True Crime Roundup
Today, true crime! Well, kinda. The last one is a little off message but I'm putting it in here because it makes an even five.
The Wicked Boy, Kate Summerscale
I'm a big fan of Kate Summerscale. For those of you unfamiliar with her, she's a British author who's written books like The Suspicions of Mr. Whitcher (true crime, STILL MY FAVORITE) and Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace, a book about adultery and divorce trials in Victorian England. In The Wicked Boy, she returns to true crime with the story of Robert and Nattie Coombes, two Victorian boys who killed their mother.
Summerscale spends the first third of the book discussing the crime and the trial, the second third describing Robert's life in Broadmoor, and the last third following him through the rest of his life, with an epilogue that really made me think about murder and survival and how someone can move past something like killing a parent. On first blush, I didn't like that the book spent so much time talking about Robert after the crime, but after I've thought about it, I think that Summerscale isn't doing so much with murder in this book as she is talking about rehabilitation and moving on. Anyway, definitely a great book, and Summerscale has a lot of very interesting things to say. Would very much recommend.
Batavia's Graveyard, Mike Dash
Ahahaha this book. Let me start by saying that I did enjoy it, and once it got going it really got going. That said, it started very slowly. Unfortunately, I do think that everything Dash put in the book needed to be in there. We needed to understand how the Dutch East India Company functioned, because it explained partially why Jeronimus Cornelisz ended up on the Batavia to begin with, and why various people acted as they did during the shipwreck. We needed to understand Cornelisz's religious backgrounds, because it explains more or less everything that happened on the island.
Which was, for the record, a shipwreck, a murder, and an ensuing orgy of violence and murder that claimed the lives of more than a hundred men, women, and children. It's a compelling story of how commerce can destroy people's lives completely by accident, and how a charismatic psychopath can destroy everything.
However, it was... very slow to start. Yeah. However, once Dash gets to the actual shipwreck, the story really gets cracking and he tells the remainder of his tale with great... well, dash. If you're interested, definitely plow through the first few chapters. It is necessary background to understand what happened on the islands. Good book overall. Would recommend.
A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
This one was fun. I admit the chemical parts lost me a little, but Harkup is an entertaining writer and I really enjoyed this.
A is for Arsenic takes readers on a scientific journey through the poisons of Agatha Christie's novels, from arsenic at the beginning to veronal at the end. Harkup starts by laying out a case of poisoning in one of the novels: arsenic, for example, killed a victim in Murder is Easy, and the murder is laid out in detail, though not the murderer. The chapter then moves into a history of the poison, followed by a scientific and chemical explanatio1n of how the poison kills. If there's an antidote, it is detailed next, followed by some real life poisoning cases that Christie may have drawn from. Finally, Harkup talks about the poisoning in Christie's novel in more detail. Bonus for Harkup here: her descriptions are almost entirely spoiler free, and when spoilers must be provided, she marks them clearly and warns unwary readers to look away.
This was a fun read. Recommended for Christie fans, people who like poison, or both.
Dark Dreams, Roy Hazelwood and Stephen G. Michaud
Roy Hazelwood is one of the founding members of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, made famous by Criminal Minds, and much like John Douglas, his books are about the art of profiling and its place in criminal investigation. In this book he details crimes in his particular area of specialty, sexual crimes such as serial murder as well as the obvious ones.
So, obviously, this book is not for the easily upset, or for anyone for whom this would be triggering. That said, Hazelwood actually doesn't go into much detail, or at least not the kind of detail one would expect. He does talk about what happened, but it's crisp, calm, and analytical in tone, and he doesn't dwell on the gruesome aspects. He's far more interested in the psychology of the killer and the reasoning behind the crimes than he is in the actual murder, which is what I enjoy about these books.
I enjoyed reading it. It helped, I think, that nearly every case (possibly every case) discussed was solved and the perpetrator either in jail or dead, which is reassuring for me. There's something about the pursuit of and successful arrival at justice that really makes me feel better about the world, and Hazelwood did a good job writing it out here.
United States of Paranoia, Jesse Walker
Now this was a fun book to read.
The United States of Paranoia is basically a history of conspiracy theories and the American identity, and it is fascinating. Walker lays out five different kinds of conspiracy theories-- from below, from above, from outside, from inside, and the benevolent kind-- and argues that these theories have always been a part of American society, from the Salem witch trials and the Native Americans lurking in the underbrush to the Red Scares and the conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11.
Walker, notably, does not make any arguments for the truth or otherwise of these theories, only lays them out and describes what they say about the society and the people from whence they sprang. This book is a lot of fun and a really interesting read, particularly in light of today's society. Definitely recommended for everyone.
Next up, a batch of mysteries! Or my backlogged Horrible Histories. Maybe poetry? Discworld? Vote now in the comments!
