Kouri Richins Self-Published a Children's Book About Grief Before She Was Arrested for Murder

In 2022, a Utah man by the name of Eric Richins died by taking a lethal dose of fentanyl. A year later, his wife, Kouri Richins, was arrested and charged with his murder. However, shortly before that, she released a children's book about grief, seemingly in an effort to help the children she shared with her late husband cope with the loss of their dad.

As new details began to come out publicly in the case, from texts about Kouri's alleged affair with someone she worked with, to claims that she tried and failed to poison Eric weeks before his death, another detail emerged. Before Kouri was ever arrested and charged with aggravated murder, she wrote a book.

For many, Kouri's children's book about grief was another wild piece of the puzzle in the Utah murder case. As of March 2026, Kouri was not found guilty of Eric's murder in the ongoing case, but there are more questions about her, including why she wrote and released the book and what really happened to her husband.

Kouri spoke about the book, called Are You With Me?, on Good Things Utah a month before she was arrested in May 2023, per ABC 4 News in Salt Lake City, Utah. At the time, she shared that she wanted to be able to read a book about grief to her three sons, who were at the time still coming to terms with the loss of their dad.

"I just wanted some story to read to my kids at night and I just could not find anything," Kouri said on Good Things Utah after she released the book. She explained that, through the book, she could let her kids know, "Just because he's not present here with us physically, that doesn't mean his presence isn't here with us. Dad is still here, it's just in a different way."

Although the book is no longer available on Amazon, the website Murder Books does feature a description of Kouri's children's book. Per the website, the book is about a little boy who lost his father, but who feels him near like an angel, and who works through his grief throughout the illustrated book.

Although Kouri's book isn't available for purchase on Amazon or anywhere else online, GoodReads does have an entry for the book with reviews and ratings from readers. Right now, the book has an average of less than two stars from ratings. Some of the reviews, however, are clearly from readers who believed Kouri is guilty of murdering her husband even before she went to trial.

One review of Kouri's book mentions that "the author clearly knows all about death on a deeply intimate level." Someone else wrote, in a similar vein, "She just killed it."

Other reviews shared messages to GoodReads about taking down the book in light of Kouri's 2023 arrest. For now, though, the book is still there with plenty of outraged comments.