2 comments about Leading Lady.

1. Thieves Jerry Lang and Gloria Pavlich are doing one last caper before retiring. They are to steal a five million dollar painting "Self Portrait" by Isaac Leviathan from a private collector; then they will give it to their fence Albanian expatriate Hanif "Mittens" Gallega who will sell it. They succeed in taking the painting, but when they get to their hotel, thugs greet them. In the melee that follows, Jerry shoots one of his assailants, but watches his beloved leading lady vanish. He later learns he killed a cop and is convicted of such.
   
   In prison, Jerry escapes four assassination attempts. His last one has him sharing a hospital room with a corpse that he uses to escape his incarceration. He is coming for Hanif while remaining unaware someone has assigned Delta Force Domestic Major Cliff Hartung to insure he does not get close to one of his agency's "toys". At the Casbah, Jerry meets college student dancer Letitia Hudson, who gets caught in the middle of a local war.
   
   This exhilarating crime caper is not for the cozy crowd as Jerry, feeling guilt for accepting one last job over Gloria's objection, proves quite efficient in dispatching enemies in a violent manner. The story line is fast-paced as Letitia becomes Jerry's new LEADING LADY and Hanif his crash dummy. Although how Hartung and his two deadly soldiers fit into the plot comes very late with quite a revelation, readers will appreciate Heywood Gould's wild Noir.
   
   Harriet Klausner



2. So here comes Heywood Gould again with another exciting tale. Gould, author of "Fort Apache, The Bronx," "Boys From Brazil" and other novels and screenplays, now gives us a super-charged story full of bad guys, a lot badder guys (among them rogue Feds, Russian and Albanian mobsters and locally-grown mafiosi) and a not-that-bad bad guy you can come to love and root for. Jerry Lang, by name.
   
   Lang, a thief practically from when he was a toddler, usually steals on demand. That is, he gets an assignment from a fence, mentor, whatever, to rip off a bit of property that someone else covets.
   This time it's a valuable piece of art, and he and his "leading lady" - Gloria, a very lovely, erotic head-turner whose role is to distract any man who might get in Jerry's way - head off to work.
   
   But things go wrong and Gloria vanishes and most certainly has ended up buried in the Bronx or some other godawful place and Jerry himself almost gets the final push to Hell but ends up in jail for a couple of years. (I'm really not giving much away: Gloria is disposed of in the first few pages.) From this point on Jerry lives with one major motivation.
   
   Revenge.
   
   Revenge drives the tale, and it's like watching a Nascar event. Fast, dangerous, sexy.
   
   And this is a pretty sexy book. Chapter One introduces us to Jerry's leading lady with a warm, tender and glowing post-coital description of her body, her near-perfect bone structure and just how Jerry feels about her: He truly loves her. It's afternoon, with the theft of the artwork planned for that night, and they've made love mostly because if the caper turns bad he wants his last memories to be of Gloria's essence.
   
   The dialogue is smart and droll; nothing flashy, but it will instantly hook you. Four pages in, just after Jerry and Gloria have made love, he explains the final details of their upcoming heist that he's been asked to pull off by a fence/scammer/rotter from whom he's long taken assignments. He discusses their place in the pecking order of who gets paid how much and why the top guy gets the most and why Jerry and Gloria, the "heavy lifters," get the least. "How do we go up to the next level?" Gloria asks. Jerry's wry response: "Get different parents."
   
   A touch fatalistic, and yes, Jerry grew up in a rough and tumble crummy neighborhood, but he makes no excuses and no apologies. Jerry is not exactly a good guy but the guys he is up against are so much worse. Of course, the score goes south and the rest of this post-modern noir detective novel is a cat and mouse tale of revenge and counter-revenge peopled by some pretty interesting characters. Gould is able to make a character come alive with just a few words. For example, his description of a big, beefy bouncer: "He had three chins, only two of them shaved."
   
   
   The cast of characters include a sly and crafty mafia boss surrounded by mostly loyal but dim goons and a coked-up lieutenant impatient to step up and depose the boss so he can sit at a table in an Italian restaurant with the other Dons in $4,000 silk suits. The scariest villain and Jerry's most formidable foe is the corrupt and mega nouveau-riche Russian oligarch who has the goods on some important American politicos and can therefore command and receive protection and favors from secret U.S. Army operatives working under the auspices of a shadow government agency.
   
