Book Description
In 1991, flight attendant Nancy Ludwig checked in to an airport hotel near Detroit. The next morning she was found gagged, raped, and tortured-her throat slit with such rage that she was nearly decapitated. Her husband Arthur never gave up hope that the future would bring enough evidence to close the case. But it was the past that held the clue.In 1985, fifty-five-year old Margarette Eby, a music professor, met the same grisly death at her cottage in Flint, Michigan. The case went cold-until six years later when the victim's son Mark came upon the story of Nancy Ludwig's slaying. With nothing to go on but intuition, he called authorities, certain that the same fiend committed both crimes.A cunning sting operation yielded irrefutable DNA evidence, and authorities were led to the home of respected navy veteran Jeffrey Gorton living quietly with his wife and two children. But his cold-blooded secrets were only beginning to come to light leaving fears that there were more victims yet to be found in a killing spree that had finally come to an end.
Customer Reviews:
Recommended - Very Interesting Crimes.......2007-04-04
I read this book in 2006 and have since seen a Cold Case Files episode detailing these crimes. It is very rare that I continue to think about how scary a murderer is once I have finished reading about the crimes, but I was plagued by fears for months after reading this book. Jeffrey Gorton is truly a very scary man.
Based upon testimony from relatives and other business contacts, Gorton spent an inordinate amount of time "prowling" for women he found attractive, often following them in their cars while driving his business van to and from appointments. In fact, he was often late because he went out of his way to follow women he found attractive. It is also frightening that the nature of Gorton's work gave him access to the inside of every home he serviced. Judging from the astounding number of panties and other undergarments hidden throughout his home - many of them labeled with names and addresses - Gorton used his time inside the homes he was servicing to rifle through panty drawers and steal whatever he found stimulating. He even stole panties from his own niece and other female relatives. It was as if no one was off limits.
During the jury trial, one observer commented that each time an attractive brunette was in the courtroom to testify or simply to watch the proceedings, Gorton's eyes followed her freely and his mouth would begin to curl into a sick smile. His very nature was so PREDATORY that he could not even control his fantasies within the court environment.
The author comments, and I concur, that it is highly unlikely that Jeffrey Gorton only murdered two women... waiting 14 years in between the two crimes. Both murders were well planned and there is evidence Gorton took the time to shower following the butchery. There was also testimony from several women whom he attacked in parking lots for the purpose of forcibly stealing their pantyhose. This man was on the hunt every waking minute of his life and I find it very difficult to believe that he "lost control" on only two occasions 14 years apart.
I suppose it is the predatory nature of these crimes that so unnerved me and caused me to consider my own safety as a female. I have been this unsettled on only one other occasion... that being when I finished reading "A Stranger Beside Me" by Ann Rule. Like the infamous Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Gorton was and is a PREDATOR by nature. It is a basic part of who he is and every women was a potential victim because of it. Truly, truly frightening. If you are a woman, I would suggest not reading this book at home, alone, at night.
My only complaint about this book is that some sections are rather tedious. While I appreciate a history and information about the victims, the information included about Margarette Eby, Victim #1, was extended and unnecessary. In contrast, there was much less information and NO PHOTOS of the second victim, Nancy Ludwig. I only know what Ludwig looked like because of the Cold Case Files episode I saw shortly after finishing this book. If you can plow through some of the tedious information, however, the history of the offender is riveting.
Very Good Read.......2007-01-17
Fast delivery by Amazon. This book covered all the details of the murder case that I wanted to find out. Good style of writing by author. I would recommend.
Very tedious book!!.......2006-08-16
I bought this book based on all the reviews I had read. It was a good storyline but with all due respect to Tom Henderson the book had so many punctuation mistakes (more than 3/4 of the pages) it was very hard to concentrate on reading it. I don't know how it ever got published! The writer also did so much skipping around and around, back and forth that I found it so tedious. I had to force myself to get thru it only because I wanted to find out how the murderer was sentenced. I usually read a book in 3-4 days. This took me 2 weeks. I have read hundreds and hundreds of books - true crime and fiction, I must say I would not recommend this book.
