This book tells the story of an interesting case, one that I admit to being unfamiliar with before now. I commend the author on the years of work he put into investigating what really happened that night. I would have taken in the facts of the case better in a more narrative approach. The story really being told in this book is that of the work done to free the Fairbanks Four in the years following their conviction.

[1.5 stars rounded down]
[DNF at ~35%]

What am I supposed to be paying attention to here? So many names are being thrown out at me. Too many strange tangents into random, barely related things that I can never tell if it’s actually important to the main story or not until after it ends.

Chapters are divided into sometimes short, sometimes strangely long subchapters that are only sometimes related. This is usually my preferred format for nonfiction books but they are executed so horribly in this case. Often, the next subsection continues just after the first one ended and I’m left wondering why it was even separated in the first place.

We spend a weirdly large amount of time on random things that, from what I could tell, had nothing to do with the story or case itself. Why are we constantly bringing up the Iditarod as if it has some importance here? Why do I need to hear about the author’s one off case he took on that lasted two subchapters and seemingly does not relate to anything other than that the author wanted to brag about his involvement in another thing in the area at the time? Maybe this all comes together in the end in some huge, amazing way, but I can’t make myself read in far enough to get to that point.
The author’s narration feels very hostile and self righteous against everything. I don’t think that it’s appropriate for a book covering this story. Though the portion of the book that I read and what the description states makes it understandable that he is rightfully proud of what he was able to accomplish, it becomes distracting and ultimately takes away from the story.

I’m not going to make myself finish this one. I can’t stand the author’s voice, the descriptions of events, or the formatting of the book. It’s a shame because I am interested in the story itself, but I guess I just won’t get it from O’Donoghue’s mouth himself.

The audiobook's narrator had a somewhat unique but very welcome voice. I don't often hear narrators with a slight draw or the roughness of his voice, but it was very nice to listen to. He did a good job in differentiating the subchapter's titles versus the bodies of text themselves.

I have mixed feelings about this book. I think it was written well and engaging, but also made me mad at the failing 'justice' system. There's a line somewhere that I'm going to butcher that goes something like 'Do you really think they're innocent' 'It's more that they should have never been accused let alone convicted because of a huge lack of evidence'

I didn't really know a lot about the Fairbanks Four before reading this, so I felt like I learned a lot. I liked getting the information from a reporter and journalism teacher who was there at the time and had access to a lot of the info and people involved.

The narrator did a brilliant job, I very much loved his voice.

The story behind The Fairbanks Four is powerful—and heartbreaking. The synopsis pulled me in immediately, and I was really excited to receive an ARC through NetGalley (huge thanks for that!). Unfortunately, the execution just didn’t live up to the weight of the story.

The case itself is incredibly important and deserves to be told with care and clarity. But this book felt jumbled, messy, and at times hard to follow. There were so many characters introduced quickly, and the chapters were broken into sub-sections that made it hard to stay grounded in the timeline. I found myself rereading parts trying to figure out what was happening and who was who.

The author’s perspective and personal involvement could’ve added something unique, but instead, it often distracted from the core story. The writing at times felt scattered and even hostile in tone, which made it hard to connect with. And the admission of taking “liberties” in reconstructing conversations in a nonfiction book, especially with such high stakes, really didn’t sit well with me.

I deeply respect the work that went into helping the Fairbanks Four and bringing awareness to a broken justice system. But I just don’t think this book did the story justice. It had the potential to be impactful, but the execution made it feel chaotic and unfocused.

The Fairbanks Four is a compelling and deeply researched account of a tragic and infuriating true story — one that sheds light not only on the wrongful convictions of four young men in Alaska, but also on the wider issues of systemic injustice, racial bias, and the power of grassroots activism. Brian Patrick O'Donoghue brings a journalist’s eye for detail and a local’s sense of urgency to this complex case, and I found myself fully drawn in from the beginning.

I really appreciated how the book carefully reconstructs the timeline of events surrounding the 1997 murder of John Hartman and follows the years-long struggle to expose the truth. The dedication to accuracy is clear, and O'Donoghue does a fantastic job weaving in courtroom moments, media coverage, and personal testimonies from the people involved. The pacing is mostly strong, and I found myself emotionally invested throughout.

That said, I’m giving this four stars instead of five because there were sections that read more like a textbook than a narrative nonfiction story. While the level of detail is admirable (and probably necessary for a case this complicated), at times it slowed the momentum and felt a little dense. Readers looking for a smooth, novelistic flow might find these parts a bit challenging. However, the heart and message of the book still come through clearly and powerfully.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy of The Fairbanks Four from NetGalley, and I’m leaving this review voluntarily. I'm very glad I had the chance to read it — it's a thoughtful, important book that deserves attention, especially for readers interested in justice reform and investigative journalism.

