No comments about Murder Has a Public Face: Crime and Punishment in the Speed Graphic Era.

5 comments about Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America's Most Wanted Computer Outlaw-By the Man Who Did It.

1. This book was painful to read. It is poorly written drivel. If you are truly interested in the topic, there are much better books written on Mitnick, Hacking/Phreaking, and/or computer security issues. With every paragraph that Shimomura writes about his love life (and there are plenty of them,) the book, (although calling it that is insulting to other books) continues on a long downward spiral into the absolute load of poop that it is. I feel sorry that paper was wasted to create this mess. I cannot believe I wasted several hours of my life reading this.



2. Fans of the Kevin Mitnick mythos will have a ball with this book dissecting everything that's wrong here. In the process of tracking Mitnick, Shimomura (and another important name, Markoff, whose relationship with Mitnick would be laughable if it didn't violate every concievable rule of morality) basically took free leave of both the law and personal decency. Mitnick became a "thing", and the two of them pushed that image of Mitnick to cover up the legal mess they would have been in if they'd been tracking some average Joe instead of Kevin Mitnick: The Man, The Myth, The Legend (again, an image which these two men essentially created).
   
   It's amazing to see how egotistical Shimomura is willing to be on the issue, and as noted by others, he shows this off in spades in this book. Shimomura and Markoff boh essentially believe that they are the lone men responsible for the takedown and capture of Mitnick, and that not even the dozens (hundreds?) of security firms and companies who spent millions of their own money tracking Mitnick deserve any credit at all. And in a sense, they are mostly correct- we wouldn't be talking about Mitnick today if Markoff and Shimomura weren't working so desperately hard to make money off of this story.
   
   If you're a fan of Mitnick, skip this book just because you don't want to give this man any royalties. If you're a fan of reading, skip this book because it's core is a mess of egotism. The only real reason to pick this up is if you have an insatiable urge to know every detail of this story that you can possibly get your hands on- in which case, it is another piece to the puzzle.
   
   I reccomend that interested parties check out Mitnick's own books: "Deception..." and "Intrusion...", as well as the fan favorite Jonathan Littman's "Fugitive Game".



3. I have The Fugitive and Takedown (this book) sitting in my room now. I borrowed both of them simultaneously. I had only heard of Mitnick before in anecdotes, and I thought it would be interesting to get both viewpoints.
   
   I started reading the Fugitive, but found it to read like a cheap B novel. The story jumped around in some sort of "stylistic" way that made it a bit incomprehensible and not very entertaining. There was a lack of coherence that made you wonder where it wwas going. The author also seemed to think that mentioning a lot of sex and drugs was the only way to keep the reader's attention.
   
   So about 80 pages through, I switched to Takedown, and finished it. I found it to be much better written and very engaging.
   
   All the negative reviews here are due to the fact that a lot of online people worship Mitnick, for some reason. I find him an interesting character, and definitely a skilled con-man. But he's no hero, no invincible genius.
   
   Shimomura can definitely be egotistical depending on your viewpoint, but it didn't bother me. It doesn't get in the way of the story, which was told beautifully and naturally.
   
   The story is engaging enough without having to dress it up in sensationalism. I'll have to go finish the Fugitive now to see if it can redeem itself.



4. Tedious, self-indulgent subplots. I dont care about Julia. No one cares about Julia. No one cares about where you eat or where you rent a car. These subplots REALLY screw-up the read. But the computer stuff is interesting enough. But somebody, please, toss Julia overboard.



5. Shimomura teamed up to write the most trivial, and boring details in this book about himself, and when he wasn't doing that, he was making up things about Kevin Mitnick. He never met Kevin Mitnick, he never knew Kevin Mitnick, he never had anything to do with Kevin Mitnick other than helping track him down because he was starved for attention and wanted to look like some super computer hero. Almost nothing in this book actually happened, I say almost because the only stuff that did actually happen were the trivial mundane details about Shumomura himself. Don't waste your time reading this sensationalist, tabloidian, garbage.

5 comments about A Perfect Husband.

1. "He knew his infidelity was not all HER fault..." That sentence, which made me laugh out loud, summarizes the whole book: ridiculous. The author is talking about Kathleen Peterson's first husband, who has the gall to say that his cheating on his wife is not entirely his wife's fault. Gee, what a big man he is. Of course, the guy comes across as the jerk he is, but the problem is that Aphrodite Jones doesn't get it: she takes the guy at face value, as if cheating on his spouse said nothing about him.
   
   Jones also stars out with the description of an ideal evening that is ridiculous considering she believes that Michael Peterson killed his wife on that very evening. She even narrates what was on Kathleen's mind that night--and, unless she's a medium, there was no way for her (or anyone else) to know. The only thing Kathleen Peterson (RIP) was guilty of was a terrible taste in men, and she deserved much better--in her life, in her marriage, and in the book that was written about her. My condolences to her daughter, Caitlin.



2. To provide a perfunctory summary of Aphrodite Jones' A PERFECT HUSBAND, author Michael Peterson is accused of beating his wife, Kathleen, to death in Durham, NC, and then staging a fall down a flight of stairs. We later learn that Michael may have been involved 15 years earlier in a similar incident, that he is bisexual, and blah blah blah.
   It really doesn't matter because no story, no matter how interesting - and this one is - could stand up to the trashy incompetence of Jones' writing. This book exhibits all the hallmarks of the worst of the genre. Some of many possible examples:
   
   1. In what is likely an attempt to meet a required number of pages, Jones regularly repeats material. On page 245 she writes that "Caitlin's attorney, Jay Trehy, reported..." On 246 she writes "...attorney Jay Trehy had knocked..." On 247 she writes that "Caitlin and her attorney, Jay Trehy, were conducting an investigation..." Presumably Jones felt the need to emphasize that in the space of these three pages of narrative, Caitlin had not changed attorneys.
   And on page 56 we learn that, "...Kathleen had insisted that Caitlin remain close to her biological dad." Two sentences later, Jones writes that, "regardless of her new family with Michael, she wanted Caitlin to remain close to her biological father."
   It's almost as if Jones does not read what she is writing. Which would actually be sensible.
   
   2. Jones does no in depth research into the personalities, backgrounds, or psyches of the principal players in the story. Instead she substitutes superficial banalities to describe characters and events. Kathleen's sisters had "hearts of gold." A cab driver, totally peripheral to the story but who is asked to do a favor is described as "the kind stranger."
   "Barbara", a babysitter 15 years earlier in Germany, "after a weekend of fun would appear chipper every Monday morning, ready for a week of full time work." "Liz went all out, as did her friends, preparing mouth watering appetizers and extraordinary desserts."
   And, describing a wedding that took place 23 years before Jones wrote this book, Jones tells us that "George and Liz glowed...The pair looked stunning and shared vows that people believed could never be broken." What people?
   
   Jones has no way of knowing any of this, and as such A PERFECT HUSBAND is not true crime but is rather its superficial cousin, fictionalized crime/soap opera. Jones' writing about people and events of which she has at best minimal knowledge, results in the saccharine non-information shown above. Rather than illuminating, the descriptions render the subjects two dimensional and clichéd. There is really no information provided.
   
   3. None of the principal characters in this book are ever annoyed, irritated, sad, or surprised. They are all horrified, mortified, beside themselves, agonized, devastated, and, in what must have been the granddaddy of out of control emotion, "completely and utterly devastated".
   And let's not forget the tears. The characters in A PERFECT HUSBAND are perpetually weeping, teary, teary eyed. Sometimes they can even be found sobbing uncontrollably.
   But the king of this book's emotions is SHOCK! Everyone in this story seems to be continually somewhere on the shock continuum, whether entering it, in its throes, or coming out of it. It gets to the point where not even the residents of the region who have been following the case in the media but who otherwise have no personal ties to it are exempt. On page 251 we learn that "The public was shocked..."by a medical examiner's report. And on 220, "...folks in the Triangle region were shocked to learn that the Petersons had let so many charges pile up."
   I have lived in a number of places in America and have never personally witnessed this phenomenon, but it appears that the populace in the greater Durham, NC, area has an unusual propensity toward shock. Maybe it's the water.
   An unofficial count reveals at least 14 instances of the use of the words "shock" or "shocked". Jones apparently doesn't realize that continued extreme emotion results in no emotion. Or maybe she doesn't care. Devastation, shock, or whatever, becomes mundane if it's a constant and therefore not shocking or devastating. But Jones is really not attempting to provide us with any accurate sense of the way people experience emotions. She is again writing soap opera.
   