An absolutely excellent book.......2006-02-23
I love true crime and have never missed a book by Ann Rule (she's #1),but this book comes Veeery close to being one of the best I've ever read. Believe all the other reviews (hard to put down, keeps you reading most of the night, empathy for the families he ruined, etc.). The author has done such a terrific job: clear, precise, and an absorbing story.
I knew this person...who would have thought it.......2006-01-30
I knew this guy in the late 80's, right after he arrived back in Flint. I never knew any of this had happened and he had been in my home. Reading the book, made me wonder...how many pieces of my clothing was in that collection. I read the book and watched Forensic Files on this. This is a "can't put down" book. I read it in one day...Tom Henderson did a great job describing Flint and the characters in the book (as I know most). This is a must buy book if you like True Crime stories.
Book Description
Disgraced journalist Benjamin Justice, at loose ends between jobs, takes a short vacation with a friend, Los Angeles Times reporter Alexandra Templeton, to a movie set at a faded resort hotel in the California desert. The film being shot is about a stars death in the 1950s and the lynching of a local black man for the murderthe last lynching in California. But the set is in an uproar over the appearanceand then the brutal murderof a feared Hollywood gossip journalist who had promised to reveal explosive new information. Now Justice finds himself enmeshed in two old deaths and a new murder as he attempts to uncover the truth before another falls victim.
Customer Reviews:
The Mellower Justice.......2007-08-06
Justice accompanies his friend Alexandra Templeton to the remote Haunted Springs Hotel, where they uncover evidence relating to a race-related murder that happened many years before. Justice is still on Prozac, and he's a mellower hero, though still putting himself in danger periodically. My favorites are still the earlier books.
Neil Plakcy, author of Mahu Surfer: A Hawaiian Mystery (An Alyson Mystery)
Not His Best.......2006-09-21
While it is still worth a read (although you may want to wait for the paperback),this is my least favorite installment of the Benjamin Justice series. I was disappointed because the book was nowhere near the excellence I had come to expect from John Morgan Wilson. In my opinion, the story was formulaic and trite, compared to Wilson's other books. Other descriptions that come to mind are pale, tame, and completely lacking in punch, compared to his other work. Most authors suffer in comparison to John Morgan Wilson, and in Rhapsody in Blood, unfortunately, so does he.
A winner.......2006-06-15
Mr. Wilson, yet again, spins a very interesting tale with interesting characters. This one seems a bit like an old hollywood mystery movie. Lonely hotel, stranded guests, rainy night, and the old "one of you in this room is a murderer" type atomosphere. I loved it.
I like that BJ seems a bit more mature and I'm so glad he's off Prozac. I have nothing against Prozac, but his last adventure it seemed to focus of his life and it irritated me. :)
This is why we read mysteries . . . .......2006-05-18
John Morgan Wilson's books have always been filled with beautifully drawn characters, especially his lead storyteller, Benjamin Justice. The stories are richly layered, and each one has become darker than the last. Rhapsody in Blood is as compelling as every other book in the way it gently but surely draws you into the mystery, but it's a definite departure from the world in which the other stories take place. Justice is lured away from Los Angeles for what is supposed to be a mountain resort getaway and gets pulled very quickly into a mystery that spans generations and leads to killing in a remote hotel occupied by a handful of people with many potential motives for murder. It's amazingingly engaging . . . a true page turner. It's also a pleasant sojourn from the rest of the Justice series -- by taking the action away from West Hollywood and the broader Los Angeles area it becomes a different kind of story, with less emphasis on Justice's downward psychological spiral and more on the characters around him. It might have been inspired, in part, by Chandler's The Lady in the Lake, given the sequestered setting and the layers of corruption that conceal what really happened in the 1950s murder that sets the current story on its course. And it should be a must-read for anyone who's drawn to character-driven mysteries that become more complex with every page. It's a unique -- and standout -- entry to this amazing series.