   But the story is really about the Leading Lady, beginning with Gloria and ending with her replacement, Letitia Hastings: actress/lap dancer/actress but, finally, Jerry's true Leading Lady. She's beautiful and smart and talented, but most important she steps up and prevails. It's a pretty dark novel - definitely noirish - illuminated by the faint glimmer of Letitia's moral center.
   
   Murders, double-crosses and more, straight to an explosive and chilling ending.
   [...]

4 comments about Engaged To Murder.

1. I've read this and Wambaugh's Echoes and Costopoulos' Principal Suspect, the two other books written about the Philadelphia Main Line Murders Case. They're all good reads and Ms. Noble's seems to be the most objective. This case haunts me. Who did it? Where are those little children's bodies? Was Jay Smith set up or is he evil incarnate?



2. Having read Echoes of Darkness and Principal Suspect I felt compelled to read Engaged to Murder. The book gave me more insight of the personality of William Bradfield. I'm more inclined to believe that he did commit the murders with the age old motive of money. I didn't realize how much he was in debt until reading this book. I think Bradfield used Jay Smith's bizarre behavior and conviction of robbery to set him up for the murders. Still a part of me believes that maybe Jay was involved. I just don't know. I really would have liked to read and know more about Joanne Aitken. There's still the unanswered questions about what happened to Jay's daughter and son-in-law. Short of a death bed confession none of us will ever know.



3. This book was written in the same time frame as "Echoes In The Darkness", which means it misses one-third of the entire Story.
   
   The strength of the book is more in-depth information on William Bradfield and the mystery girlfriend, Joanne Aiken.
   
   Since Bradfield died in 1998 and Smith has nothing to gain by providing any additional information (if he actually can) on the details of the murders, it appears the question about what happened to Susan Reinert and her children will remain a mystery.
   
   Unless, Joanne decides to talk.



4. There really are no "interviews" but chapters where Bill Bradfield and Jay Smith "speak" (separately) it appears on whatever subject they have chosen, or else the author could not get them to answer the questions she asked. Important details of the story are omitted, such as how did Jay Smith suddenly show up with two guns next to a van in a parking lot? It leaves the reader to wonder whether he was driving the van, got out and left or what (per Echoes in the Darkness, he drove a Ford Granada up to the van). She doesn't verify Bradfield's story of his young girlfriend dying of polio.
   
   Also, in Jay Smith's lawyer's version of the story, Schwartz's original notes somehow show up in a box which belonged to the lead investigator (cleaning out his attic). How did that happen?
   
   However, the book does contain photos, although none of Joanne Aitken, but you can find of picture of her if you look, and she does not look as she was described then. It's a shame no photo was obtained at the time she was a witness.

3 comments about The Poison Widow: A True Story of Sin, Strychnine, and Murder (Wisconsin).

1. The Poison Widow is a well-written, capivating, comprehensive great read. I would recommend it to anyone interested in history, true-crime, police thrillers, murder mysteries, psychology or non-fiction. The sordid story and facts are laid bare and well-documented by the inclusion of much of the state's evidence and actual letters the murderer wrote to her lover. This book keeps your interest throughout, includes lots of pictures that breathe life into these real-life "characters" who lack character. I read it cover to cover--not wanting to miss one detail! With this book, Mrs. Godfrey has really done her research and combined so many seperate resources into a coherent, yet frightening look back into the life and mind of a "mild-mannered" murderer. Great investigative work went into this book! Her writing style reminds me of that of Daniel Keyes in "The Minds of Billy Milligan" which is another true story--about a rapist with multiple personality disorder. Makes one wonder about what lurks in the minds of everyone you know and trust. A must read!! You will enjoy it!



2. Once upon a time, a long - but not that long (St. Patrick's Day, 1922)- time ago, in America's Dairyland and just a little south of Lambeau, Myrtle Schaude murdered her husband and then attempted the big chill on her 4 children as well. She wanted to come to Minnesota and live happily ever after, like Susan Smith, with her much younger lover. "Curses, foiled again!"

   Author Linda Godfry has done a good job of dredging up old newspaper nuggets, correspondence, pictures (embedded in the text, not in the conventional and convenient center of the book) and the court transcript in this little True Crime book. But, because of the times back then, the reader must read between the lines of the staid and euphemistic reporting to get the full horror of post-Lizzie Myrtle the murderer, who was convicted, paroled, and married again. The second family never knew of the first's fate until the author came knockin' at their doors. /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer




3. Modern day murderers have nothing on Myrtle Schaude. Author Linda Godfrey has done a thorough research job, getting at every angle of the Poison Widow's life, longing, and loss. Even had Myrtle Schaude been alive to interview, Linda couldn't have painted a more explicit mental picture of who this twisted woman was.
   