   4. There is a lot of silliness and just bad writing in this book. On 306, Jones writes that when the sealed-off stairwell where Kathleen's body had been found was reopened, "no one could have anticipated the mystic vapor that would exude from behind the plywood." Well, I guess not.
   
   On 80, Jones reports "There were two black dresses on sale, stunning dresses really," and that in the end "Kathleen opted to buy both." And in the next paragraph, "Yet suddenly here (Caitlin) was wearing that very dress that her mom so dearly loved. It wasn't black, actually, more midnight blue..." What color was that dress? And if it was in fact midnight blue, was it just a fit of whimsy that led Jones to initially call it black?
   
   In an interesting mangling of a cliché, Jones writes "Up until then, any bad news Caitlin had ever heard had been followed by a silver lining."
   
   And on page 131, "As she looked to the sky, Caitlin kept asking her mother for guidance, but she wasn't getting any signs."
   
   5. And, for someone who calls herself a writer, Jones misuses basic English vocabulary to an amazing extent. She writes that a fireplace tool "had been omnipresent in the Peterson home." I might have expected omnipresence from the aforementioned mystic vapor, but not from a tool.
   
   She reports that Michael's defense team "sat in the courtroom, looking somewhat glib." I don't believe you can actually look glib.
   
   We learn that the "jurors seemed mystified by Dr. Lee's grace, by his easy smile." Mystified? That would seem an inappropriate emotion unless Dr. Lee had a reputation of being graceless and unpleasant. Perhaps she means enchanted.
   
   And, astoundingly, Jones does not know the past tense of the verb "weep". My 15 year old has known for at least 8 years that it is wept. Jones believes it is "weeped". And it appears this way at least three times in A PERFECT HUSBAND. An example from page 122 which also illustrates the embarrassingly bad writing: "He simply cried, curled up on the floor and cried and weeped and weeped."
   
   Interestingly, I noticed that on the acknowledgement page, one of the people Jones thanks is her editor. She doesn't say why.
   
   A PERFECT HUSBAND embodies the worst of this genre. It is sloppy, incompetent, superficial, illiterate, and unintelligent. It would seem to be awfully difficult to write a book this bad, but Aphrodite Jones has pulled it off.
   



3. There is a much better book concerning this murder ( and the first murder ) committed by Michael Peterson. It is "Written in Blood" by Diane Fanning, and it is by far the superior book. Much less confusing, much less meandering, Fanning's book manages to span the time frame between two similar crimes of women associated with Peterson.
   
   Much more horrifying is the fact that the children of his first victim in Germany became his wards, and remained in his custody, loving him, the murderer of their mother.
   
   I suggest that anyone confused or put off by this author's style pick up a copy of "Written in Blood." Everything is more cohesive and the spine prickles much more pronounced.
   
   There will be no doubt in your mind that Peterson committed both murders. Evidently the courts agree with Diane Fanning, too, as Michael Peterson's final appeal against his life sentence was denied in 2007.



4. The story of Michael Peterson as the perfect husband is far from the truth. He was a closet bisexual as well as a philanderer besides being a best-selling author. I would love to have his success as a novelist even if it didn't lasted. He was married to a beautiful and successful woman, Kathleen Atwater Peterson, who loved him and their children. Three daughters and two sons although biologically together, Caitlin Atwater is Kathleen's only child. Michael had two adult sons from a previous marriage to Patricia Peterson who lives in Germany. He also became legal guardian to Martha and Margaret Ratliff who despite had a willing aunt to raise them in Rhode Island. Their mother, Elizabeth McKee Ratliff, died under mysterious circumstances in Germany where they lived at the time. As the story unfolds, Kathleen Peterson's sudden death is equally bizarre. Michael claims that she fell down a flight of stairs and died of a natural causes. The truth was that she was murdered by her own husband two weeks before Christmas 1999. Michael tried to convince others of his own sudden sadness but it was not fooliny anybody. He barely conceded to pay for his own wife's funeral expenses. As authorities come closer to sealing a case against him, they learn from Ratliff's death as well in Germany. They exhume her body despite her own daughters' strong belief in their adopted father's innocence. She died similarily. While the author conveys the family's plight on both sides, it truly is a double family tragedy. I'm going to acknowledge anything else written about this case except in this book.