DNF at 20%.
This is a true crime book, chronicling the case of the ‘Fairbanks Four’, a group of young men accused of murder.
Despite being 20% in, that’s really all I can tell you. The author has organised the book in a chaotic way which I found difficult to keep up with. He spends a lot of time in the early part of the book outlining the curriculum of the journalism modules he teaches and introducing us to various students - with the females being described using hair colour and attractiveness. Ick. He also writes with quite a judgemental tone from the start.
After restarting some segments a couple of times I eventually chose to DNF.
I ‘read’ the audiobook and also found the narrator not to my taste - very ‘gameshow host’.
Thanks to NetGalley for an advance copy but sadly not for me and I won’t be recommending.

I thoroughly enjoy all things when it comes to true crime and history and while I did go into The Fairbanks Four with some prior knowledge, I still learned a lot from listening to this book.

Overall, I gave The Fairbanks Four a solid three stars because while the store and the content was super informative and I think everyone should take the time to consume this story and learn from it because it is still very much important in 2025, I do think that there was some pacing issues that felt more prominent in the audiobook that maybe wouldn't have been picked up in a traditional book format.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC!

While I found the story intriguing, the narration of The Fairbanks Four audiobook was not engaging enough to keep me listening. I recommend this for crime and history fans, but I think it is worth seeking out a physical or ebook copy.

A story as old as time - four young men falsely accused and imprisoned for the murder of 15 year old, John Hartman. With little to no evidence to support the charges, Brian Patrick O'Donoghue, a journalist and college teacher, wants to use the case and an example and get his class to further investigate. Issues within the justice system, bias, and systemic racism are a recurring theme that are discussed and criticized from the start.

Like a lot of other readers, the story felt all over the place. I really wanted to get sucked into the research O'Donoghue's class delved into and follow a path from there to the resolution. However, there were a lot of moving parts which took away from the overall book.

Thank you to RBmedia Recorded Books and NetGalley for the advanced audio book. Out now!

The Fairbanks Four is a story we have heard time and time again: a young man is found dead, four young men of color are arrested for said murder, and the world turns a blind-eye to the unequal justice system in this country.

Where the Central Park Five captured every headline, The Fairbanks Four is a little known story of four indigenous men who were wrongfully accused of a murder and the path to getting their freedom. Brian Patrick O’Donoghue does a great job telling the story in true journalistic fashion, breaking down his investigation into the case.

While the pacing could have been tightened up, ultimately, I learned a lot in this story. The audio production was great and I really enjoyed the narration.

I am not sure why I struggled with this one. I love true crime and read it often. I just kept finding myself getting lost with the people and the facts. I enjoyed how the author got his class involved in the research and how The Innocents Project was involved. I just kept getting lost in the details.

Maybe the time wasn’t right for me to read this one.


Thanks NetGalley for letting me get a hold of this one.

Fans of true crime and legal justice will love this book. The writing is clear and includes enough background information to help readers understand the complexity of the case, but not so much to get bogged down. It's very much the author's first person experience with the case

I've listened to a lot of true crime podcasts over the years so I loved the idea of this book. I'm always interested in learning about new cases. While the subject matter in the book is obviously super important, I felt like the writing didn't do it justice.

I received an audio arc to review. To me, it read like a Stephen King novel: a long, drawn-out storyline with sidequest-type anecdotes. Which is fine, just not what I expected.

The narrator did a great job. Very easy to understand at an increased speed.

This is one of those true crime stories where it feels so frustrating because the victim was let down when people refused to help him while he was dying alone, and then he was let down again when the investigators didn't try to find his real killers. The Fairbanks Four were yet more innocent victims, wrongly accused and convicted, and the story of their exoneration felt so long and was definitely not inevitable.
The author of The Fairbanks Four investigated the case after they were already convicted, using a class he was teaching to get new information and go over the problems from the original investigation. He talks about the challenges in his own life while he was doing this, and also talks about the effects on the Four and on their friends and relatives.
There were so many points where it seems like this should have been stopped, and where the Four should have been let go, but it took all those years just to get someone willing to fight hard enough who had the resources to make it happen. Of course it's important for a community to feel closure after experiencing violence but it doesn't do any good to convict the wrong people -- it just creates more victims.
Thanks to NetGalley I got to listen to the audiobook, which was very well done.

