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Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Crime
“I was convinced that somewhere in this pile of anecdotes and photographs and recollections was the vital clue, the detail that would make everything slide into place, and as I began to assemble all the information I’d gathered into an idea of a woman, I imagined myself at the head of a troupe of deputies and detectives, leading us all inexorably in the direction of Sabine Musil-Buehler.”
When a stolen car is recovered on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it sets off a search for a missing woman, local motel owner Sabine Musil-Buehler. Three men are named persons of interest—her husband, her boyfriend, and the man who stole the car. Then the motel is set on fire; her boyfriend flees the county; and detectives begin digging on the beach of Anna Maria Island.
Author Cutter Wood was a guest at Musil-Buehler’s motel as the search for her gained momentum, and he was drawn steadily deeper into the case. Driven by his own need to understand how a relationship could spin to pieces in such a fatal fashion, he began to talk with many of the people living on Anna Maria, and then with the detectives, and finally with the man presumed to be the murderer. But there was only so much that interviews and transcripts could reveal.
In trying to understand how we treat those we love, this book, like Truman Capote’s classic In Cold Blood , tells a story that exists outside documentary evidence. Wood carries the investigation of Sabine’s murder beyond the facts of the case and into his own life, crafting a tale about the dark conflicts at the heart of every relationship.
When a stolen car is recovered on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it sets off a search for a missing woman, local motel owner Sabine Musil-Buehler. Three men are named persons of interest—her husband, her boyfriend, and the man who stole the car. Then the motel is set on fire; her boyfriend flees the county; and detectives begin digging on the beach of Anna Maria Island.
Author Cutter Wood was a guest at Musil-Buehler’s motel as the search for her gained momentum, and he was drawn steadily deeper into the case. Driven by his own need to understand how a relationship could spin to pieces in such a fatal fashion, he began to talk with many of the people living on Anna Maria, and then with the detectives, and finally with the man presumed to be the murderer. But there was only so much that interviews and transcripts could reveal.
In trying to understand how we treat those we love, this book, like Truman Capote’s classic In Cold Blood , tells a story that exists outside documentary evidence. Wood carries the investigation of Sabine’s murder beyond the facts of the case and into his own life, crafting a tale about the dark conflicts at the heart of every relationship.
225 pages, Hardcover
Published April 17, 2018
197 people are currently reading
3060 people want to read
About the author
Cutter Wood
3 books46 followersCutter Wood completed an MFA in creative nonfiction at the University of Iowa in 2010, during which time he was awarded numerous fellowships and had essays published in Harper’s and other magazines. After serving as a Provost Fellow at UI and a Visiting Scholar at the University of Louisville, Wood moved to New York. For his forthcoming book, Love and Death in the Sunshine State, he was awarded a 2018 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 139 reviews
March 4, 2018
It's insufferable, but I couldn't stop reading it.
Imagine Payne Lindsey (or John David Booter for that matter) sets out to write a true crime book and instead writes an overly-florid MFA-style memoir. Then, 75% of the way through, he realizes he never really investigated that whole "crime" thing, so he writes this weird, speculative, fictionalized interlude (in the most purple of purple writing) about what might have happened. And to bind it all together, he tries to contrive some tenuous connection between this murder and his budding--but ultimately banal--relationship with his girlfriend.
He wants so badly to be a Writer. And this book is so Written that it's distracting and irritating. Wood over-describes everything, and strings words together not because they serve any purpose here, but because they sound pretty or evocative. Example:
I assume this paragraph was meant as some kind of love poem to his girlfriend/wife, and yes, these are all very pretty words. But it's too much, and it doesn't belong here. It serves no purpose other than to be florid. All that ornamentation and all those extraneous descriptors are so precious, they take you out of the story.
But the point of no return for me is when Cutter stays at the motel which was owned by the victim in order to score an interview with her (innocent) husband/co-owner. In the same breath that he asks for an interview, Cutter informs the husband that he wants to stay at the motel longer, but only has so much money, so could the husband/co-owner/suspect possibly cut him a deal on a room in addition to an interview for his weird not-so-true-crime book?
Wood can be a good writer. And I appreciate the way he evokes the tiny moments of disappointment and disenchantment when a new love is replaced with the reality of a worn-in (and worn-out) relationship. I just wish he'd learn some restraint, rein in his poetic license, and bill this as a memoir rather than any sort of "story of a crime." This is not a true crime story, so much as a young writer's foray into narrative non-fiction, trying to write about what he knows best (himself and his relationship) but maybe trying too hard.