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/410147.html. Please comment over there if possible.
The Wicked Boy, Kate Summerscale
I'm a big fan of Kate Summerscale. For those of you unfamiliar with her, she's a British author who's written books like The Suspicions of Mr. Whitcher (true crime, STILL MY FAVORITE) and Mrs. Robinson's Disgrace, a book about adultery and divorce trials in Victorian England. In The Wicked Boy, she returns to true crime with the story of Robert and Nattie Coombes, two Victorian boys who killed their mother.
Summerscale spends the first third of the book discussing the crime and the trial, the second third describing Robert's life in Broadmoor, and the last third following him through the rest of his life, with an epilogue that really made me think about murder and survival and how someone can move past something like killing a parent. On first blush, I didn't like that the book spent so much time talking about Robert after the crime, but after I've thought about it, I think that Summerscale isn't doing so much with murder in this book as she is talking about rehabilitation and moving on. Anyway, definitely a great book, and Summerscale has a lot of very interesting things to say. Would very much recommend.
Batavia's Graveyard, Mike Dash
Ahahaha this book. Let me start by saying that I did enjoy it, and once it got going it really got going. That said, it started very slowly. Unfortunately, I do think that everything Dash put in the book needed to be in there. We needed to understand how the Dutch East India Company functioned, because it explained partially why Jeronimus Cornelisz ended up on the Batavia to begin with, and why various people acted as they did during the shipwreck. We needed to understand Cornelisz's religious backgrounds, because it explains more or less everything that happened on the island.
Which was, for the record, a shipwreck, a murder, and an ensuing orgy of violence and murder that claimed the lives of more than a hundred men, women, and children. It's a compelling story of how commerce can destroy people's lives completely by accident, and how a charismatic psychopath can destroy everything.
However, it was... very slow to start. Yeah. However, once Dash gets to the actual shipwreck, the story really gets cracking and he tells the remainder of his tale with great... well, dash. If you're interested, definitely plow through the first few chapters. It is necessary background to understand what happened on the islands. Good book overall. Would recommend.
A is for Arsenic, Kathryn Harkup
This one was fun. I admit the chemical parts lost me a little, but Harkup is an entertaining writer and I really enjoyed this.
A is for Arsenic takes readers on a scientific journey through the poisons of Agatha Christie's novels, from arsenic at the beginning to veronal at the end. Harkup starts by laying out a case of poisoning in one of the novels: arsenic, for example, killed a victim in Murder is Easy, and the murder is laid out in detail, though not the murderer. The chapter then moves into a history of the poison, followed by a scientific and chemical explanatio1n of how the poison kills. If there's an antidote, it is detailed next, followed by some real life poisoning cases that Christie may have drawn from. Finally, Harkup talks about the poisoning in Christie's novel in more detail. Bonus for Harkup here: her descriptions are almost entirely spoiler free, and when spoilers must be provided, she marks them clearly and warns unwary readers to look away.
This was a fun read. Recommended for Christie fans, people who like poison, or both.
Dark Dreams, Roy Hazelwood and Stephen G. Michaud
Roy Hazelwood is one of the founding members of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, made famous by Criminal Minds, and much like John Douglas, his books are about the art of profiling and its place in criminal investigation. In this book he details crimes in his particular area of specialty, sexual crimes such as serial murder as well as the obvious ones.
So, obviously, this book is not for the easily upset, or for anyone for whom this would be triggering. That said, Hazelwood actually doesn't go into much detail, or at least not the kind of detail one would expect. He does talk about what happened, but it's crisp, calm, and analytical in tone, and he doesn't dwell on the gruesome aspects. He's far more interested in the psychology of the killer and the reasoning behind the crimes than he is in the actual murder, which is what I enjoy about these books.
I enjoyed reading it. It helped, I think, that nearly every case (possibly every case) discussed was solved and the perpetrator either in jail or dead, which is reassuring for me. There's something about the pursuit of and successful arrival at justice that really makes me feel better about the world, and Hazelwood did a good job writing it out here.
United States of Paranoia, Jesse Walker
Now this was a fun book to read.
The United States of Paranoia is basically a history of conspiracy theories and the American identity, and it is fascinating. Walker lays out five different kinds of conspiracy theories-- from below, from above, from outside, from inside, and the benevolent kind-- and argues that these theories have always been a part of American society, from the Salem witch trials and the Native Americans lurking in the underbrush to the Red Scares and the conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11.
Walker, notably, does not make any arguments for the truth or otherwise of these theories, only lays them out and describes what they say about the society and the people from whence they sprang. This book is a lot of fun and a really interesting read, particularly in light of today's society. Definitely recommended for everyone.
Next up, a batch of mysteries! Or my backlogged Horrible Histories. Maybe poetry? Discworld? Vote now in the comments!
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/410147.html. Please comment over there if possible.