5. A dyed-in-the-wool sociopath with genteel affectations and upper-crust snobbery and arrogance. He's a raving lunatic behind a mask of sanity. A most fascinating story. The supporting cast of characters (family members, attorneys) are compelling in their own right. "Written in Blood" is another terrific book on this case, and the film "The Staircase", a documentary about the case, is riveting and revealing. I was hooked on this one.

3 comments about Homicide (Foundations of Human Behavior).

1. This book presents the view of evolucionist pychology. These authors have some excellent points, especially concerning social anthropology and some of Freud's misinformation, and anyone interested in psychology should not miss this book. However, once the authors have given an overview of behavior in the species homo sapiens, their theories cannot be translated to the individual. They have not taken into consideration the complexity of the human brain and the resultant behavior, especially the ability to symbolize. I felt like I was reading a book on how to assemble a Swiss watch using a pick and shovel



2. Although nominally about the material designated in its title, this book is no mere collection of statistics, but contains wide-ranging discussions of evolutionary psychology, which Daly & Wilson use as the framework for an understanding of the phenomenon of homicide. So if the propensity to homicide is bred into the human race by millennia of natural selection, so also are other phenomena with which society struggles, like sexual harassment. I guess my point is that this book is about homicide and more. It's also lucid and even witty. It reads like a detective story, which indeed it is, but the culprit here is manifold rather than singular. The book will also furnish guidance to those who subscribe to the view that arrest, conviction, and incarceration will have only limited effects on the homicide rate, and that homicide be treated also as a public health problem. Daly & Wilson consider anthropological data from around the world and historical data as well to draw their inferences. In the most common type of murder the perpetrator and victim are young men who know each other and are in (ostensible) conflict over some trivial matter. But Daly & Wilson say that murder is the rare outcome of a common situation where two men face off against each other with each trying to appear more formidable and dangerous than the other. The (biological) reason they behave as they do is that such behavior causes them to acquire (or keep) control of the reproductive behavior of their women. Think about it: wimps, who allowed their women to be taken away from themselves, left no wimp genes in the gene pool. Of course there are a lot of other kinds of murders: children are occasionally murdered, sometimes by their natural parents, but more often by step-parents. It appears that there is a basis for the ever-popular myth (in many cultures, not just western European) of the evil step-parent. Husbands murder wives, but this seems to be a case of violence being used to control the wife's reproductive behavior, and the violence gets out of hand. When wives murder husbands (a rarer occurrence) it tends to be defensive in nature. Wonderful book! Very thought provoking.



3. I've now read this book about 10 times over the past three years while teaching an evolution of human behavior course at the college where I'm employed. I was motivated to say a few supportive words about this book because I have become convinced of its groundbreaking importance in the scientific literature. After a decade of reading and studying evolutionary anthropology/psychology I find no other single book that so clearly and convincingly articulates the application of Darwinian thinking to modern human behavior. It is a perfect text to use with students as it not only teaches a wealth of information, but is also an excellent example of critical interpretation of data. Many of my students have commented on the power of this book to transform them into appreciative readers of science. From my own experience, it is one of a few books that transformed me from a standard social science undergraduate--mired in theoretical mush--into a more critical and thoughtful scholar. The other books that influenced me were by Sarah Hrdy, Don Symons, and later, Jarome Barkow et al. I encourage anyone interested in human behavior to read this book. Bring along a collegiate dictionary if your vocabulary is anything like that of my undergraduates!

5 comments about Jesus Freaks: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge.

1. This book was not titled or described as it should have been. This book was so far off base from the description on the front of the cover " A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge." No the book should have been titled " Boring account of religious cults." The author never focused on the story surrounding the pretence of this book. It was to be about a MURDER not religious history of the 60.s 70's ect. Did not even finish this book.



2. Well-written tale of neo-religious cult spinoffs that head down a dark and desolate path. Expertly told story should please students of religious history as well as true crime readers.



3. Very well written, although disturbing book: I didn't know much about the Children of God/The Family except for a short segment on 60 Minutes several years ago about Ricky Rodriguez and the murder-suicide. I read this book a few months ago, and it's still in my head. Definitely worth reading but the level of abuse described is horrific.