With a bit more fine-tuning, Wood might produce some great work. But this one didn't work for me.
Imagine Payne Lindsey (or John David Booter for that matter) sets out to write a true crime book and instead writes an overly-florid MFA-style memoir. Then, 75% of the way through, he realizes he never really investigated that whole "crime" thing, so he writes this weird, speculative, fictionalized interlude (in the most purple of purple writing) about what might have happened. And to bind it all together, he tries to contrive some tenuous connection between this murder and his budding--but ultimately banal--relationship with his girlfriend.
He wants so badly to be a Writer. And this book is so Written that it's distracting and irritating. Wood over-describes everything, and strings words together not because they serve any purpose here, but because they sound pretty or evocative. Example:
"Lilacs perfume the garden, tractors plow the field, the pillows have been fluffed, a soft rain falls along the coast; there are newborn calves, ferny creeks, songs of melancholy and of innocence; the eggs are fresh, the cream is cool, a woodpecker hammers in the hickories; the canoe noses in the reeds, looking for a place to moor, and a rocket ship plunges through the vacuum of space; the factories promise silk and steel, the horizon promises the night; there are avenues of corn where a child can walk till dark and not see another human soul, and avenues of wristwatches and purses down which we stroll to the art museum to see the exhibition on Le Corbusier; in winter, there are fires, in summer, winds, and in spring and fall, the geese fly home beside the moon and wake a thousand miles of lovers. We must fly to those we love. Anoint them with oil, adorn them patiently with laurel and bay."(wtf?)
I assume this paragraph was meant as some kind of love poem to his girlfriend/wife, and yes, these are all very pretty words. But it's too much, and it doesn't belong here. It serves no purpose other than to be florid. All that ornamentation and all those extraneous descriptors are so precious, they take you out of the story.
But the point of no return for me is when Cutter stays at the motel which was owned by the victim in order to score an interview with her (innocent) husband/co-owner. In the same breath that he asks for an interview, Cutter informs the husband that he wants to stay at the motel longer, but only has so much money, so could the husband/co-owner/suspect possibly cut him a deal on a room in addition to an interview for his weird not-so-true-crime book?
Wood can be a good writer. And I appreciate the way he evokes the tiny moments of disappointment and disenchantment when a new love is replaced with the reality of a worn-in (and worn-out) relationship. I just wish he'd learn some restraint, rein in his poetic license, and bill this as a memoir rather than any sort of "story of a crime." This is not a true crime story, so much as a young writer's foray into narrative non-fiction, trying to write about what he knows best (himself and his relationship) but maybe trying too hard.
With a bit more fine-tuning, Wood might produce some great work. But this one didn't work for me.
April 12, 2018
This was a bit of a mash-up of the author’s relationship blended with the story, which was really about a woman in Florida’s Anna Maria Island who goes missing. There are three suspects: her husband, her boyfriend, and the man found driving her car. The writing is a bit different. I generally prefer my true crime to be free of any fiction, but I found that in this situation I didn’t mind the author’s take on what may have happened. This is a good read for crime buffs and history fans with the flavors of Florida thrown in. An advance digital copy was provided by NetGalley and author Cutter Wood for my honest review.
Algonquin Books
Publication date: April 17, 2018
Algonquin Books
Publication date: April 17, 2018
May 21, 2018
The nicest vacation of my adult life took place on a little island off the Gulf coast of Florida called Anna Maria. I don't think I've met a single person who wasn't also on that trip who has ever heard of it. So when I saw that there was a new true crime book set on the island, I naturally had to read it right away.
Unfortunately, the best thing I can say about this book is that it's an interesting, if inadvertent, study of perception. I went to Anna Maria expecting nothing except for a chance to hang out with some friends; I'd never been to Florida before, had heard a lot of crazy stories, but basically arrived feeling open-minded. This little island far exceeded my expectations: it's bright and cheerful and funky and weird. I loved it. Like anywhere, I'm sure it has its seedy underbelly. But Wood paints it as nothing but hopeless and bleak. Somehow we were in the same spot, but with totally different filters on our mental and emotional lenses. I got some kind of frothy chick flick; he got film noir.
He also, early on, gets a basic detail about the island wrong: he describes a supposed sighting of the missing woman at "Mr. Bones, a bar." Mr. Bones is not a bar; it does not have a bar; it is a BBQ restaurant. And if you've even stepped inside it, you'd be unlikely to forget its lack of bar setup, as the entranceway contains a giant ice-filled coffin from which you self-serve your drinks. Were Wood writing about a crime in a big city, I could understand not visiting every relevant location, but Anna Maria is teeny tiny. There aren't that many restaurants and over the course of writing this book he spent many weeks there. Why would he not investigate this location? It's called Mr. Bones -- that's not intriguing enough? Anyway, this oversight resulted in two things: 1) I almost immediately stopped trusting Wood's depiction of events, and 2) he missed out on some damn fine BBQ.