The Fairbanks Four tells an important and heartbreaking story — one murder, four wrongful convictions, and a community's determination to seek justice. The book follows the brutal 1997 killing of 15-year-old John Hartman in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the tragic aftermath where four young Alaska Native and American Indian men were wrongfully imprisoned. Journalist Brian Patrick O'Donoghue, unable to let the case go, leads a tireless investigation with his students, exposing the lies, prejudice, and systemic failures that destroyed lives.

While the story itself is powerful and deserves attention, I personally found the writing to be slow and, at times, confusing. The pacing dragged in several parts, making it hard to stay engaged even though the subject matter is so serious and compelling. O'Donoghue’s dedication to uncovering the truth is admirable, but the way the narrative jumps around made it difficult to follow at times. Overall, it’s an important book for understanding injustice in America, but the storytelling style made it a pretty boring read for me most of the time.

I’m a huge true crime fan, so the story behind The Fairbanks Four immediately grabbed my attention. It’s about four young men wrongfully convicted of a brutal murder in Alaska, and the heartbreaking mix of racism, negligence, and terrible police work that led to it. While the facts are powerful and the case deserves way more attention, the writing itself felt choppy and dragged out in places, which made it hard to stay connected. I really wanted to love this more because the story matters so much, but the lack of flow just kept pulling me out of it. Overall,

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3 stars because the story is important, even if the delivery didn’t quite land.

This book was great. It gave a detailed description of the case and the process of figuring out that the men were innocent. If you love true crime and hard hitting stories you’ll definitley love this one.

I am an avid true crime lover, so the description and idea of this book is great. This book is about a young man that was kick, stomped and brutally beaten to death (he died two days later at the hospital, not at the scene). Then 4 young men were wrongfully arrested and convicted (with very shaky and hardly any evidence). This is a story that I have personally heard very little about and that is disheartening to me before this book because there was so much racism, negligence, shotty police work and overall neglect by the justice department. Professor O’Donoghue brought this case to his students at the University of Alaska in Fairbanks to do some investigative journalism and start the innocence project to get these men’s convictions overturned and their names cleared. This book is full of facts, a horrible and also amazing story but unfortunately just gets lost in the multitude of chapters that come out either choppy or super drawn out. I know that true crime books can be daunting at times and they are hard topics but they still need to be able to drawn in the reader or the narrator needs to be able to draw in the reader with the fluidity of their voice, which unfortunately just does not happen here. I think this story needs to be told and is very interesting and that is why I am rating this book a 3/5 stars. Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia for the opportunity to read and listen to this book! These thought are of my own personal opinion.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Recorded Books Media for gifting me an audio ARC of this true crime story by Brian Patrick O’Donoghue and narrated by Chris Henry Coffey. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 3 stars.

In 1997, a passerby finds an unconscious teenager, brutally beaten, who subsequently dies days later at the hospital. The police quickly arrest four suspects, all under 21, and all of indigenous backgrounds. All are later convicted and sentenced to long prison terms. The author can't get the story out of his mind, and when given the opportunity to teach a class on investigative reporting, he and his students delve deeply into the case.

Like that of all people wrongly convicted, this is indeed a very sad story, one made worse with blatant racism. I admire all those who devote themselves to uncovering the truth and then seeking to right the wrong. But I was never very invested in this audiobook and it really seemed to drag for me. It seemed disjointed in its presentation and i got people and details very confused. There seemed to be extraneous information while important information was lacking. An important story for sure, especially today, but a bit hard to follow.

Brian Patrick O’Donoghue’s The Fairbanks Four: Murder, Injustice, and the Birth of a Movement tells a compelling story of a wrongful conviction and the long fight for justice. The book shines a light on the tragic murders of John Hartman and Allen Peters in Fairbanks, Alaska, and the subsequent trials and tribulations of the four young men convicted of the crime. O’Donoghue effectively captures the sense of injustice that fueled the decades-long movement to exonerate the Fairbanks Four.
However, the book at times felt like it could have benefited from further editing. The organization occasionally felt disjointed, making it a bit challenging to follow the chronological progression of events and the various legal complexities. While O’Donoghue’s personal connection to the story and his reflections on his own experiences added a layer of depth, I found myself wishing for a greater focus on the details surrounding the murders themselves and perhaps a more in-depth analysis of the initial investigation and trial. The exploration of the author’s journey, while interesting, sometimes overshadowed the central narrative of the crime and the legal battles.
Despite these structural issues and the desire for more focus on the initial crime, The Fairbanks Four remains a worthwhile read for anyone interested in true crime, wrongful convictions, and the power of community activism. It successfully highlights a significant case of potential injustice and the unwavering dedication of those who fought for truth and freedom.