4. My name is Josh Bruni and while I haven't yet read the book, I have heard about it and would like to make a few comments about COG/the family.
   I was born and raised in "the family". I left when I was 20 in the year 2000. My mother and 6 brothers and sisters still live in "the family" in various parts of the world. I'll never rejoin and I don't recomend anyone else join. What a lot of people who've never been a member don't realize is, when you have been born into "the family" you don't know what "normal" is. When you leave, it takes a while, several years in my case, to realize how weird and twisted some of the things you've been taught actually are. Any book that exposes the inner goings on of that group, I strongly recomend. See also the book "Not without my sister" by ex-members of the same group.
   
   Josh Bruni
   [...]



5. This book provides a background and context for the murder-suicide of Ricky Rodriguez, the involuntary prophet-apparent of The Family, an international religious cult. Also known as The Children of God, the group began in the late sixties under direction of David Berg, a self-appointed prophet, polygamist, pedophile, and narcissist. It continues today, led by Karen (sp?) Zerby, Ricky Rodriguez's mother. The book is a very well-rounded account of the cult's beginnings, compared with other so-called new religions, written by a journalist who covered religion for major newspapers for many years. It's a quick, informative read. I also recommend Not Without My Sisters, a memoir by three girls who grew up moving in the cult around the world.

5 comments about The Girl with the Crooked Nose: A Tale of Murder, Obsession, and Forensic Artistry.

1. this story is up there with Kathy Reichs novels for forensic suspense but even better it's a true story. The information about Frank Bender's life & how he self-taught himself is incredible, his concentration & sixth sense is very remarkable. I have personnally known Frank (and Jan, his wife) for over thirty years & can truly tell you that every word is true!! These two people have an amazing bond that has stood the test of time & personnel trials for thirty or more years. May I suggest that you feature this book for your readers who are interested in anthropology and/or forensic stories. It's a terrific read & again all true.



2. 
   Ted Botha's book -- "The Girl With the Crooked Nose" -- is a thrilling account of the remarkable real-life adventures -- and remarkable life -- of forensic artist Frank Bender. The publication of this work fills a void that, for a long time, had been waiting to be filled.
   
   The book succeeds on several levels. First, there is the "frame story," which concerns the mysterious disappearance and murder of hundreds of women in and around Juarez, Mexico. Bender is called in on the case and encounters a language which, after a while, becomes far more difficult for him to understand than Spanish: something mysterious, deceptive, altogether unnerving -- and dangerous. Ultimately the symbol of this convoluted and heartbreaking exploit is the Girl With the Cooked Nose, whose skull -- like those of the other murdered girls -- needs a face and a name.
   
   On another level the book is about Frank Bender himself; and in moving back and forth between the present-day Juarez story and his biography, the fascination does not let up. This subject is in itself a valuable account on its own: his first exposure to forensics (a word he did not even know), his first (and incredibly successful) attempt to bring face to a skull and each elaborately different case thereafter, always working (like Sherlock Holmes) as a uncannily gifted "amateur" or bohemian "outsider"; the development of his approaches and all the interesting professional connections he makes as well as the macabre, touching scenarios that develop -- all these elements form an engaging catalog of one person's personal quest. To Botha's credit, the writer never depicts gore gratuitously but only as need to understand a case or the emotional reaction to a discovery.
   
   In addition, students of forensic science will relish this book not only for the subject matter itself, of course, but for the insights into Bender's actual technique and his thought process -- his early uncertainties, his triumphs, his nightmares and his relationship with the nameless victim whose identity he must help uncover.
   
   All in all, this is a fascinating and important work, not only because it deals with the tragic Juarez murders and with forensics but because it gives insight into the singular personality of Frank Bender. Not an easy person to profile, he is genuinely worth this kind of detailed treament.
   
   



3. I knew I had to read this book as soon as I saw it advertised. I've had the pleasure of meeting Frank Bender and the opportunity to see him work.
   
   Bender is a self-taught forensic artist whose work has helped identify murder victims and apprehend numerous fugitives. He sacrificed a career in commercial photography to work with law enforcement agencies around the world, a choice that has often put him in danger, jeopardized his marriage and brought him near bankruptcy at one point.
   
   Though Bender and his work have had publicity over the years, Botha does a good job of introducing him and his fascinating technique to a wider audience. In chapters fluctuating back and forth in time he intersperses Bender's history with details of the perplexing unsolved case in which some 400 young women were murdered in Mexico.
   