The above paragraph may sound, and indeed is, extremely nitpicky, but there's so little to this book, I find myself grappling for anything to hold on to. Wood completely fails to paint a vivid or interesting portrait of a place I know for a fact is at least interesting-looking and ought to be fun to describe. He likewise does not draw an intriguing psychological portrait of any of the people involved. Instead, there are full chapters relating to Wood meeting, moving in with, and eventually losing a girlfriend who I guess we should all be grateful he depicts as a manic pixie dreamgirl and not a bitch. She moves with him to Iowa, where Wood writes satiric descriptions of Iowa Writers' Workshop parties, despite himself being a member of that program, and with this book being one of the most Iowa things I've ever fucking read. This thing is barely 200 pages long and supposedly about a murder, and I could now draw you a intricate map of Wood's navel.
When he finally returns to the subject of the crime, it's for a deeply speculative look at its lead-up for which Wood provides hardly any sources, and only after the fact. This whole book reads like a thesis for which the student realized he did not have sufficient material, and therefore frantically padded out. The greatest mystery here is: how the heck was it published?
Unfortunately, the best thing I can say about this book is that it's an interesting, if inadvertent, study of perception. I went to Anna Maria expecting nothing except for a chance to hang out with some friends; I'd never been to Florida before, had heard a lot of crazy stories, but basically arrived feeling open-minded. This little island far exceeded my expectations: it's bright and cheerful and funky and weird. I loved it. Like anywhere, I'm sure it has its seedy underbelly. But Wood paints it as nothing but hopeless and bleak. Somehow we were in the same spot, but with totally different filters on our mental and emotional lenses. I got some kind of frothy chick flick; he got film noir.
He also, early on, gets a basic detail about the island wrong: he describes a supposed sighting of the missing woman at "Mr. Bones, a bar." Mr. Bones is not a bar; it does not have a bar; it is a BBQ restaurant. And if you've even stepped inside it, you'd be unlikely to forget its lack of bar setup, as the entranceway contains a giant ice-filled coffin from which you self-serve your drinks. Were Wood writing about a crime in a big city, I could understand not visiting every relevant location, but Anna Maria is teeny tiny. There aren't that many restaurants and over the course of writing this book he spent many weeks there. Why would he not investigate this location? It's called Mr. Bones -- that's not intriguing enough? Anyway, this oversight resulted in two things: 1) I almost immediately stopped trusting Wood's depiction of events, and 2) he missed out on some damn fine BBQ.
The above paragraph may sound, and indeed is, extremely nitpicky, but there's so little to this book, I find myself grappling for anything to hold on to. Wood completely fails to paint a vivid or interesting portrait of a place I know for a fact is at least interesting-looking and ought to be fun to describe. He likewise does not draw an intriguing psychological portrait of any of the people involved. Instead, there are full chapters relating to Wood meeting, moving in with, and eventually losing a girlfriend who I guess we should all be grateful he depicts as a manic pixie dreamgirl and not a bitch. She moves with him to Iowa, where Wood writes satiric descriptions of Iowa Writers' Workshop parties, despite himself being a member of that program, and with this book being one of the most Iowa things I've ever fucking read. This thing is barely 200 pages long and supposedly about a murder, and I could now draw you a intricate map of Wood's navel.
When he finally returns to the subject of the crime, it's for a deeply speculative look at its lead-up for which Wood provides hardly any sources, and only after the fact. This whole book reads like a thesis for which the student realized he did not have sufficient material, and therefore frantically padded out. The greatest mystery here is: how the heck was it published?
April 13, 2018
Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Crime by Cutter Wood
1.25 stars
Whimsical Writing Scale: 1
Plotastic Scale: 1.5
Cover Thoughts: It doesn’t look very sunny, but it does look like In Cold Blood.
