What do you think?
True Crime Stories
Book by Haines, Max
241 pages, Hardcover
First published June 1, 1987
About the author
Max Haines
54 books21 followersMax Haines was a syndicated crime columnist.
His "Crime Flashback" column made its debut in the Toronto Sun in 1972 and was syndicated across Canada and in several Latin and South American countries.. His first column was about Lizzie Borden. He was awarded the Derrick Murdoch Award, one of the Arthur Ellis awards, by the Crime Writers of Canada.
His "Crime Flashback" column made its debut in the Toronto Sun in 1972 and was syndicated across Canada and in several Latin and South American countries.. His first column was about Lizzie Borden. He was awarded the Derrick Murdoch Award, one of the Arthur Ellis awards, by the Crime Writers of Canada.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 31, 2020
An apt title for a fascinating collection of TRUE CRIME STORIES
Max Haines has done himself proud. He’s put together a thoroughly entertaining collection of toilet reading shorts that runs an enormous gamut of crimes – unknown, little known, well known and so well known as to be almost foundational to current Canadian culture! The nature of the crimes runs virtually the entire length of the criminal code – rape; slavery and human trafficking; cannibalism; pedophilia; counterfeiting; animal abuse; murder by a ridiculously varied set of means from asphyxiation to poisoning; swindling and fraud; theft; racketeering and organized crime; animal abuse; domestic abuse; kidnapping; and much, much more.
Some of the more well known faces that make an appearance include Reverend Jim Jones of Jonestown, Guyana, massacre fame; Jean Harlow; Charlie Chaplin; the Amityville House of Horrors; DB Cooper who was never found, dead or alive, after his parachute escape with a multi-million dollar bag of loot from a hijacked plane; Denny McLain, the Hall of Fame 30-game winning pitcher who fell from the pinnacle of fame with a gambling addiction; and Jane Stafford, the female poster child for murder as a valid defense against the fear of death from an abusive spouse.
Read it straight through as you’d read a novel or read it in five minute chunks in the obvious location. It matters not. You’ll enjoy it either way.
Paul Weiss
Max Haines has done himself proud. He’s put together a thoroughly entertaining collection of toilet reading shorts that runs an enormous gamut of crimes – unknown, little known, well known and so well known as to be almost foundational to current Canadian culture! The nature of the crimes runs virtually the entire length of the criminal code – rape; slavery and human trafficking; cannibalism; pedophilia; counterfeiting; animal abuse; murder by a ridiculously varied set of means from asphyxiation to poisoning; swindling and fraud; theft; racketeering and organized crime; animal abuse; domestic abuse; kidnapping; and much, much more.
Some of the more well known faces that make an appearance include Reverend Jim Jones of Jonestown, Guyana, massacre fame; Jean Harlow; Charlie Chaplin; the Amityville House of Horrors; DB Cooper who was never found, dead or alive, after his parachute escape with a multi-million dollar bag of loot from a hijacked plane; Denny McLain, the Hall of Fame 30-game winning pitcher who fell from the pinnacle of fame with a gambling addiction; and Jane Stafford, the female poster child for murder as a valid defense against the fear of death from an abusive spouse.
Read it straight through as you’d read a novel or read it in five minute chunks in the obvious location. It matters not. You’ll enjoy it either way.
Paul Weiss
Want to Read
October 28, 2019Synopsis: Haines had a crime column in the Toronto Sun for years. Here is a selection of horrifying, bizarre, brazen, and barbarous crimes.
July 17, 2019
I very much enjoyed reading this book. The stories were interesting and captivating.
However, the book was poorly written. The stories get muddied and confusing as a result of: the author failing to specify the year and location of the crime; the author's overuse of pronouns; and the author jumping around in time or location without stating that he is doing so.
I would recommend this book, but just barely, and with a strong caveat.
However, the book was poorly written. The stories get muddied and confusing as a result of: the author failing to specify the year and location of the crime; the author's overuse of pronouns; and the author jumping around in time or location without stating that he is doing so.
I would recommend this book, but just barely, and with a strong caveat.
October 6, 2019
Max Haines, popular author of the Toronto Sun Crime Flashback column, offers a fourth volume of sometimes bizarre true crime stories. Most concern murder and, despite a slightly heavy hand with his humorous references to the between-the-sheets activities of some participants, the stories are, as always, fascinating.
July 13, 2021
It was an interesting book but would have been better to focus on 1 story go deep into the story. This book reminds me of a news article that was written on a summary of the case and the information to answer the 5 W's was not answered.
October 15, 2018
The book contains short stories on true crime . The book is well written and very interesting.
June 16, 2019
From late 1800,s to early 1900,s crimes by all kinds of people some got caught and paid the piper some got away.
January 27, 2020
I liked the different stories in this book,I like Max Haines books,the only negative I could say was a little more detail for some of the stories and a better timeline explanation.
October 13, 2021
Interesting short stories about murder. Varied but most are quite brief but I really enjoyed them.
April 12, 2016
This is probably one of my favorite crime books that I’ve read over the years. Max Haines the author of the book, started out with writing columns in a Canadian newspapers about individual murders, which turned into books. This book is separated by some of the most gruesome murders from all around the globe all the way from Canada, to Africa to Europe, mainly set in the late 1800’s, early 1900’s. The book is pretty organized and Haines makes it an easy read for anyone (most chapters can be read in 5-20 minutes). The cases presented in the book are famous like the Zodiac Killer and the killings on St. Catherine’s in 1991 but most are infamous, most taking place in Canada. Haines shows in detail leading up to the murder, a background of the victim and killer, along with legal procedures that were taken if any. It sounds horrible to say but most victims are not caught or receive lesser punishment for their crime. At times the book can be hard to read due to the detail to the bodies and how they’re left or mutilated. Haines explains the crimes scenes and the surroundings pretty well, it ranges from a plane crash with scattered bodies parts to corpses being throw or buried on the side of the road. The cool thing I like about this book is that it shows you that these are everyday people that commit these crimes; doctors, construction men, business men, even farmers. I think if anyone is into crime books or murder stories this is a great book to read!
January 7, 2010
I am a huge true crime reader and immediately gravitated toward this book of 50 true stories of murder. A few were of popular cases (Zodiac, Ed Gein) but most were unknown to me. Some of the stories I found were too long and drawn out, and found myself skipping a few mid-way through.
I didn't realize this book was Canadian, which was a plus to me because I was pleasantly surprised at how many Canadian cases there were in the book (probably 15-20) My small town was even mentioned in a really interesting murder that I had no idea about and I lived here my whole life.
Most of the stories are from 1850-1940.
I didn't realize this book was Canadian, which was a plus to me because I was pleasantly surprised at how many Canadian cases there were in the book (probably 15-20) My small town was even mentioned in a really interesting murder that I had no idea about and I lived here my whole life.
Most of the stories are from 1850-1940.
March 16, 2013
great short murder stories
January 24, 2016
Great little collection of TC stories, both the tall and the small. Well written and very wide-ranging. I was delighted to find a relative on mine in here.
October 30, 2017
little too short, some of them were over before I ever took anything in.
ONly a few were really weird/fun/crazy ones.
ONly a few were really weird/fun/crazy ones.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews