Books

“My opinion? I honestly don’t know, like everybody else. And anyone that says they know is lying.”

By Abby Patkin

June 17, 2026 | 9:37 AM

11 minutes to read

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As word began to spread throughout Canton that a Boston cop had been found dead or dying in the snow, Dave Wedge’s phone lit up with calls.

“My phone started ringing right away with people like, ‘Dude, you’ve got to look at this story. This is crazy; there’s way more to this than people know,’” The New York Times bestselling author recalled. 

To Wedge, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022, initially seemed like an open-and-shut tragedy. Prosecutors had quickly arrested O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Read, and accused her of drunkenly backing her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at 34 Fairview Road for an afterparty. 

A far more scandalous tale began to emerge as Wedge, a former Boston Herald investigative reporter, began following Read’s court hearings. There, her lawyers made a shocking claim: Read had been framed, and someone else was to blame for killing O’Keefe.

Four years, two highly-publicized murder trials, and one acquittal later, Wedge has turned his deep dive on Read’s case into “Blizzard of Lies,” a new nonfiction thriller hitting shelves next month.

A South Shore native whose 2015 book on the Boston Marathon bombing was adapted into a Mark Wahlberg film, Wedge said he was particularly drawn to the mystery surrounding Read’s case, the “loose ends that were never tied up, just left to dangle out there” even after she was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges.

“And frankly, ultimately, that’s why Karen Read was found not guilty, because there were so many of those loose ends that were left out there, … that it gave the jury an incredible amount of reasonable doubt,” he added. 

In a wide-ranging interview with Boston.com earlier this spring, Wedge offered his thoughts on Read’s coverup claims, the social media sideshow, and the infamous “whodunnit?” that may forever remain unsolved. 

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity. 

Boston.com: As someone who grew up just a couple towns over from Canton, do you feel that sort of proximity influenced your insight or approach here?

Wedge: I grew up in Brockton, worked at the Herald. I live in a town right outside of Boston now. So I know a lot of people in Canton; I know a lot of people in the area. And before I was really committed to writing this book, everywhere I would go, whether it’s a Christmas party or a birthday or a cookout, everyone knows what I do when I’m at these places and they’re like, “Dude, are you following this case? It’s crazy.”

Everywhere I went, people were telling me that they had some sort of personal connection to the case. I’m not comparing the stories at all, but the same thing happened to me with the marathon book, where everyone knew someone that was impacted by the Boston Marathon bombings.

So it’s a pretty unique story in that respect. … It helped me, because as you know, as a reporter, the closer you can get to the streets and the actual people involved, that’s usually where the truth lies. And I’ve always tried to lean on that in my reporting. The courtroom is the matter of record, but there’s a lot more that happens outside the courtroom that can kind of fill in the gaps of what actually happened in these cases. So it was helpful to me to know a lot of people that had personal connections to people involved. 

Between your books and your time at the Herald, you’ve covered some pretty massive true crime stories. How does Karen Read stack up?

I mention it in the forward that never in my career have I seen a murder case that has caused more uproar in the law enforcement and judicial community and, more importantly, divided a community and just divided us publicly. There’s just so many people that are so passionate about this case, and I think … the implications on the judicial system of this case are going to be felt for a long time. 

The social media movement that was started by Turtleboy [Aidan Kearney] and perpetuated by all sorts of “LawTubers” and influencers and bloggers and independent journalists, and then amplified by the mainstream media, I think had a tremendous impact on this case. 

It’s really set a precedent not only in Massachusetts, but I think nationally for defense lawyers on how they can kind of influence the court of public opinion in these cases and get the public on their side. It’s a problem, in my opinion, for the justice system. It’s something that they’re going to have to think about. The old days of a gag order [saying] “don’t talk to reporters,” that’s not going to work anymore.

So we’ll see how the courts address it. But certainly, social media played a massive, massive role in this case. … This, in my opinion, is the first real case in Massachusetts where social media really was a major, major factor in the courtroom.

With a criminal case that’s this sprawling, this contentious, where do you start when it comes time to research and write? 

That’s a great question. I think, for me, … you have to follow the proceedings. You have to know what actually happened in the courtroom. But interviews, you have to really talk to people that were involved, talk to people that know what happened, talk to people that I trust. I have a lot of folks in the law enforcement community and the judicial community — defense lawyers and judges, retired and otherwise — and it’s good for me to talk to people like that that have been around the courtrooms.

And then, obviously, you dig through all the court records, and I read all the media coverage. … Karen appeared on several different documentaries and interviews. That was stuff that you simply, if you’re writing a book about this case, you just had to watch and had to analyze and think about. No lack of materials to lean on, that’s for sure. 

As you were collecting all that information, doing the interviews and research, which resources did you find most helpful and valuable there? 

I mean, it’s all part of the puzzle. … I’m a storyteller, and I’m telling a story. This isn’t a white paper about what happened in the case. It’s not a textbook about law, and it’s certainly not Karen Read’s story, and it’s not John O’Keefe’s story. It’s my interpretation, my narrative about what happened with everybody involved. And so I leaned on all of it. 

Gotcha. And you also mentioned in the author’s note that at the outset in 2022, no one could have predicted how much more there was to this story. Were there any discoveries or revelations that surprised you along the way as you were working on this?