Thank you, Netgalley and Algonquin Books, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
1.25 stars
Sabine Musil-Buehler owns a nice little hotel in Florida with her estranged husband. Sabine’s car is stolen, but she is nowhere to be found. An investigation turns up with blood on the vehicle and Sabine’s boyfriend is beginning to look like the number one suspect in this odd case. No body, but a car and an apartment covered with odd patches of blood shows that something has gone array. Cutter Wood visited this hotel once and has developed a connection to the case. Love and Death in the Sunshine State focuses on finding out what really happened to Sabine and the connection that Cutter develops with the main suspect. I can’t help but compare most true crime novels to Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood and it doesn’t help that the publishers are doing this as well. In Cold Blood is effective because it focuses on the town, the family that was murdered, and the killers before, during, and after their crimes. Wood decides to focus on a relationship and himself. The case doesn’t become the centerpiece of this story until about 50% of the way through. It made for a very boring read. I skimmed the majority of this novel because it had no pertinence to the case and I was uninterested in Wood’s own relationships. Capote never made In Cold Blood about himself, but Love and Death in the Sunshine State is all about Cutter Wood with the convenience of a connection an odd murder. Wood’s largest drawback as a writer is overexplaining. The majority of this novel consists of frivolous information that has no importance to the true crime case that is being presented as the centerpiece of this story. I’m looking at all this from the perspective the crime being the driving force of this novel and from that perspective it does a half-baked job of really laying down the facts and delving into the people that have been affected by this crime, but if I look at this novel from another perspective. The perspective that this is a story about a young man struggling with graduate school, a serious relationship, and trying to explain the connection he has to this strange case then this novel is even worse. Wood’s writing style is not strong enough to really hold itself up without the allure of the true crime mystery. I feel like I’m being harsh, but this novel was a pain to get through and because I didn’t like the writing style my enjoyment of this novel really suffered.
Whimsical Writing Scale: 1
The crime itself is fascinating and the last half of the book wasn’t all that bad to get through. In fact, Wood’s writing style became a little bit easier to get through. I won’t go too much into the plot itself because this is a true crime novel and if I tell you all about the crime then I kind of ruin the purpose of you reading this novel. I do think that the case itself is interesting and one that I’m sure many true crime will be interested in analyzing. This isn’t the worst novel I’ve ever read and it definitely has its moments, but I don’t think this was the novel for me.
Plotastic Scale: 1.5
Cover Thoughts: It doesn’t look very sunny, but it does look like In Cold Blood.
Thank you, Netgalley and Algonquin Books, for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
September 18, 2021
If I had known before starting this book that it was an unusual mix of genres -- true crime, memoir and fiction -- I might have put it aside without even opening it because I dislike fiction that masquerades as fact. That would have been a mistake on my part, though, because I would have missed out on a beautifully written book that takes you inside a murder like few others I have ever seen.
Cutter Wood is a first-time author who writes like an old pro. He starts off the book talking about how he wound up spending some time at a small beach motel on Florida's Anna Maria Island. Later he gets a clipping in the mail about how the motel's co-owner has gone missing and part of the motel burned down. Intrigued, he decides to travel back to Florida to poke into the mystery himself.
The first part of the book is about Wood's blundering attempts to make sense of both the case and the Florida beach down where it occurred. There is both humor and pathos here. But then the narrative shifts gears as he recounts how his life became tangled up with the woman whom he wound up living with and eventually marrying. Then it's back to the mystery again. At first this seemed like an odd juxtaposition, but it pays off later in the book when you realize the truth of the title.
The fiction part of the book is clearly marked as fiction, which is a plus, as Wood reconstructs what he thinks really happened with the missing woman, who at that point had been gone for seven years. The writing here is quite beautiful, with a meticulous attention to detail. I talked to him about this part during a reading he did at Inkwood Books, and he explained that he'd spent a week visiting the person who eventually confessed to what had happened, and thus was able to get many many real details into his fictional recreation, lending it tremendous accuracy.
The book swoops back into fact again at the end, but then concludes with a somber meditation on love and our inability to make it stay that really brings all the parts of the book into sharp focus.
I took a point or two off because he gets a couple of details about Florida wrong -- there are more visitors in the winter than in the summer, not the other way around, for instance. But those are minor errors and I eagerly await his second book to see where this talented writer travels next. I hope he returns to Florida soon.
Cutter Wood is a first-time author who writes like an old pro. He starts off the book talking about how he wound up spending some time at a small beach motel on Florida's Anna Maria Island. Later he gets a clipping in the mail about how the motel's co-owner has gone missing and part of the motel burned down. Intrigued, he decides to travel back to Florida to poke into the mystery himself.
The first part of the book is about Wood's blundering attempts to make sense of both the case and the Florida beach down where it occurred. There is both humor and pathos here. But then the narrative shifts gears as he recounts how his life became tangled up with the woman whom he wound up living with and eventually marrying. Then it's back to the mystery again. At first this seemed like an odd juxtaposition, but it pays off later in the book when you realize the truth of the title.
