Review: Junger, A Death in Belmont

A Death in Belmont by Sebastian Junger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I was a little dubious about Junger because he's been so over-hyped, but this is in fact an excellent book that looks at the Boston Strangler case from a somewhat sideways perspective (the death in Belmont of the title): a murder that Albert DeSalvo didn't confess to and that another man was convicted of and yet that fits the Boston Strangler's pattern.

This is mostly a book about the impossibility of ever knowing the truth; Junger teases out his possibilities carefully and does a lot of the kind of analysis I particularly like in true crime, but at the end of the day we can't even say for certain that Albert DeSalvo WAS the Boston Strangler, much less that he killed this particular woman whose murder he never confessed to.

Junger is an excellent writer, conveying fact with clarity and nuance with delicacy. He doesn't try to elide his presence in the narrative (which is something I'm coming more and more to appreciate), but he also never tries to make himself out to be more than an observer from the sidelines.



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