   It is a quick read and such a compelling true tale that the story stays with you long after you've put the book down. I'm hooked by Linda Godfrey's style of storytelling and will always read whatever comes next from her.

2 comments about Jack the Ripper the Uncensored Facts.

1. Jack The Ripper has never seaced to fasinate me, the grossness of the whole thing has caught me up in a whirlwind of imagination. I have already devoted 16 precious years of my life following his ghost and reliving the amazing fantasy



2. A good overview, but Rumbelow's book is better researched and more comprehensive.

2 comments about Perfect Justice: A True Crime Book.

1. Note from the author, Don Lasseter. Retired Judge Donald A. McCartin, about whom Perfect Justice was written, received the following letter which, with the writer's permission, he wants to share with Amazon.com:
   
   From D. Kevin Lester, MD, Asst Clinical Professor, University of California, San Francisco.
   November 9, 2004
   Dear Judge McCartin:
   I very much enjoyed reading your book, which took me only two days. Frankly, I am a slow reader, but it is an intriguing book and kept my interest throughout. Rarely does a person's interesting and fascinating, principled life get the opportunity to be written such as this. Don Lasseter was probably the perfect author for this book, since he is used to this sort of depiction. The layout of the book was captivating.
   
   I am not going to have my wife read it since she would get nightmares, and I must admit that, since reading it, I have worried a little bit more about my adult children living in thet area where these tragedies took place. Linda and I lived in Long Beach during my time in medical school, on the peninsula in Belmont Shore, so reading the book brought back memories, and I could easily picture where and how these activities occurred.
   
   I very much enjoyed reading your own life story and chuckled with the recent occurrence you had in Madera.... I most enjoyed the reiteration of your life's story and principles that remain a beacon for many.
   Sincerely yours,
   D. Kevin Lester, M.D.



2. Forgiveness is an enormous virtue yet we have to realize that we live in a world where the rule of law must prevail and criminals and conspirators have to face the consequences of their actions. To do otherwise is to establish bad precedence. Extending it a step further every person who is a part of an evil conspiracy, whether physically or in their hearts (motivated by personal selfishness or misplaced fear of the unknown) must repent. The forgiveness should be in our hearts and that is indispensable for closure and for peaceful existence.

No comments about Bad Blood: The Marin County Murders.

5 comments about The Man Who Could Not Kill Enough: The Secret Murders of Milwaukee's Jeffrey Dahmer.

1. This book was written by the Milwaukee Journal crime reporter who was the first reporter on the scene when Jeffrey Dahmer's personal slaughterhouse was revealed to the public on July 23, 1991. This book was published the following year and as such it doesn't have the benefit of time with which to look back on the murderer that shocked Milwaukee and the nation. Of course, Jeffrey Dahmer himself didn't have much time, either -- he was killed in prison in November 1994 by a delusional fellow inmate.

   Dahmer's misdeeds are widely known, if only in part, but this book does bring forth the full horror in the very first chapter. Working the crime beat, Anne E. Schwartz, the wife of a cop who frequently got to go "under the yellow tape" for a closer look, was one of the few who actually got to stand in Dahmer's cramped, fetid apartment. Upon entering, she first noticed the general clutter and the trappings of a gay single man: potato chip bags, cigarette butts in an ashtray, and posters of muscular hunks adorning the walls. But she also couldn't help but notice the twisted and macabre additions that lurked in every room: a filing cabinet containing multiple human skulls, a scrapbook containing photos of partially dismembered corpses, containers of formaldehyde and chloroform, not to mention various bones and decomposing body parts. She knew this would be the case of a lifetime and in fact she was the one who broke the story.

   Schwartz's carefully compiled narrative follows Dahmer from his younger days to the last eighteen months of his life before his arrest, a time he used to kill a dozen men. The book starts strong because the story is simply so shocking. But Schwartz has also spoken personally to many members of the victims' families. Their stories really frame the tragedy, and Schwartz does keep the book moving, but the book nevertheless begins to be less about Dahmer at this point. And while not many other authors would have had the perspective on Milwaukee to address just how badly this case fractured the city and exposed raw racial divisions, the book really ceased to be about Dahmer at this point. I felt it lost its focus. The story of Milwaukee is certainly one that needed to be told -- just not in a book with this particular title.