The fiction part of the book is clearly marked as fiction, which is a plus, as Wood reconstructs what he thinks really happened with the missing woman, who at that point had been gone for seven years. The writing here is quite beautiful, with a meticulous attention to detail. I talked to him about this part during a reading he did at Inkwood Books, and he explained that he'd spent a week visiting the person who eventually confessed to what had happened, and thus was able to get many many real details into his fictional recreation, lending it tremendous accuracy.
The book swoops back into fact again at the end, but then concludes with a somber meditation on love and our inability to make it stay that really brings all the parts of the book into sharp focus.
I took a point or two off because he gets a couple of details about Florida wrong -- there are more visitors in the winter than in the summer, not the other way around, for instance. But those are minor errors and I eagerly await his second book to see where this talented writer travels next. I hope he returns to Florida soon.
January 11, 2018
Sooo when I read a supposed true crime novel I expect the main focus of the book to be the actual crime. This was a mix of a crime that happened in FL which you don't find out much about until almost the end of the book and a mix of information on the author's relationship with his girlfriend, which I really cared nothing about. The writing was not bad but if you are wanting to read a true crime novel this in my opinion does not fit into that category. It is mainly just a book about the author's life with a girl he loved in elementary school who is now his girlfriend and a crime happened to be committed in a hotel he once stayed at and so he just threw that in for interesting conversation?
May 25, 2018
How did I hate this book? Let me count the ways. See Julie's review. Pretentious, disjointed bullshit. Go back to your MFA program, and be nicer to your girlfriend, and at the very least, refrain from mocking her in print...On top of it, he imagines and describes a death scene from inside the head of the victim, using her as a tool for his own writing practice. Gross.
July 15, 2018
Writer frets about being a pretentious writer, gets interested in a true crime, spends most of the book pretentiously talking about his life and then I put it down.
May 30, 2018
If you read the reviews like I did on Amazon you're probably wondering which of his five MFA writing buddies the author got to fabricate those 5-star reviews. I was curious so I found a copy of this stinker at my public library. The best thing I can say about this mash-up is it was short -- I read the 225 pages in less than 24 hours, maybe a tad longer than it took Mr. Wood to write the book. Here is a sentence from page 86 I read three times: "If we were are smart, of course, we recognize the difference between a person's popularity and their worthiness of love, but who is immune to the desire to see the things one cherishes celebrated at large." I have never heard of "an empty bottle of pinot grigio." I mean, it's either a bottle of wine or it's an empty bottle, isn't it? "Seen from above, Florida emerges from the continent like the appendage of an amoeba" is another strange turn of phrase since I didn't think one-celled organisms can have arms and legs. One of my suspicions, however, was confirmed by reading this book. Never write to a prisoner. He will always write back.
June 10, 2018
Eh. A lot of it felt like one big tangent. The book is purportedly about this older woman who owned a hotel on an island off of Florida who disappeared/was probably murdered by her husband or her boyfriend. Then someone set the hotel on fire. *shrugs* that's pretty much the extent of the story.
Cutter Wood (whose parents oh so clearly think they're hilarious. What a goddamn name) stayed at this hotel one time, so he feels a deep personal connection to Sabine, the murdered woman. He kind of investigates, kind of just spends a lot of time visiting Sabine's boyfriend in prison and buying him books and wandering around the island.
Then he spends a huge chunk of the book waxing on about his girlfriend Erin and road trips and his family and I'm not totally sure what any of that had to do with the murder. Plus, it was pretty boring. His life isn't all that interesting. I'm sure it's very interesting to Wood himself, don't get me wrong, but it's not a life that an outsider would find worthy of 3/4 of a book.
Cutter Wood (whose parents oh so clearly think they're hilarious. What a goddamn name) stayed at this hotel one time, so he feels a deep personal connection to Sabine, the murdered woman. He kind of investigates, kind of just spends a lot of time visiting Sabine's boyfriend in prison and buying him books and wandering around the island.
Then he spends a huge chunk of the book waxing on about his girlfriend Erin and road trips and his family and I'm not totally sure what any of that had to do with the murder. Plus, it was pretty boring. His life isn't all that interesting. I'm sure it's very interesting to Wood himself, don't get me wrong, but it's not a life that an outsider would find worthy of 3/4 of a book.
February 14, 2023
It's super rare for me to give a one star review, but I can not get behind this genre-bending memoir that lapses into overwrought fiction when the true crime book Cutter Wood wanted to write just didn't come together.
