queens, NY, in a law enforcement family; her father was a parole officer and her uncle a homicide detective. Johnson was enamored with Karen, admiring her ease and ability to navigate spaces with confidence, whether in her all-white Catholic high school or a sweet sixteen party in the Bronx with mostly Black friends. Karen's senseless death in a Burger King robbery gone awry traumatizes the family. Johnson's isolation from both her parents and her classmates at her mostly white school following the death of her cousin is felt keenly. Her father, mercurial and occasionally violent, wrestles with the tension between understanding how institutional racism and intergenerational poverty impact the behavior of his parolees, and frustration when they make poor choices. Johnson understands this tension and when Karen's killer is up for parole in 2014 and her brother Warren asks her to write a letter to the parole board urging them to deny parole, she must grapple with whether or not she really believes in rehabilitation or forgiveness. VERDICT A powerful meditation on the long aftermath of violent crime that will engage a variety of readers.—Barrie Olmstead, Lewiston P.L., ID

Library Journal

★ 2020-12-15
Powerful reflections on crime, murder, punishment, and redemption.

Johnson, a writer and producer for HBO’s Bosch, among many other crime shows, opens on a harrowing note: “When I was sixteen, my sixteen-year-old cousin, Karen, had her face blown off at point-blank range by a sawed-off shotgun in a robbery gone awry at a local Burger King in the Bronx.” That terrible crime occurred nearly 40 years ago, and though it never faded from memory, it was made immediate by a letter from the victim’s older brother asking that Johnson make a plea to the parole board to ask that the killer not be released from prison: The author knew a thing or two about imprisonment and the parole process: Her late father had been a parole officer, which he called “the worst job in the world,” while the victim’s father was a police officer at the time of the murder. The three young men who were implicated in the crime, all imprisoned—and lucky for them, Johnson suggests, lest her father and uncle have tracked them down and killed them outright—had arrived at various stages of repentance. One had pledged to make his life virtuous to atone for the act while the actual shooter presented a more problematic case. “In ten parole hearings over the course of fourteen years,” writes Johnson, “he never once said the words ‘I’m sorry.’ He forgave himself, but he had never asked to be forgiven. I didn’t forgive him. I couldn’t.” The outcome of this poignant and provocative story arrives after numerous compelling twists and turns and many revelations, including the fact that the scenario of her cousin’s killing was very different in reality from the one she had remembered for all these years. Still, the central truth remains: A young woman who would now be in her mid-50s has long been dead, her killers live, and Johnson is left to ponder whether—and how—justice has been served.

A remarkable exploration of forgiveness by a veteran storyteller.

Kirkus Reviews