   Along the way, the author provides information on the development of facial reconstruction techniques, detailing both the American system pioneered by Wilton Krogman and the European perfected by Mikhail Gerasimov.
   
   Another intriguing aspect of the book is how Bender, along with William Fleischer, a customs agent and polygraph expert, and Richard Walter, a criminal profiler, founded the Vidocq Society. Named for the founder of the French Surete, the organization of amateurs and professionals focuses on unsolved deaths and disappearances.



4. I bought this book because I like true crime stories; "In Cold Blood", "The Executioners Song", "The Innocent Man" etc. But this book opens with a speculative account of a murder victims last hours which left me thinking "How does the author know this". And early on in the book there is a significant factual error; a man is mentioned who has spoken with numerous serial killers, this book states that this man was the last to speak with John Wayne Gacy "before he went to the electric chair". Wait a minute, Gacy was executed by lethal injection. Not that I'm a groupie of serial killers but I remember this one because his execution was botched; the tubes inserted into Gacys arms had to be replaced and the execution tried a second time before succceeding. I verified this on-line. I feel little pity for Gacy but wow I wouldn't want to resolve myself emotionally to dying then have to do it a second time.
   
   Anyway, what other facts are mis-stated in this book?



5. THE GIRL WITH THE CROOKED NOSE: A Tale of Murder, Obsession, and Forensic Artistry tells the true story of forensic sculptor Frank Bender's harrowing exploits south of the border as he works to put faces on five of the skulls of the feminicidios, nearly 400 young women who were murdered around Juarez in the early 1990s. Frank's ability to reconstruct faces and give them personalities is legendary in law enforcement, but in addition to being an investigative superstar, Frank is a real character. At times the outrageous details of his personal life threaten to overshadow his brilliant sleuthing. Trust me--he's one of a kind. (He identifies himself on his voice-mail message as the "recomposer of the decomposed.") Read the book and you'll see what I mean.

5 comments about The House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed.

1. I have inherited and purchased a few Gucci pieces, and have been so fond of the quality of their products that I thought I would read this book as a "light read." I was completely surprised by the first chapter that I just kept on turning the pages. It's anything but a light read, but a great read! This book really does have it all, including a tremendous education into the fashion empire. I also love the Italian detail and family disfunction. The author did a fantastic job of weaving the intimate details of a family, a business, and a family business. I have not lost an ounce of respect for the Gucci product, in fact I am more of a fan. Blood, sweat, and tears.



2. The subtitle said it all: "A sensational story of murder, madness, glamour and greed". The perfect combination for a successful novel that in reality has been real life. Read it!



3. Yes, the Gucci story is intriguing. And yes, Ms. Forden provides some historical facts. But remember, this is a book. It should be readable. Ms. Forden's constant and trivial inclusion of far too much 'stuff' is more annoying than enlightening.
   
   This book could be condensed into 200 pages. Thoughtfully written and entertaining by someone other than Ms. Forden. It is a laborious task to tread through the boring an completely unnecessary details. Ms. Forden, no one cares about the work history of then-Head-of BergdorfGoodman.
   
   Poorly written, this book is one long magazine article. Paragraph after paragraph of unnecessary filler. I suggest you find some other way to capture the history of the Gucci company.



4. This is a very interesting book about the Gucci family, but it at times delved too much into all the business and acquisitions. It got at times really complexed. Having said that, it was a really good and interesting book. It was almost as if the author didn't want the story to end. I am glad I read it.



5. I absolutely loved this book. I only wish I had been more cognizant of the events as they were happening (I was young at the time). Forden truly captures all of the bastardly splendor of Gucci and made me nostalgic for the Tom Ford days.

No comments about I Am Innocent!: A Comprehensive Encyclopedic History of the World's Wrongly Convicted Persons.

5 comments about Traitors Among Us: Inside the Spy Catcher's World.