May 27, 2018
When reading In Cold Blood I didn't learn about Truman Capote's college writing classes. When reading Son: A Psychopath and his Victims I didn't have to wade through Jack Olsen's love life. I did learn about Ann Rule's time as a suicide-line helper, but that's okay since she sat next to Ted Bundy whilst doing it (The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy The Shocking Inside Story).
OK, it's not exactly fair to bring up these classics of true-crime against a random book picked up off the new book shelf at the library. However, when titling the book "Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Crime" and you get "Love and Writing in the Hawkeye State: The Story of an Author in Search of a Story" for half of it, well, you expect better of a graduate from the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop.
Less Wood, more pulp would've have made a better book.
OK, it's not exactly fair to bring up these classics of true-crime against a random book picked up off the new book shelf at the library. However, when titling the book "Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Crime" and you get "Love and Writing in the Hawkeye State: The Story of an Author in Search of a Story" for half of it, well, you expect better of a graduate from the University of Iowa's Writer's Workshop.
Less Wood, more pulp would've have made a better book.
December 9, 2018
A crime occurs at a small Florida motel. A young creative-writing student realizes he once stayed at that motel and decides to look into the crime, but he ends up examining his own life more than anything else. The writing is good, but the overall reading experience is like hearing some great guitar playing in a bad song; you can appreciate the talent without enjoying the result.
August 9, 2018
It's impossible not to have a strong reaction to Love and Death in the Sunshine State. I want to say you'll either love it or hate it, but I suspect many readers will fall somewhere in between. As you can tell from the book description--and some of the vitriolic reviews provided by ordinary readers here on Goodreads--Love and Death in the Sunshine State blurs genres. It's a little bit of true crime, a tad of memoir, and a whole lot of fiction rolled into one.
I was absolutely enamored of this book for the first few chapters. Cutter Wood is a would-be writer, enrolled in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, who hasn't yet found his material. Like many of his classmates--whom he skewers in deft mini-portraits--he's striving to be a writer with a capital W, pouring out reams of purple prose that go nowhere. On a trip to Florida, he stays at a motel on Anna Maria Island. Later one of the owners is murdered. The prime suspects are the woman's estranged husband and her ne'er-do-well new boyfriend. Wood becomes obsessed with the crime and returns to Florida to report on it.
I'm totally with the author, all the way up to the point where--unsure he'll ever get to the truth of the crime--he launches into a fictional account of it.
The fictionalization of the crime takes up almost all the rest of the book. Had it been more condensed--and perhaps more in keeping with the perspectives of the victim and the murderer (whom I won't name, because it would spoil what little suspense there is)--I might have bought into it. But the prose is so florid, and the descriptions so lush--so beyond the intellectual and imaginative capacities of the characters--that I grew uncomfortable and sometimes impatient. The death scene, especially, unnerved me. Wood's decision to "enter" the body of the female victim felt (to me, at least) like a violation. His decision to enter the consciousness of the murderer was slightly more palatable, as it revealed how easy it might be for anyone--male or female--to lose their cool and commit an act of violence.
I couldn't wait for the author to return to the "real world," but once there, I didn't fully understand his decision to fictionalize the story or fully see the connection between the story and his own life. The acknowledgments have a distinctly John D'Agata-like feel, making the assertion that neither fact nor fiction can ever tell the elusive "truth."
Although I didn't agree with some of Cutter Wood's artistic choices, I admired the way he took enormous risks. Many of the passages in this book are beautifully written and the ending is haunting.
Love and Death in the Sunshine State would make a great choice for book clubs (how could you not have strong feelings about it?) and a wonderful addition to a creative nonfiction course syllabus (you can find a teaching moment on almost every page). Inevitably this memoir will be compared to The Fact of a Body (in fact, author Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich has provided a blurb for Cutter Wood's book). I highly recommend both books to serious readers and anyone interested in new directions for creative nonfiction.
I was absolutely enamored of this book for the first few chapters. Cutter Wood is a would-be writer, enrolled in the Iowa Writers' Workshop, who hasn't yet found his material. Like many of his classmates--whom he skewers in deft mini-portraits--he's striving to be a writer with a capital W, pouring out reams of purple prose that go nowhere. On a trip to Florida, he stays at a motel on Anna Maria Island. Later one of the owners is murdered. The prime suspects are the woman's estranged husband and her ne'er-do-well new boyfriend. Wood becomes obsessed with the crime and returns to Florida to report on it.
I'm totally with the author, all the way up to the point where--unsure he'll ever get to the truth of the crime--he launches into a fictional account of it.