Justice At Midlife.......2006-04-07
Benjamin Justice returns after having just finished his memoirs. He is fast approaching fifty, has a paunch but still has his elderly landlords Maurice and Fred, although they have very little to do with the plot of Wilson's latest. Justice and his good friend Alexander Templeton go to a resort hotel in a place called Haunted Springs; she to work on a story, he just along for the ride. Of course he takes with him Walter Mosley's CINNAMON KISS for reading. (Mr. Wilson always plays tribute to this other fine mystery writer by referring to him in each of his own mysteries.) What evolves of course is a tale that spans 50 years involving murder, suicide and lynching. There is a motley group of characters: a vicious reporter intent on "outing" someone in order to revive her sagging career; a gorgeous Adonis whom Justice develops an immediate crush on; a lippy midget stuntman; an out-of-control child actress who has made her fortune making "slasher" movies, a rapper who travels with a bodyguard; a hotel owner who insists on playing Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" over and over, a piece that is much overplayed in these United States-- you actually can hear the piece and wish desperately half way through the novel that he would play something else-- a Latino detective on crutches, and several characters long since dead but who come to life as Justice gets involved in all that has happened at this strange hotel, plus a half dozen or so others.
Mr. Wilson works out the plot with intricate details and rather slowly, almost too slowly at times. There is not a murder until 100 pages into the story. We are pretty sure who is going to get taken out; and from the evidence that Justice sees, as he is the first person to view the crime scene, the list of suspects is narrowed down to two. At times the novel takes on the feel of DON'T LOOK NOW except Justice keeps seeing someone in a yellow dress rather than a child in red.
As always, Mr. Wilson is interested in serious subjects; this time they are racism, the injustice of the criminal justice system, the touchy subjects of outing and men who have sex with other men but see themselves as straight. At times his prose becomes almost poetic when he writes on the things he cares about: outing, lynching in America, rap music, facing the truth about our history. "Do we truly heal-- as individuals, families, communities, nations-- if we choose to remember selectively, to recall only that which is acceptable and comforting, to recreate lives in place of the truth?"
RHAPSODY IN BLOOD may not be Mr. Wilson's best book but is certainly well worth reading.
Product Description
The spectactular best seller about the brutal slaying of the Cutter family of Holcomb, Kansas--the police investigation, the capture, the trial and the execution of the two young murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith.
Amazon.com
Rennie Airth's first John Madden historical thriller, River of Darkness, found a place on more than a few "best of the year" lists in 1999--with good reason. Set in post-World War I England, it was serial-killer fiction of an unusually exalted order, with Madden, then a taciturn and wearily pragmatic veteran-turned-Scotland Yard inspector, investigating the eerie slaughter of a well-respected family in Surrey.
Fortunately, Airth's first sequel was worth the six-year wait. The Blood-Dimmed Tide (which takes its title from a W.B. Yeats poem) finds Madden now retired and living peacefully on a farm in Surrey with his doctor wife, the former Helen Blackwell, and their two children, 10-year-old Rob and 6-year-old Lucy. The year is 1932, and the precipitous rise of the Nazis in Germany leaves many of their fellow countrymen, as well as no few Brits, worried for the future peace and stability of the European continent. More immediately concerning for Madden, however, is his discovery of the corpse of pubescent Alice Bridger--raped, disfigured, and secreted near a tramps' backwoods campsite. Suspicion falls quickly on a vagrant known as Beezy, who was supposedly visiting the area, but Madden--with his remarkable insight into crime ("Madden's always had a way of seeing things clearly, of seeing through them, or rather beyond them," relates a former police colleague)--thinks this is more than an isolated homicide. Sure enough, a records check turns up similar slayings elsewhere in England, dating back to 1929, as well as an active investigation by German law enforcement into half a dozen dead girls in Bavaria and Prussia. What accounts for both the wide range of these mutilations, and the lengthy lag time between them? Could the police be looking for a psychopathic traveler, or worse, a rogue spy who's managed to maintain a respectable front at his international postings, while satisfying his malevolent appetites in his spare hours? And what is the "devil's mark" that this killer reportedly bears?
