The Boy Next Door

by N. Leigh Hunt

In 1987, Craig C Price the youngest son of a well-known African American family in central Rhode Island. Craig was only 13 when his neighbour was murdered in the most horrific fashion.

The local officials were baffled and the crime soon went cold. But two years later another neighbour (and her two children) was brutally stabbed to death, the police called in the FBI to assist.

The crimes were professionally profiled and authorities began their search for a local white male who may be working with someone else. They could not have been more wrong.

Craig was a happy teenager but was occasionally in trouble for petty crimes but was never on any police list. But when a community officer noticed he had a bandage on his left hand, they began to take a closer look at Craig.

After a search of his shed they found incriminating items and took him downtown. Over four hours, 15-year old Craig C Price would not only confess to the brutal family slaying but also to the cold case from two years prior.

Audible Audio

Expected publication December 10, 2026

About the author

I am a South African born crime historian and broadcaster living in the United Kingdom. I am a member of the American Society of Criminology and considered an expert on the "I Don't Like Monday's" school shooting in 1979 and the Cokeville School Crisis in 1986.

My formative years were spent in sunny California after moving from the UK. I started my career at a small radio station in the Bay Area, Northern California after attending university in San Diego and the Academy of Radio & Television Broadcasting. My first broadcast job was an intern at an alternative rock station in San Jose and I later produced talk shows, as well as presenting on several stations in Northern California.

I moved back to England in 1999 and contributed to the BBC and many other large broadcasting corporations. I became the director of a radio station in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire and produce shows and podcasts for broadcasters in the Midlands, UK.

Currently i live in the small town of Olney with my wife and am researching the Cokeville School Crisis (1986) and a local missing persons case.

Reviews

[Danni The Girl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have never heard of Craig Price before and I was shocked to learn he was 13 years old when he murdered for the first time and initially go away with it!

I really enjoyed the writing and you can tell so much has gone into creating this book.

I think I would have changed the structure around and started with Craig's background first. However, this is so well researched and there is so much detail in it, it was easy to read.

I don't think Craig is remorseful or sorry. His crimes are horrifying

Thanks Netgally for my copy

[Amie Derricott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the disturbing true story of Craig Price, a seemingly ordinary teenage boy living in a quiet neighbourhood in Warwick, Rhode Island, who turned out to be anything but ordinary.
In 1987, when Craig was just 13 years old, a woman who lived nearby was brutally murdered. The case eventually went cold, and life in the neighbourhood carried on. Then, two years later, another horrific attack happened. A woman and her two young children were murdered in their own home, leaving the local community understandably terrified. Police and the FBI became involved, but the profilers initially believed they were looking for a white adult male.
They couldn't have been more wrong.
Craig was only 15 when the police began to suspect him. The seemingly insignificant detail of a bandaged hand drew the attention of the local police towards him, and when a warrant was granted to search his home, significant evidence linking him to the crime was discovered.
Craig eventually confessed during questioning, admitting that he had killed the woman two years earlier as well as the three victims in the second attack.
What makes this case all the more shocking is his age. We're not talking about a troubled adult who suddenly snapped, we're talking about a 13-year-old committing a brutal murder, followed by more killings at 15.
The book then goes beyond simply telling us what happened and looks at Craig's childhood, the investigation, his confessions and what happened to him afterwards. It also explores the uncomfortable questions surrounding juvenile killers — how much responsibility can you place on someone so young, whether people that violent can ever be rehabilitated, and what society should actually do with them.
And then there's the whole mess surrounding the justice system. Because Craig was a juvenile, the laws at the time meant that his original sentence couldn't simply keep him locked away for life. Sentenced just a few days before his 16th birthday, Craig was sent to a juvenile reform centre, where he would be released on his 21st birthday and his records would be sealed. This meant on his release, no one would ever know about the brutal crimes he committed as a teen.
Craig was later sentenced to serve time in an adult detention centre after an attack on a prison guard, where he was subsequently moved around many detention centres. He was finally sentenced to a further 25 years in jail just, 18 months shy of his release, for the attempted murder of another inmate.
It's a seriously unsettling case, partly because of the sheer brutality of the crimes but also because of how normal the setting and the person at the centre of it initially appeared – the popular and well liked boy next door.

[Joanna · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a lover of true crime and the nature vs nurture argument, this book was right up my street. This was a disturbing and fascinating true-crime read about a case I knew very little about beforehand.

The Boy Next Door explores the crimes of Craig C. Price, who was just thirteen when he committed his first known murder in Rhode Island and only fifteen when he confessed to the brutal killings of a mother and her two young daughters. What makes the case particularly chilling is just how young Price was—and how completely he managed to avoid suspicion for so long.

I found the investigation especially interesting, particularly the assumptions made when profiling the killer and how far those assumptions were from the teenager living right within the community. The moment a seemingly small detail—a bandaged hand—finally brought Price onto the police radar really highlights how easily the case could have remained unsolved. Together with the juvenile law that regardless of your crime, if you’re tried as a juvenile, you are released on your 21st birthday, and your record expunged. Which is a scary thought when faced with the awful crimes Price carried out; made for a truly gripping read.

Hunt provides plenty of background surrounding Price, his family, the victims and the investigation, while also exploring the difficult questions raised by having such a young offender responsible for extraordinarily violent crimes.

At times I felt the pacing was a little uneven and some sections could have been tighter, which stopped this from being a higher-rated read for me. However, the case itself is incredibly compelling and deeply unsettling.

A fascinating true-crime account that left me thinking about how frightening it is when the person responsible isn’t the monster investigators imagine—but the teenage boy living next door.

[Sue Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Boy Next Door by N Leigh Hunt.
This was a really good read. I did like the cover and blurb of this book. It was gripping and interesting. This was very well written. A lot has gone into this book. This was chilling and disturbing. To think he did that and got away with it. I had chills while I read this. I read this in 2 sittings. I couldn't put it down.

[Lisa reads alot Hamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating if not chilling story, a compelling read I could not put it down and read it in one sitting.
I’d never heard of this story before and I’ve always loved reading true crime, but my goodness it’s such an horrific crime made even worse knowing a teenager was responsible.
Brilliantly written it’s an excellent read for all crime readers