The Idaho Four: An American Tragedy

“Berrett’s shared with Fry that a knife sheath was found in one of the rooms. It’s imperative this doesn’t get out.”

The knife will come to be a critical piece of evidence. This early secrecy lays a foundation for the investigational secrecy that will follow. The reader’s knowledge—and the public’s lack of knowledge in the book—becomes a source of dramatic irony throughout the book.

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again…who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither no victory nor defeat.”

This quote from Theodore Roosevelt hangs on the wall in Chief Fry’s office, offering both characterization and foreshadowing. Fry knows that this case will test his town and his department but has the courage to “[dare] greatly” in the search for justice.

“Dr. Ramsland says there’s a new theory arguing that psychopaths aren’t the product of socioeconomics and environment alone. Biology has a larger role than people previously thought. The brains of psychopaths are structurally and functionally different from other people’s.”

The book’s recursive structure and present-tense narration instill moments like these with a sense of dread and foreknowledge. Bryan is described as fundamentally different from other people. Ramsland’s claim about biology implies an inevitability in Kohberger’s violence.