Airth is a fastidious plotter, expert in trickling out twists that heighten story tension but don't leave readers awash in red herrings. Although Madden's role here is somewhat less than it was in River of Darkness--a consequence of his strong-willed wife trying to protect him from further hurt, after the horrendous events of that previous tale--the author compensates by giving us a supporting cast of amply dimensioned Yard types, led by Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair, a perceptive Scot whose doggedness pairs well with Madden's gift for inspiration. While Airth fails, oddly, to exploit a couple of opportunities for interesting plot turns at book's end, his psychological portrait of the murderer imbues Tide with a fine pathos, and the backdrop of Nazi power-grabbing sets the stage for what is supposed to be a third and final Madden yarn. Let's hope that novel appears in more expeditious fashion. --J. Kingston Pierce
Book Description
ith the publication of the New York Times Notable Book River of Darkness, Rennie Airth established himself as a master of suspense. The Blood- Dimmed Tide, set in 1932, marks the return of the beloved Inspector John Madden, whose discovery of a young girlÂ's mutilated corpse near his home in rural England brings him out of retirement despite his wifeÂ's misgivings. Soon he finds himself chasing a killer whose horrific crime could have implications far afield in a Europe threatened by the rise of Hitler. A riveting, atmospheric, multilayered mystery, this intense and intelligent tale more than delivers on the promise of Rennie AirthÂ's first thriller. BACKCOVER: “Unnerving... from [a] richly textured background, Airth draws a vivid cast of full-bodied characters and a plot that satisfies.”
—The New York Times Book Review
“AirthÂ's first mystery, River of Darkness, was impressive enough to earn him several award nominations and much critical applause. [The Blood-Dimmed Tide] deserves the same treatment.”
—Chicago Tribune
The eagerly anticipated sequel to Rennie AirthÂ's widely acclaimed River of Darkness “rises above the pack”
—The Dallas Morning News
Customer Reviews:
More than blood.......2007-05-12
Airth's second mystery builds inexorably to a chilling climax; along the way he takes on the privilege of government to protect their own and the intricacies of seeking justice while avoiding the displeasure of superiors. Nearly as good as the first, Airth does not seem interested in rushing a book to market each year and dumbing down the genre. It is worth the wait.
Good Story, Drab Execution.......2006-08-22
Airth's River of Darkness introduced John Madden, a psychological casualty of World War I turned police inspector. River of Darkness was set in the early `20s and was a reasonably effective evocation of the echoes in the British countryside of the slaughter of the Great War.
The Blood-Dimmed Tide revisits Madden a decade later. He's retired from police work and become a middling farmer. The case of interest turns on the search for a terrifying killer of young girls. The plot is interesting, but the execution is disappointing. Airth tries too hard to put Madden in the middle of things, endowing him with preternatural instincts that just don't sell. The dialogue is frequently as trite as a Berlitz training record.
The setting could be the saving grace of the work, but it doesn't come to life. Madden's investigations take place within weeks of Hitler's rise to chancellor. Subsidiary and rather unimaginative characters fret about what is going to become of Germany, and every reader knows the answer. The Depression, too, figures in a turn or two of the plot. But, on the whole, Airth does not convey the texture of the times, of the impact of changing technology, of the erosion of British ascendancy, of the place of talking motion pictures and recordings, of the era of radio, not even of the residing nausea with war that became Appeasement. Airth's 1930s Britain is timeless, drab and routine.
Disappointing, long-awaited sequel.......2006-06-16
As a huge fan of Airth's first novel, A River of Darkness, I was severely disappointed with this second John Madden mystery. The author hampers Madden's involvement by having him retire from Scotland Yard to manage a farm in Surrey with his family. His contribution to this mystery, which involves a brutal child killer, is thus marginal at best. He finds one of the first bodies and deals with the killer at the end, but other detectives, associated with Madden in the previous book, do most of the sleuthing. Airth creates a really nasty killer in this outing, and the unveiling of his true identity is a treat. Nevertheless, I wanted more John Madden, and any reader of this book would have to agree that his presence was surely lacking.