1. There are two major triumphs covered in this volume. One for each side. Fortunately the NATO side won but it would have been a close thing indeed if the ball had dropped during the seventies and eighties when the war plans of the north central forces were being leaked to the Soviets almost as they were being written.
   Too many of the previous reviewers have treated this book as a reality based version of the usual spy fiction. Well, keep in mind, that no matter how sexy the fictioneers have it this is not James Bond. As open as he was, he would have been knocked off years ago. If you saw "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", the TV series, you came away with a much better sense of the numbing boredom and tediousness of much of the CI and spy's tradecraft. I refer you to a classic of the reality genre, McCargar's Short Course in the Secret War (cf) and the more recent book by Ib Melchior (cf)
   The amount of time it took to find the penetrators and then to build a case so that they could be punished is just one of the difficulties detailed herein. The other and most difficult side of the coin is, how do you find out what was copied in the first place? In the West, we did not have the constant paranoia caused by the KGB in the East and the effectiveness of a closed society such as was the DDR in keeping tabs on its citizens.
   Sure, at the first hint of a leak you could shut down and get rid of everyone who might have done it, but that is doubly counter productive, as as is so often shown on the TV series Law and Order, the first suspect is often not the one at all, and the real one will go to ground. The second is that those who are left will become so paranoid that they will not be able to keep their eyes on their desks from looking over their shoulders so much.
   Finally, this puts the lie to certain events in the intelligence community some years back when the entire HUMINT apparatus was almost fatally disrupted by belief in IMINT and SIGINT to keep track of things. Well, first things first, if the object cannot be seen such as a document or is never spoken of in a communication, then technical means are useless. All these cases herein depended on timeless face to face interaction between spy and case officer.
   We have seen this again today in that we have no persons who can go into deep cover and infiltrate the other side. And few who can even interrogate fluently in the languages of the Middle East. The DEA and the FBI and Treasury agents have proven time and time again that infiltration is necessary to solve major crimes. How much more important is it when national existence is at stake.



2. Perhaps the best thing about this book is the author's obvious desire to obtain recognition for those in his agency whose work, of necessity, had to be secret and hidden; they commonly worked extremely long hours, for months and years, at duties that were tedious and repetitious. They deserve this recognition and our highest respect. Unfortunately, the book shares qualities with the work and often goes on and on giving daily details of surveillance, meetings, briefings, etc, on almost an hourly basis at times. Thus, a suspect is followed here, then there, then back home, then to somewhere else and eventually I found myself turning pages. Also, the author makes excessive use of long paragraphs of the "little did we know then that our suspicions would lead to something that would take years, much money, heartbreak, frustration,..." variety. I finished the book because the story is important and disturbing; it doesn't take much to imagine how these intelligence betrayals would have hurt if WW III had broken out. But, after the first half, I was skipping over portions and reading only those that told of new happenings in the plot. Hard-core espionage junkies will like this book best (and those who may themselves have done some work along this line).



3. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but once I read the first page I was hooked. The author provides two classic cases of the worst treachery the United States military has ever been exposed to, and he writes well because he was involved in both of them. The intrigue and research into the cross-departmental assistance was very informative in light of today's "territorial" exclusiveness. A well written work that is easy for a lay person to follow, I highly recommend this book.



4. A meaty, readable memoir of an officer's counterintelligence career during the Cold War. It could get a bit tedious in places, and Herrington has an annoying habit of inserting unnecessary rah-rah patriotism, but overall a solid read. The Clyde Conrad case is one of the most important, but least known, spy cases in U.S. history.



5. Excellent book. I couldn't let it go and managed to read it in 4 days. Written so that you don't have to be a spook to understand it. Again, a very good book. Buy it, read it.

1 comments about The Strange Case of Dr. H.H. Holmes.

1. Reviewed by Katherine Ramsland, Ph.D., author of "The Human Predator".
   
   "In addition to making the first DVD about H. H. Holmes available to viewers, John Borowski has done a great service by also publishing the four principle works by and about Holmes during the time of his arrest, as he awaited trial. Previously, one had to go to a place like the newspaper archives in Philadelphia to get access to these papers. Now they're all in one bound volume, along with provocative illustrations of the case and the infamous Chicago castle. In addition to Holmes's various "confessions," the volume includes the book penned by Detective Frank Geyer, as well as Robert Corbitt's description of the castle before it was destroyed and the analysis of evidence there - including bones and fine hair found in the stove. Holmes was so clever, it seems, that he would hire and discharge workmen each day so that no one could see what he was up to. It's fortunate that Borowski has been so interested in the case as to produce both a DVD and a bound collection of 19th century publications. Despite the availability of two excellent books devoted to Holmes in recent times, it's always valuable to read the documents from the relevant era."