This book needed an editor who would put their foot down (it's so rambly and long), or one with a different vision for the book (this could have been so good).
Once the case was solved, this book could have gone in a really interesting direction with academia and its treatment of women - those discussions were the most engaging parts to me.
But instead, we spend most of the book acting like this is a whodunnit with a long and detailed list of suspects and

it turns out the real killer isn't among the list because it wasn't a personal killing. The vast majority of the book's research is now excess if it stays a whodunnit.

In the right hands, this story could have been about the fact that this murder went unsolved in large part because of who the community was afraid they'd find out was the killer. Sexism in academia lingers in these tight-knit circles. When the author got into some of that research, it seemed like the book was getting somewhere.

Instead, the book was true crime with a heavy helping of memoir - the author got so close to the story that she felt it was hers. She says as much - she didn't want journalists or reddit commenters to take it from her. She pads the already long book with lots of detail about how she compares her own relationships to Jane's and where she is when she hears certain parts of Jane's story. Rather than grounding the book and making it more readable, these personal details add unnecessary information to an already too long story.