“Dykstra casts a searing light on racism, sexism and the stigma of being a ‘bad girl.’”
— pUblisher’s weekly, starred review

WHAT HAPPENED TO PAULA reveals what it REALLY means to be ‘good’ and ‘lucky’ in America, not to mention safe. A bracing and powerful book, unsentimental and sleek, a roadmap for actual change.”

— Lacy Crawford, author of NOTES ON A SILENCING

In July 1970, Paula Oberbroeckling left her home in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and never returned. Four months later her body was discovered just beyond the mouth of a culvert adjacent the Cedar River. Her homicide was never solved. Nearly 45 years later I began an investigation into Paula’s death that would lead me, through many twists, away from the mystery of who killed her and toward the mystery of why she might have died. The result, six years in the making, is …