"A world of savagery and barbarism.".......2006-06-09
Many authors take great pains to ensure that their protagonists remain unhappy and unattached, and "The Blood-Dimmed Tide" is a prime example of how marriage is sometimes the death knell of a promising series. In Rennie Airth's previous mystery, "River of Darkness," Inspector John Madden of Scotland Yard is a brooding man whose angst stems from the loss of his wife and daughter and his traumatic experiences as a soldier in the trenches during World War I. Much to Madden's surprise, he meets the love of his life, a widowed doctor named Helen Blackwell, during an investigation. In "The Blood-Dimmed Tide," a decade or so has passed, and Madden has retired from the Yard to live the life of a gentleman farmer with his wife, Helen, and their two children.
Madden's peace of mind is shattered when he discovers the battered body of a twelve-year-old girl named Alice Bridger. An unknown assailant abducted, assaulted, and severely beat the child. Although John is a civilian with no official standing as a detective, he winds up playing a key role in the investigation. Airth reintroduces a number of people from the first book, including Chief Inspector Angus Sinclair, Assistant Commissioner Sir Wilfred Bennett, Austrian psychoanalyst Franz Weiss, and Detective Sergeant Billy Styles, who used to work under Madden.
The story in "The Blood-Dimmed Tide" bears a remarkable resemblance to the one in "River of Darkness." In both cases, a deranged serial killer is at work. However, in the first book, the perpetrator specializes in home invasions and kills entire families. This time around he kidnaps and bludgeons young girls and then disappears. In both novels, Airth provides the reader with the killer's identity. This worked better in "River of Darkness" than it does in "The Blood-Dimmed Tide." Here, knowing who the killer is too soon leaves the reader with few surprises to sustain his interest.
Once again, Airth exploits the historical climate of the period to give his novel depth. In this case, the backdrop is Europe between the wars. Dr. Franz Weiss is being forced to relocate with his family to England because of the rise of Nazism and its accompanying anti-Semitism. There are political issues relating to the governments of Germany and England that have a bearing on the case, and, as in "River of Darkness," Weiss profiles the killer, using his knowledge of psychiatry.
"The Blood-Dimmed Tide" is competently and smoothly written, and Airth brings rural England to life with his vivid descriptive writing. However, the Maddens have become a staid married couple and the plot is a bit too predictable. If Airth is going to continue this series, he would do well to breathe life into it by coming up with some original ideas and intriguing new characters.
Best of the Best.......2006-05-04
I love to read Mysteries and am from a mystery reading family. This book "The Blood-Dimmed Tide" is one of a trilogy whose author and title I have passed on to my family and they to theirs. I have two problems with Rennie Airth; First he writes this series too slowly; Secondly it is one of only three novels. I own several signed copies of his first and second books and knowing that the last of the trilogy probably will not be out for several years is vexing to us all. Not enough stars have been given to this book. The era is just after World War I, dark murder abounds and psychological angst runs throughout this book. If you have an addiction to history, enjoy a plot that both makes you want to finish because it is impelling and yet put it down because you don't want it to end, then this book, this series, is for you. By the way, if you just like a suspenseful read, this is it! I will add that the end of both books in this series of three make you jump out of your skin, just as the shower scene did in the movie "Psyco", and this is a book, a visual of the mind, not of sight.
Average customer rating:
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Young Blood: Juvenile Justice and the Death Penalty
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0879759534 |
Book Description
This book examines the treatment of violence by men against women in nineteenth-century England. Criminal law came to punish violence more systematically and severely during Victoria's reign because it was promoting a new, more pacific ideal of manliness. Yet, this apparently progressive legal development triggered strong resistance, not only from violent men but others who engaged in arguments about democracy, humanitarianism and patriarchy to establish sympathy with "men of blood."
