Adapted from the foreword by Nicholas Pileggi, author of the book & screenplay for the film Goodfellas:

When two infants died in a South Carolina day care in nine months, pathologists diagnosed sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). It seemed like a tragic coincidence. But then the state police began investigating. They discovered that no one had looked into the first death, so it didn’t meet the definition of SIDS. Between the fatalities, a baby who attended the day care had suffered a brain injury. He lived, but doctors found he’d been violently shaken. Investigators now had three potential victims, and the unlikely suspects seemed to be Josh and Gail Cutro, the couple who ran the day care.

In Good Hands has enough twists and turns to make you wonder what to believe. Is this a tale about SIDS, a medical mystery? Or is it about murder? And if murder, what could be the motive? In the town of Irmo, where the Cutros had plenty of support, parents continued to drop off their children. They couldn’t fathom that these people might be dangerous. The Cutros had three children of their own.

Rarely does a book take listeners through the intricacies of an investigation and trial. The author talks to everyone: lawyers, jurors, parents, psychologists, and finally the Cutros. I’ve been a fan of David Hechler’s for years. Once again, he not only includes all the information listeners need to weigh the evidence for themselves, he makes us feel we were there.

After the trial, he tells us what we should know that wasn’t allowed into evidence. What did some parents see that led them to pull their children from the day care? What was really going on in that home? Then the book does something that’s rare. Not content to point out dangers, the author focuses on solutions. Home day cares, the most popular venues, are virtually unregulated. It’s up to parents to protect their own. The last achievement of In Good Hands is that it informs parents how to help make their children safer.