   For those interested in "profiling" or criminal motive, this book will disappoint you. It's not a detective story, either. Schwartz does go into some depth regarding Dahmer's relationship with his probation officer (recall that Dahmer was on probation when he killed many of his victims) and these details reveal just how sad, miserable, and lonely Jeffrey Dahmer was in the last year of his freedom. But for the most part, this is a book that will appeal mostly to avid Dahmer fans or to those who want to read about the fallout from the case on the city of Milwaukee, its Police Department, and its citizens. It might also hold interest for those who are interested in how journalists work with police departments to report on crime.

   Those of us who are looking for explanations might instead turn to Robert Ressler's book on serial killers, I Have Lived in the Monster. There is a lengthy interview with Dahmer perforated with Ressler's commentary that helps explain why Dahmer felt compelled to commit such acts of violence.




2. I quite enjoyed this book, but found it was in part poorly researched. Dahmer was never cruel to animals, in fact he loved them and would look after them , as did another notorious 'cannibal' killer, Dennis Nielsen, who also killed for company. It was only dead animals eg.road kill that he dissected.
   I have also read Brian Master's book , "The Shrine of Jeffrey Dahmer" and was more impressed, although I was surprised he would put Dahmer and Ted Bundy in the same category.
   Dahmer was an extremely sick human being, but not a torturer.Sadly we will never know what mental illness made him commit these horrific crimes which ruined the lives of so many families.
   I don't recommend this book.



3. I would not recommend this book at all. It seems to me that this author used the book to brag that she's married to a cop and has an inside scoop on everything instead of using it to tell us the story of Dahmer. I have read many Dahmer books from different points of view and this one was my least favorite. I guess it's worth a read but be warned, it isn't the greatest Dahmer book there is.



4. This manages to make Dahmer's macabre story boring by stiffly recounting the tale in chronological fashion. The writer, a cop's wife and a Milwaukee newspaper reporter who was first on the scene, doesn't really have the skill to write a full length book. She needed a ghost writer to make the facts come alive. It reads like a long and dull newspaper article. With so many better accounts on the market, don't bother with this one.



5. I was interested for the first few chapters, and then completely lost interest, which is crazy because I find the whole Dahmer story very intriguing. She talks far too much about journalism and what the police went through rather than telling about what was going on with Dahmer during all this, and it just seemed to me like she was bragging about being a good journalist who was in with the cops and that she was married to one. It took me weeks to read it just because I kept having to force myself to go on reading about all these things when I just wanted to know more about the man himself. She went to far off topic, it read like an extremely long drawn out newspaper article, and I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone.

5 comments about Witch Hunt: A True Story of Social Hysteria and Abused Justice.

1. I have lived in Wenatchee for twenty years, and I saw first hand these outrageous trials. Unfortunately, the whole book is true. I saw some other reviewers say that the book is "one-sided". Perhaps, but the other side in this story is a truckload of BS, and the "mental-health professionals" who claim that the investigation was valid are LIARS. I also saw a review that said that one child called in to say that she was indeed raped. Well, given how often the stories have changed, I would find it very hard to believe. Folks, the facts speak for themselves, Almost all the ones convicted had a public lawyer, and almost everyone aquitted or had charges dismissed had a private lawyer. I don't want to go too deeply into the story, because I would basically be paraphrasing the book, which I don't want to do. In conclusion, beware of anyone who gives support to Perez, that sorry excuse for a human being.



2. I JUST GOT FIRED ABOUT THIS CASE, SO I GUESS YOU COULD SAY IT'S STILL GOING ON. THE STATE AND THE AGENCY I WORKED FOR WOULD DO ANYTHING TO COVER THEIR TRACTS, INCLUDING TAKING MY PAPERWORK AND DELETING THE TRUE FACTS. THEN MAKING ME SIGN CHANGES UNDER DURESS. WHEN WILL PEOPLE PLACE POLITICS WHERE POLITICS BELONG AND HELP PEOPLE IN THIS PROFESSION AS WE ARE SUPPOSE TO.



