It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Buster Olney is working on a book.

The subject, though, isn’t what you would expect from Olney.

Vermont Public Radio has an interview with the ESPN baseball analyst on his plans to write a book about a childhood friend who is serving life in prison for assaulting and killing his niece.

But this week, the Randolph native found himself in an unfamiliar and far more unsettling environment, when he attended the sentencing hearing for Michael Jacques, who admitted kidnapping and killing his 12-year-old niece, Brooke Bennett of Braintree, six years ago.

Like every Vermonter, Buster Olney was shocked and angered over the horrific crime, but he also had more reason than most to be focused on the story — because Michael Jacques was Buster Olney’s childhood friend. Olney has been working on a book about the case and his connection with his friend turned murderer. Jacques will now spend the rest of his life in prison with no possibility of parole.

Olney told VPR that he was friends with Michael Jacques as a child, but he was not at the hearing to support Jacques in any way. Their friendship ended abruptly, in their twenties, when Olney learned of his friend’s first sexual crime.

And more.

Olney’s sister called him the day after Brooke Bennett was reported missing.

“I didn’t know anything about the case, I had no details about the case, but I knew that ultimately it would go back to him, because I knew from childhood what a liar he could be and I knew his history of sexual crimes. It felt like you were just waiting for the inevitable and a few days later that’s when it came that he was the person of primary interest from law officials,” Olney said.

A couple of Jacques’ siblings have been cooperating with Olney in the writing of the book. “A lot of times when you read a crime book, it’s someone who drops in from the outside, and in this case, I know everybody,” Olney said. “You know, the ground where Brooke was buried literally adjoins my family’s farm, in a place that we played as kids.”

On why Olney is writing the book.

“I’ve had people in my own family touched with this and I’ve had friends, and heard their stories. In the case of sexual assaults, for whatever reason, the instinct people have is, ‘Don’t talk about this.’ And that’s what went on for more than 20 years in Mike Jacques’ case. There was sign after sign after sign of this enormous problem and a lot of times it was completely ignored or washed over. And Brooke’s father, Jim Bennett, asked the question as he spoke to Michael and spoke to the court, ‘How did you slip through the cracks?” Olney said.

“Well, we know with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight how that happened. The nature of sexual crimes is they are often not treated in the way that a regular assault is. And people should never forget, that’s what these are – these are violent assaults and should be treated that way, and not something that you shouldn’t talk about.”