Average customer rating:
- A MESMERIZING TALE
- Good reading
- The fugitive in back country style!
- No suspense or thrills here
- Compelling
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Tidewater Blood
William Hoffman
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Wild Thorn
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A Thousand Splendid Suns
ASIN: 0060007583
Release Date: 2002-04-16 |
Book Description
The secret was buried deep within the high mountains of West Virginia. It spiraled down to a devastating legacy of betrayal, revenge, and rage that was destined to destroy a dynasty.
Charley LeBlanc is the black sheep, a disgrace to the family name -- a name steeped in tradition, wealth, privilege, and prestige. But when Charley is hauled out of his shanty hideaway in a Chesapeake inlet by the sheriff, he's up against more than he had ever faced in Vietnam, prison, or the rest of his miserable past.
Presumed guilty of setting a charge that blew his family to kingdom come, Charley becomes a fugitive, running deep into the mountains -- and into the past. Unless he can find out who did it and why, he's going to pay with his life, and that suddenly seems too precious to lose.
Customer Reviews:
A MESMERIZING TALE.......2004-02-07
Pulse pounding suspense and lyrical affirmations of setting are not at all antithetic in William Hoffman's extraordinary 11th novel, Tidewater Blood. An explosive opening crackles into a mesmerizing tale of treachery and revenge, as a hunted man seeks to save himself by probing his haunted past. Set in the bountifully vernal Virginia countryside and the craggy cliffs of West Virginia's coal mining area, here is Southern exposure with a sharp Southern twist.
The patrician LeBlanc clan, proudly descended from gentrified Huguenot stock, gathers annually to celebrate themselves. On this, their 250th anniversary, they have again dressed in antebellum costume to share an opulent feast on the plantation mansion's portico - a meal never tasted as the porch suddenly explodes killing the eldest son and his family.
Immediately suspect is Charley LeBlanc, the family's miscreant son. A dishonorably discharged Vietnam veteran and former resident of Leavenworth, Charley has seceded from civilization, foraging for food near the makeshift he inhabits on a Chesapeake Bay inlet.
Brought in by the police who try to coerce a confession from him, Charley is reluctantly represented by a young court appointed attorney. When it becomes clear that he may pay for crimes he did not commit, one of the scruffiest, most emotionally scarred, yet deeply affecting heroes in contemporary fiction takes off to find the real killer.
During the ensuing odyssey, with the law nipping hungrily at his heels, Charley relies on his war taught skills: "I'd learned to nest keeping part of myself alert - an outer fringe of consciousness that sensed movement and alien sounds in darkness." His quest takes him to the mountainous West Virginia coal mining area, to a nearly abandoned town where his father oversaw a mining operation during World War II.
While Mr. Hoffman's narrative skills are abundant his character definition is superb. We meet an aged, independent backwoods woman, the memorable Aunt Jessie Arbuckle, who has a reason to help Charley. "Had seven children, all gone and spread to the four winds, " she tells him. "The last I heard from was Jacob, the youngest. Lives in Seattle and sent me a Christmas present, a GE toaster, and I got no electric. You chew?"
There is Blackie, the "he done me wrong" disfigured honky-tonk proprietress, another of life's secessionists. "I tell you one thing," she vows, "I don't use the word love no more." Add a grizzled mountain hermit who lives by stealing copper rigging, and a host of others, cinematic cameos all.
As Charley solves conundrum after conundrum to reveal the real killer, he also unearths some long buried secrets about the aristocratic LeBlancs and about himself.
Praiseworthy in every respect, this harrowing adventure captures readers with the opening page and holds them spellbound until the closing sentence. To call this tale a first-rate thriller isn't enough; to deem the author's prose splendid does not do it justice. Tidewater Blood is an exemplary achievement, one that may bring Mr. Hoffman the popular recognition he so patently deserves.