3. This journalistic account of the civil rights violations that can occur in the name of helping children is a chilling, scary book. Those who are in denial, or doubt Ms. Lyons account should read the award winning series in the Seattle paper called The Power to Harm at www.seattle-pi.com/powertoharm. This account also updates the story past the end of the books time frame so the reader can learn about the ultimate outcome of many of the cases. One page even continues to update the story as it unfolds.



4. The book is well-written and hard to put down. The truth of Wenatchee will probably never be known in entirety, but Lyon allows us to see how hysteria built to bolster the political career of a single individual. Reading it, one comes to doubt the criminal justice system, the human capacity for remembering events, the beliefs underlying applied psychology. It is terrifying to think that one might someday be a part of events like these, as alleged perpetrator or silent witness. This is a book to read twice.



5. I've been interested in the "recovered memory" controversy since I ran across related legal cases of dubious merit all over the country, and successful legal suits filed againt psychiatrists' offices for seeding false memories in their patients. My interest was reinvigorated while talking with an associate recently whose avocation is to keep in touch with the roughly 15 percent (!) of persons in prison who haven't done anything. We talked about Romano in California ("Spectral Evidence") Ingram in Washington ("Remembering Satan"), and this Wenatchee, Washington case. So I got this book.

   It all started with a 6 year old girl whose behavior was questioned by teachers. Eventually a child protection worker talked with her. The girl said she'd been touched inappropriately by a couple of 6 year old boys. The protection worker didn't feel that was right--there MUST be more to it. She persisted ad nauseum until the kid finally said her father abused her. (Her parents, incidentally, had pretty low IQs, were, therefore, poor. That's key to all these sham allegations.)

   From there what took place was no less than incredible. A police officer had just taken the helm of the child abuse charges. Though he's retired, I won't mention his name so I don't get accused of child abuse myself. But, to make a long story short, he coerced children into claiming they'd been sexually abused, and their parents of being responsible for the acts. As Ms. Lyon indicates--again, and again, and again--he gave the parties no option but to say what he wanted.

   When people, including an upstanding minister in town, challenged the officer's integrity, they too were implicated, and eventually jailed.

   The pathetic thing about the case is that the courts went along with the allegations! It presents, shall I say, a profound challenge to those who believe "the system" works. And the local media, of course, bought into it. It is, after all, sensational and on that condition the press thrives.

   What's the number in my title? It's the total number of sexual abuse acts of which those on trial were accused. Incidentally, ALL of the charges were eventually dismissed, and all those accused were released from prison, but only after spending a great deal of time there!

   I thank Ms. Lyon, an attorney and public defender, for the book which, on the cover, states, "In the wrong hands, the law can be a dangerous weapon." Indeed, among the most egregious offenses I see in today's society is the abuse of authority by public officials. As we pay them to protect us, I think such abuse should be a capital offense. Not only do such phony allegations cost us astonishing amounts of time and money, but they cause incredible suffering, not only to those sent to prison but to those who'll remain convinced for the rest of their lives that they were helpless victims--when the facts indicate that nothing happened!

   Important too is that the accused who partook of the services of public defenders (most were poor and/or otherwise handicapped) were convicted--usually after the PD encouraged them to a plea bargain. Those with the resources for private attorneys were acquitted.

   What is documented in detail in this book--which is hard to put down once you've started it--is a pretty solid argument in favor of that extreme of punishment.

   In any case, Ms. Lyon started the book with examples of other witch hunts in our own society, the one in Salem and the later one under Senator McCarthy. Her last chapter cautions the reader on training which child protection institutions and the like receive which may implicate people who are innocent of any wrongdoing.

   Thanks again, Ms. Lyon. You've performed a public service by writing this book. God willing, we'll learn from it.

4 comments about Sex Kill: Lust crimes that shocked a generation!.

1. 
   One month ago, my wife and some of the other women in the neighborhood decided to clean out the attics and hold a combined garage sale. Towards the end of the sale when most of the other wives have left a creepy guy in a white van shows up and starts to look at everything --- a bit too long, around 35 minutes. He is interested in every item and asks questions like, "do you have more of these (coins, comics, books, baseball card, dvds, etc.) for sale in the house?" Then he tells Lynn (the woman who was holding the sale) that he was a plumber/electrician/carpenter and he was will to work cheap and he noticed a section of shingles on Lynn's roof that appeared to be loose and could lead to water damage. At this time my wife slipped away to call me (only four houses away.) When she was gone, he asked to see the attic and when Lynn refused he asked to use the bathroom. This is when I showed up. Before I confronted him, I walked up to his van and took the plate number. This caused him to drop his act and with out another word he drove away.
   
