Book-It '10! Book #65
The Fifty Books Challenge, year two! This was a library request.
Title: The Mystery of Mary Rogers by Rick Geary
Details: Copyright 2001, Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Geary presents us yet another true crime of the last century, very carefully researched and factual but with his usual gleeful tongue-in-cheek look at the lurid details. Mary Rogers was a compellingly beautiful lass employed in a cigar store in New York City in the mid-nineteenth century. She had a few suitors. Then, she suddenly disappeared, her body recovered in the Hudson off the jersey side. The press had a field day with all the possible shocking possibilities. Rape... her 'fooling around' between lovers... even gang rape. Never was this case solved. The hypotheses remain many. Even Edgar Allen Poe thought to have solved the case and presented that in his tale 'The Mystery of Mary Roget'. Make up your own mind. Geary recreates a fascinating picture of the nascent still somewhat anarchical soon-to-be metropolis of New York."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Geary's work had gotten positive notice from The Onion AV Club.
How I Liked It: Skewing far less away in style from R. Crumb than the last Geary I'd read ( The Lindbergh Child: America's Hero and the Crime of the Century) and more towards John Held Jr, Geary seems to have a tighter grasp on this case than he did on the Lindbergh abduction and murder. The layout is more concise and the cast of characters better presented. He's fond of maps (which aren't terribly helpful to the plot) as much as he was in the Lindbergh book (and yes, I'm aware it's confusing to refer to this book as newer than than that particular one, given that this was published in 2001 and Lindbergh in 2008, but it's the order in which I read them).
Geary manages to capture the romance, horror, and intrigue of the story in an engaging, "attractive" read.
Notable: This book was published in February 2001.
The last page is this:
I know, but still. Yikes.
Title: The Mystery of Mary Rogers by Rick Geary
Details: Copyright 2001, Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing Inc
Synopsis (By Way of Back Cover): "Geary presents us yet another true crime of the last century, very carefully researched and factual but with his usual gleeful tongue-in-cheek look at the lurid details. Mary Rogers was a compellingly beautiful lass employed in a cigar store in New York City in the mid-nineteenth century. She had a few suitors. Then, she suddenly disappeared, her body recovered in the Hudson off the jersey side. The press had a field day with all the possible shocking possibilities. Rape... her 'fooling around' between lovers... even gang rape. Never was this case solved. The hypotheses remain many. Even Edgar Allen Poe thought to have solved the case and presented that in his tale 'The Mystery of Mary Roget'. Make up your own mind. Geary recreates a fascinating picture of the nascent still somewhat anarchical soon-to-be metropolis of New York."
Why I Wanted to Read It: Geary's work had gotten positive notice from The Onion AV Club.
How I Liked It: Skewing far less away in style from R. Crumb than the last Geary I'd read ( The Lindbergh Child: America's Hero and the Crime of the Century) and more towards John Held Jr, Geary seems to have a tighter grasp on this case than he did on the Lindbergh abduction and murder. The layout is more concise and the cast of characters better presented. He's fond of maps (which aren't terribly helpful to the plot) as much as he was in the Lindbergh book (and yes, I'm aware it's confusing to refer to this book as newer than than that particular one, given that this was published in 2001 and Lindbergh in 2008, but it's the order in which I read them).
Geary manages to capture the romance, horror, and intrigue of the story in an engaging, "attractive" read.
Notable: This book was published in February 2001.
The last page is this:
I know, but still. Yikes.