- Gail Cooke
Good reading.......2001-06-17
I picked up Tidewater Blood because of the article about mid-list writers in the Washington Post. I, too, am a writer, although not nearly as published. I know all too well the difficulty of Mr. Hoffman's struggle. It's a shame because he's a good writer and Tidewater Blood is a good book.
It's refreshing to read a contemporary novel that builds the plot by use of clean descriptions and strong dialogue while at the same time moving the story forward. Writing well is one thing, and having a story to tell is another. It's nice when you find that rare book that does both (unlike some bestsellers I could mention).
The only problem I had with the story was the frequency of Mr. LeBlanc being rescued by good samaritans. I don't know if I'd be so quick to help out a homeless fugitive, but Mr. LeBlanc repeatedly received food, clothes and shelter from strangers.
I hope Mr. Hoffman continues to publish more novels. I hope he continues to rage against the machine. I know I will.
The fugitive in back country style!.......2001-04-01
Everything about this book was interesting. I especially liked what Charles LeBlanc did to survive while he was being hunted. And, survival seemed to be a key element in this story. The circumstances surrounding the murders were quite unique here also, definitely worth the wait to the end. I highly recommend Tidewater Blood.
No suspense or thrills here.......2001-02-25
I picked up this book after reading about William Hoffman in _The Washington Post Magazine_. The description of his career and his numerous achievements and awards made me hopeful that I would enjoy a work by an articulate, thoughtful writer. Unfortunately, this was not the case. While I can understand why Mr. Hoffman is considered a regional writer, I found his characterization of the region void of color and his characters wooden and unbelievable -- and I live here! Worse, I knew what the "answer" to the mystery was well before his characters did, a sign that a writer is either not pacing his work well (the case here; this moved slower than molasses on a January morning) or is not so much interested in his readers as he may be in his own words. This book felt like a long series of happenings: this happened and then this happened next and then this happened after that. Boring. A writer once wrote that writers need to be able to murder their "darling" words; Mr. Hoffman should have taken the axe to many of his. I was unable to finish reading the novel and switched to an audio book -- a format from which, if the narrator is talented enough, even the most mediocre books benefit -- and still found it a slow, painful, and plodding business. I would suspect that Mr. Hoffman's reputation rests on works better than this, but I think it will be awhile befor I give him another shot.
Compelling.......2000-11-22
This book served as my introduction to the talented Mr. Hoffman, and a fine introduction it was. The south is everywhere in this book, from the spare, elegant physical descriptions of places and things, to the clipped, almost abbreviated speech of the characters.
How Charles LeBlanc-a character as close to a hermit as one can get-is accused of murdering a large chunk of his estranged family and manages, through native intelligence and dogged determination, to vindicate himself makes for wonderful reading. I literally couldn't put this novel down, and carried it everywhere with me until it was done. William Hoffman is a fine writer; there isn't one extraneous word in this book. And aside from learning some interesting facts about Virginia, I also found out about a large number of wild-growing things, both animal and vegetable, that one might eat in order to survive.
This is a very worthwhile novel, offering insights into alienation, anger and the need of some for wide-open spaces. I look forward with enormous anticipation to reading his other books.
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Blood Justice Valiant
Gordon D. Shirreffs
Manufacturer: Signet
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Westerns
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ASIN: 0451133390 |
Book Description
Based on previously unreleased FBI and Justice Department documents, extensive interviews with many of the surviving principals involved in the case, and a variety of newspaper accounts, Smead meticulously reconstructs the full story of one of the last lynchings in America, detailing a grim, dramatic, but nearly forgotten episode from the Civil Rights era. In 1959, a white mob in Poplarville, Mississippi abducted a young black man named Mack Charles Parker--recently charged with the rape of a white woman--from his jail cell, beat him, carried him across state lines, finally shot him, and left his body in the Pearl River. A massive FBI investigation ensued, and two grand juries met to investigate the lynching, yet no arrests were ever made. Smead presents a vivid picture of a small Southern town gripped by racism and distrust of federal authority, and describes the travesty of justice that followed in the wake of the lynching. Ultimately revealing more than an account of a single lynching, he offers what he calls "a glimpse at the tidal forces at work in the South on the eve of the civil rights revolution."