   Five days ago I received SEX KILL in the mail. One of the chapters was about a man who answered classified ads early in the morning in order to rape housewives who are still in their robes and pajamas. The account was terrifying and struck accord with me. I reported the garage sale incident and the plate number to the police who did have a previous report of a man passing out home improvement flyers door-to-door who tried to force his way into a home. When they retrieved a flyer, they discovered that the phone number on it was bogus and the investigation turned cold.
   
   I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the abhorrent nature of the pervert/rapist/killer as cautionary tales, yet not to fall into the same traps as so many other unfortunate victims. But I would also offer this warning: SEX KILL is a hard and brutal read that accurately reflects a hard and brutal world.



2. 
   David Jacobs author of the COURT TV book series dredges the pitch-black swamp of true crime for this hyperbolic collection of the perverted accounts of love-struck necrophiles, degenerate kiddie-snatchers, serial lust killers and sadistic torturers of the innocent. This is Jacob's hardest book to date, easily usurping his 1993 SEX SADISTS - FROM THE FILES OF TRUE DETECTIVE MAGAZINE in both tone and graphic detail and, needless to say, is NOT for the young or emotionally immature.



3. Detailing some of the most famous true crime stories of all time, SEX KILL is ***NOT*** for the weak of heart.
   
   Beginning with X-ray technician Karl Tanzler - a man who could not distinguish reality from his twisted fantasy, to Frank Heideman - the rapist and murderer of the teenager Marie Smith, these fiends ultimately did pay the price for their evil, but not before destroying the lives of innocents and their families.
   
   For fans of true crime from decades past, the lesson to be learned here is that these times of American prosperity carried with them a dark underbelly of evil that manifested in small towns, big cities, and from the minds of these cold-blooded sadists - and that (figuratively speaking) the children and grandchildren of these evils continue to manifest today, with the only protection being strict vigilance.
   



4. SEX KILL collects some of the prior century's most horrific true stories of crime, with the period flavoring of Detective/True Crime Magazines like POLICE DRAGNET CASES and MASTER DETECTIVE.
   
   More than just police reports, these stories present with an intensity and emotion that that is unmatched even today.
   
   For any fan of books/movies like L.A. Confidential (Two-Disc Special Edition) this is one book that you have to add to your collection!

4 comments about An Act Of Murder.

1. This is one of the worst, if not THE worst, true crime books I've ever read (and I've read quite a few). If you're looking for the facts of the Kimberly Hricko case, they're all here, but you'd be better off surfing the web and reading court transcripts than slogging through Ms. Rosencrance's repetitive, shallow, and virtually unreadable book. It's quite a shame, as there's a lot to the story - infidelity, arson, poisoning, and of course murder. The problem is that the author provides virtually no description of Kimberly Hricko, no insight as to her background, no real explanation of her motives, and buries the story under a lot of third-person he-said-she-said dialogue, most of which is repetitive and adds nothing to the story. Ms Rosencrance spends several pages on a transcript of the murder mystery play, even though it's not at all related to the story. What's more, while many people reading this might already know the details, those who don't have a spoiler in the first chapter, as Ms. Rosencrance jumps randomly between present and future when describing events and reveals the method Kimberly used to murder her husband before we've barely been introduced to the book, thus spoiling any suspense a reader might have about the events.
   
   Stick to watching the case (via Forensic Files and Snapped!) and leave this book on the shelf.



2. I truly enjoyed reading this book. At first I was totally convinced that Kim was guilty of murdering her husband, but as I got further into the book there was a sliver of chance that maybe she didn't kill him. They didn't have any real hard evidence proving that she killed him, she was convicted totally on circumstantial evidence only.
   It is a very well written book. This book was hard to put down once I started it, I didn't want to stop till the end.This is a must read book...



3. Interesting story that could have been told in 20 pages, but this author chose to stretch her meager research into 300 plus looong pages. Watch an episode of Snapped online or read only if really interested in the case. I guess when you start with Ann Rule, everyone has big shoes to fill.



4. I have read numerous true crime books. In fact that is mostly all I read. This book however was disappointing mainly because there was no info. about Kim Hricko's background. Just the same info. over and over again. I skipped over about half of the book as I didn't need to hear the same thing repeated. I was hoping a movie would come out based on this case. Even at its worse it could never be half as boring as this book.