Oh, absolutely. Every step of the way. I mean, the trials were must-see TV for people that were following the case, because there were revelations every day. But the reason I put that in the forward is because when this first started and the people first started calling me — and this is not to be disrespectful or dismissive, but I was like, “All right, it was a terrible drunken accident and a police officer died.” It’s a terrible story, but I didn’t really see that there was a book there. 

But as time progressed, we learned, “Oh my gosh, there’s this whole scenario that surrounded his death, involving all these other people.”

You note in the book that several of the prosecution witnesses [were allegedly caught in lies] or were sketchy on the stand. You know, the butt-dials between [homeowner Brian] Albert and [Brian] Higgins come to mind. Did you get the sense that there was something more going on that they were trying to hide, or was it coincidence?

Obviously, you hear rumors. And I’m sure you have, too. I don’t know that there was a vast conspiracy to frame Karen Read, and I’m not going to pass judgment on that. But I do know that when a police officer is found dead, there’s not a lot of people that are going to want to get involved in that investigation. I don’t care if you’re a civilian or a police officer or what. So could it be that? Maybe. Maybe they just didn’t want to be involved in the investigation. Were they covering up other criminal activity? Maybe. Were they covering up personal stuff, relationships and otherwise? Perhaps. We’ll never know. And by the way, it could have been that they were covering up a conspiracy, but we will never know that. 

All of this stuff was just left out there, floated out there, and there’s been no resolution. There’s been nothing that’s been proven otherwise, and they haven’t proven that Karen Read killed John O’Keefe. 

So really, the takeaway from this case and my book, frankly, is that the O’Keefe family is left without justice, and as of now, they have no answers. And it appears that they may never have any answers, which to me is a real, real tragedy. 

You’re pretty careful throughout the book to avoid giving your take on who you think might have done it, what went on inside the house, if anything. What was sort of the thought process there in withholding your judgment?

I’m not an opinion writer. I’m a journalist, and I’m an investigator, and I write stories based on facts. I like to tell a good story, and I like to create a yarn, but I’m not Truman Capote and I’m not going to write that, “[In] my opinion, here’s what happened.” But I tried to portray the scenarios that could have happened based on the facts that came out, and based on the accusations from everyone involved. 

My opinion? I honestly don’t know, like everybody else. And anyone that says they know is lying. … So I wouldn’t say I’m “careful” as much as it’s like, I don’t want to overstep and make people think that I know what happened, because I don’t know what happened. … My personal opinion is that there’s a piece missing somewhere; there’s something else that must have happened, because we don’t have the answers. But we may never know. 

Jumping off of that, I found it interesting how you structured the two competing narratives about what happened inside 34 Fairview [Road on Jan. 29, 2022], giving each scenario its own chapter rather than going back and forth, he said/she said. Could you tell me a little about that creative decision? 

This isn’t my first rodeo with books, so I want things that people enjoy reading, and I want it to be a page-turner. I think you have to simplify it a little bit, and I think if you have it bouncing back and forth in timelines and stuff, it gets a little confusing for people.

I just thought that was the best way to kind of lay it out there, like, “Hey, here’s what the prosecution says happened, here’s what the defense says happened.” And those two chapters really are backed up by what came out in the courtroom.

And when it comes to looking at how the mainstream media covered the case, you’re sort of at a unique vantage point there, given your background. Why do you think this case became as much of a media circus as it did?

Well, there’s a lot of reasons. And it’s funny, I used to think about this a lot when I was at the Herald — why some stories would become national news and some wouldn’t. I think what you have here with this case is first of all, you have a defendant who is, you know, the girl next door. She comes from privilege. She goes to a good school, and she’s got a great life, seemingly. … And it’s a fall from grace.

And then you have this group of townies and cops who we all — anyone who’s lived in a small town in this area, in New England, knows guys like the Alberts. They’re the local big-shot cop, and they kind of run the town, or it’s at least perceived that they do. 

Remember, too, we’re coming out of a moment in this country where … people are really looking at the justice system wrongfully convicting folks and, you know, police brutality, and all that. … I think there’s a real sentiment out there that if it could happen to Karen Read, it could happen to anybody. And I think that’s a big reason why the case became as big as it did. 

And then you also had the … social media circus that surrounded it, the people protesting and Turtleboy making a spectacle, and then his whole situation with getting arrested and spending time in jail. I think all of it just escalated this case to where it really became a soap opera.

If your readers take one thing away from this case and your retelling of the proceedings, what do you hope that that would be? 

We have to look at the intersection of social media, bullying, public shaming, and the judicial system and holding people accountable at every level — whether you’re a defendant, a witness, a judge, a DA, a defense attorney. I think that there’s a lot of questions with this case about accountability. I think there’s a lot of questions with this case about fairness in the judicial system. 

Most of all, I think that what’s really sad with this case, and if people took one thing away from it, I think they should take away that we have a family here that loved John O’Keefe, and two children, his adopted children, that love him and miss him every day. Whatever happened, that family doesn’t have any closure. And I do think it was shameful, and it is shameful, that people continue to attack that family.

One thing that I’ve learned from this book and covering the case is that there is truth to the fact that it became the Karen Read case, when it should have been the John O’Keefe case all along. … People aren’t talking about what a great guy John O’Keefe was and how he was a good cop, and he served well. They’re talking about how Karen was wronged, and she was framed, and that’s the only narrative. … You can have both of those narratives, and that’s what people should understand.