Customer Reviews:
An Absolute Must !.......2007-01-22
Thanks to the diligent work of Howard Smead,Blood Justice will become a cornerstone in every civil rights library.
Better in person.......2006-11-28
I took Dr. Smead's class, and he is much better as a lecturer than a writer. His class is dynamic and interesting, full of little tid-bits of fun facts about the time period. However, the book doesn't do his lecture style justice. Where he is interesting in lecture, in writing he just bores me to tears. I skimmed most of the book because I couldn't stand the slow pace and attention to too much detail.
So, if you go to the University of Maryland: take his class, don't read his book. For everyone else, well, I guess just don't read his book.
Exciting at the Beginning.......2006-01-12
This book captures you in the first chapter with a description of the actual crime. It does, however, get slow throughout the middle of the book when Smead goes into great detail of the facts. I think what really made me like this book is hearing Professor Smead talk about it during our history class. He's an amazing lecturer and leads a captivating discussion about the book, not to mention everything he lectures about. If anyone reading this attends the University of Maryland, Smead's history class is a STAPLE in the schools course offerings.
Clear, in depth account of a tragic example of lynch mob justice........2005-11-18
This book accomplishes everything it sets out to do.
Exhaustingly detailed, but also exhausting........2002-06-17
An exhaustively detailed account of one of the last lynchings to take place in the United States, Smead's work is also simply exhausting. Compared with earlier, grislier, more sensational color-based killings, there's very little to the murder of Mack Charles Parker, and the book does little to compensate for this. Despite a wealth of research, and the violent act at the heart of the tale, BLOOD JUSTICE lacks any real sense of drama, or emotion. The participants in the killing, and in the investigation that followed, are ciphers, and fail to engage the reader one way or another, whether to detest or admire. The highly-publicized search for Parker's killers is stripped down to a catalogue of who, what, and where, making the heart of the book the dullest portion to read. This isn't helped at all by the numbing similarity of so much that was said and done during the manhunt, a fact that might cause a reader to think that an identical section of pages had been printed several times over, as the same people repeat the same things again and again.
While the lynching of Mack Charles Parker is a significant part of the American civil rights conflict of the '50s and '60s, and deserves attention, Smead's work does little more than prove that not every historical event deserves treatment in book form. What happens in BLOOD JUSTICE could easily have been distilled to half the length, or less, and been placed inside a larger work without robbing the story of its power.
Average customer rating:
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Innocent Blood: A True Story of Terror and Justice
Terry Ganey
Manufacturer: St Martins Mass Market Paper
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Sociology
| Social Sciences
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Murder & Mayhem
| True Accounts
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0312922698 |
Customer Reviews:
True Evil.......2007-08-13
This book is an exceptionally written piece about how far police officer's will sometimes go to get a confession. It is mindboggling what Melvin Reynolds went through. Although he was innocent of the murder of four year old Eric Christgen, he was interrogated, fed information and even said: 'I will say I did it, if you want me to'. The town of St. Joseph Missouri wanted someone locked up for this murder so bad they practically gave the entire murder scene to this young man who was in the lower percentile, intelligently, than most people. They even had a composite of the real killer given by witnesses that seen the man with the child.(Charles Hatcher). These witnesses were never even called to testify at this young man's trial.
The chief of police, Robert Hayes, was just recently released from prison for murdering his neighbor. He said it was self-defense.
I, for one would hate to think this is the norm for our police chief's and police officer's nationwide, but this book will make you wonder. It it is a sad story. Thank God for people like FBI agent
Joseph Holtslag, who did obtain a confession from the real killer.
Our country needs many, many more people like agent Holtslag in our local law enforcement agencies as well as the FBI.
Very interesting book guarenteed to pique your interest in some policemen and district attorney's dealings. Highly recommended reading.
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