The fictionalization of the crime takes up almost all the rest of the book. Had it been more condensed--and perhaps more in keeping with the perspectives of the victim and the murderer (whom I won't name, because it would spoil what little suspense there is)--I might have bought into it. But the prose is so florid, and the descriptions so lush--so beyond the intellectual and imaginative capacities of the characters--that I grew uncomfortable and sometimes impatient. The death scene, especially, unnerved me. Wood's decision to "enter" the body of the female victim felt (to me, at least) like a violation. His decision to enter the consciousness of the murderer was slightly more palatable, as it revealed how easy it might be for anyone--male or female--to lose their cool and commit an act of violence.
I couldn't wait for the author to return to the "real world," but once there, I didn't fully understand his decision to fictionalize the story or fully see the connection between the story and his own life. The acknowledgments have a distinctly John D'Agata-like feel, making the assertion that neither fact nor fiction can ever tell the elusive "truth."
Although I didn't agree with some of Cutter Wood's artistic choices, I admired the way he took enormous risks. Many of the passages in this book are beautifully written and the ending is haunting.
Love and Death in the Sunshine State would make a great choice for book clubs (how could you not have strong feelings about it?) and a wonderful addition to a creative nonfiction course syllabus (you can find a teaching moment on almost every page). Inevitably this memoir will be compared to The Fact of a Body (in fact, author Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich has provided a blurb for Cutter Wood's book). I highly recommend both books to serious readers and anyone interested in new directions for creative nonfiction.
May 5, 2019
I picked up Cutter Wood’s Love and Death in the Sunshine State because of its setting: Anna Maria Island in Florida, a place I know well. This true-crime books deals with the disappearance of Sabine Musil-Buehler, a local motel owner, and the three men suspected of murdering her. Wood’s description of the island, the surrounding communities, and the local citizens are authentic, although I was disappointed that he doesn’t identify most of the bars and restaurants where events take place. (Mr. Bones and Gator Lounge are mentioned by name; I had to guess about most of the others.)
After the crime is introduced, the shape of the story veers off in two unconventional ways. First, Wood juxtaposes his own love life with that of the crime victim and her lovers. Such contrasts usually illuminate facets of both threads, but that isn’t true here; the deep dive into Wood’s relationship is a lengthy digression from the book’s focus. Wood’s other variation on presenting the crime is to step aside from a journalistic approach and freely admit to fictionalizing big chunks of the subject’s lives.
Cutter Wood is a fine writer with an eye for the telling detail and an ear for dramatic dialogue. This book gave me the mental trip to Anna Maria Island I hoped for, but the idiosyncratic narrative choices were dissatisfying distractions.
Does anyone have suggestions for good books set on AMI? Thanks.
After the crime is introduced, the shape of the story veers off in two unconventional ways. First, Wood juxtaposes his own love life with that of the crime victim and her lovers. Such contrasts usually illuminate facets of both threads, but that isn’t true here; the deep dive into Wood’s relationship is a lengthy digression from the book’s focus. Wood’s other variation on presenting the crime is to step aside from a journalistic approach and freely admit to fictionalizing big chunks of the subject’s lives.
Cutter Wood is a fine writer with an eye for the telling detail and an ear for dramatic dialogue. This book gave me the mental trip to Anna Maria Island I hoped for, but the idiosyncratic narrative choices were dissatisfying distractions.
Does anyone have suggestions for good books set on AMI? Thanks.
August 15, 2018
"...nor for a long time after did it occur to me that much of the grieving after a death is done not so much for the loss of the loved one but for the simple passage of time, which so gently obliterates everything before it."
Sigh
Cutter Wood can write. He is a fantastic writer, in fact.
The way this story was presented just irritated me to no end.
Wood begins the story with a personal memoir. He explains why he picked this particular murder - he had a personal connection to the motel - but also details his life before he gets to the details of the case. At some point, he begins to have dreams of Sabine Musil-Buehler, the victim. He allows this to lead into a fictional account of what Musil-Buehler & Bill Cumber's relationship may have been like. It did nothing for me.
I feel odd being so harsh on Wood for his fictional account because I have adored true crime books that allowed the fictional side to seep in.. but Wood's account was just dry and I couldn't feel the passion or love between Sabine and Bill. Also, there were no references cited for the entire book so I don't know if his account was influenced by anyone, articles, etc or if it was all a figment of his imagination.
