Tagged: murder
Dead by Sunset
Dead by Sunset: Perfect Husband, Perfect Killer? by Ann Rule, 4/5
This is an incredibly twisted true tale of manipulation, misery, and murder, made even more shocking by the fact that the real-life people involved were so beautiful and outwardly successful. I can’t even begin to imagine how the author gathered and organized the massive amount of information required to make sense of this convoluted tragedy.
Why I read it: a hand-me-down from a friend.
In the Name of Love
In the Name of Love and Other True Cases by Ann Rule, 3/5
This book’s format may be a little unusual–the first three-quarters explore the life and 1987 murder of entrepreneur Jerry Harris, while the remaining quarter contains four unrelated short cases–but I appreciated that, unlike In the Still of the Night, the author did not unnecessarily expand the first story in order to make it stand alone.
This is only the second book by Ann Rule that I’ve read and I was previously unaware of the existence of true crime as a genre of literature. At first, I was tempted to dismiss it as exploitative and voyeuristic; I love a good true crime documentary, but what feels like a harmless guilty pleasure to watch takes on a bit more moral weight for me when it appears in black and white on a page. However, I felt differently after looking up the Jerry Harris murder online and finding very little about it beyond the disgusting update that his killer has made a name for himself over the last 30 years by relentlessly filing over 2500 lawsuits from death row, most (if not all) of which are frivolous.1 The case summary online was dry and impersonal, contrasting greatly with the care and research Rule invested to make Jerry and Susan Harris come alive as real, vibrant, complicated people. Did Ann Rule profit from others’ tragedy? Yes. But nobody wants to be forgotten after they are gone and I think that this book is a respectful tribute to a few of the many lives that end too soon.
Why I read it: a hand-me-down from a friend.
In the Still of the Night
In the Still of the Night: The Strange Death of Ronda Reynolds and Her Mother’s Unceasing Quest for the Truth by Ann Rule, 2/5
I do not usually read books this shape but, snobbery aside, the writing was fairly bad, the presentation somewhat bloated, and I devoured it eagerly in one 4-hour reading session that kept me up until 3am.
Why I read it: a hand-me-down from a friend.
Jumped, Fell, or Pushed?
Jumped, Fell, or Pushed?: How Forensics Solved 50 “Perfect” Murders by Steven A. Koehler, MPH, Ph.D., with Pete Moore, Ph.D., and David Owen, 3/5
The informational portions of this book are simplistic and likely won’t add much to any knowledge of forensics you might have already picked up from watching entirely too much TV in the police procedural genre. However, the case studies are fascinating and represent an interesting variety of locations and eras (not just modern, American crimes like you might expect). The book’s layout is good and manages to achieve a varied, magazine-style page format without requiring the reader to jump around from one disjointed text box to another.
[Why I read it: came across it while browsing in the library.]
OmniRambles 