I think this book would have been more interesting if Wood just stuck mostly to the facts of the case and did not interject his life memoir into it.. I think he was trying to connect the lull of his love life to the lull in Bill & Sabine's love life but I just couldn't make the connections as I feel he intended.
Sigh
Cutter Wood can write. He is a fantastic writer, in fact.
The way this story was presented just irritated me to no end.
Wood begins the story with a personal memoir. He explains why he picked this particular murder - he had a personal connection to the motel - but also details his life before he gets to the details of the case. At some point, he begins to have dreams of Sabine Musil-Buehler, the victim. He allows this to lead into a fictional account of what Musil-Buehler & Bill Cumber's relationship may have been like. It did nothing for me.
I feel odd being so harsh on Wood for his fictional account because I have adored true crime books that allowed the fictional side to seep in.. but Wood's account was just dry and I couldn't feel the passion or love between Sabine and Bill. Also, there were no references cited for the entire book so I don't know if his account was influenced by anyone, articles, etc or if it was all a figment of his imagination.
I think this book would have been more interesting if Wood just stuck mostly to the facts of the case and did not interject his life memoir into it.. I think he was trying to connect the lull of his love life to the lull in Bill & Sabine's love life but I just couldn't make the connections as I feel he intended.
July 23, 2019
I thought this book by an already established author was very interesting and very well written. It has to do with the disappearance of a motel owner: the three main persons of interest were her husband, the many she was having an affair with, and possibly, the person who stole her car. One minute, Sabine Musil-Buehler was hanging out at her usual haunts; the next minute, she has disappeared and
the recording on her cell phone went immediately to voice mail. Since the author writes true crime stories, he became interested in this one and decided to look into it. During this time, he and his significant other have moved in together, and he thinks quite a lot about the effect his job might have on his relationship. During the course of the author interviewing witnesses and other people involved in the case, he goes to see the man who was convicted of murdering her, although her body has never been found. It is never quite clear to the author and to other people involved in the case what actually happened to Sabine. One can only make a ballpark guess as to what really happened to her. The way the author wove in details of his own relationship with the details in the criminal one; i.e. how do relationships go so far off track, etc.? is a very thoughtful analysis of the very nature of human love relationships.
the recording on her cell phone went immediately to voice mail. Since the author writes true crime stories, he became interested in this one and decided to look into it. During this time, he and his significant other have moved in together, and he thinks quite a lot about the effect his job might have on his relationship. During the course of the author interviewing witnesses and other people involved in the case, he goes to see the man who was convicted of murdering her, although her body has never been found. It is never quite clear to the author and to other people involved in the case what actually happened to Sabine. One can only make a ballpark guess as to what really happened to her. The way the author wove in details of his own relationship with the details in the criminal one; i.e. how do relationships go so far off track, etc.? is a very thoughtful analysis of the very nature of human love relationships.
April 12, 2018
The book is really two stories, one about the author and the other an unsolved murder on a Florida island where he once vacationed. The constant running through both stories is the colorful characters. From the author’s squirrel-napping father and profane, gin-drinking mother to the lead suspect in the murder who sends him a drawing of a teddy bear “suitable for a mat frame” from prison, the characters are eccentric and lively. As I sat reading this book on a island in Florida, looking out at a town similar to the one he describes in such detail, it rings incredibly true to how I imagine the experience if I got out of my chair and haphazardly began investigating a murder. It was extremely entertaining with a fair share of the awkward encounters that inevitably stem from an amateur murder investigation.
February 8, 2020
Part way through this book - a journalist asks the author - "what's your angle?" The weakness of this book is I don't think we ever get to find out the answer to this. Wood begins to delve into a case of a woman's disappearance in Florida - but he gets sidetracked into is own story, his family, his love affairs and his graduate school assignments. As a reader I found the book confusing - fictional at times, and frustrated at Woods overly flowery language and the distance he maintains from the story.
January 23, 2022
A little slow to start, but once the bigger scene is set, the story comes together thanks in part to great writing and something resembling life lessons. Thought-provoking both while reading and after putting it down.
May 15, 2018
I expected more of a murder mystery but this was really more of a memoir.
November 6, 2018
another I couldn't stick with and didn't finish
September 9, 2024
Engaging crime story but not much development of the author. Maybe it’s just hard for me to care about male authors.
July 19, 2018
Didn't enjoy this book too much. Just "okay". Almost read like something he had to write to complete an "assignment" for college. There is a "bit" of a connection between the writer and this story, which is probably to lead us to believe that this connection makes for some good reading. It doesn't. It's a mixed up tale of murder. Poor writing has the book taking different directions throughout. Waste of time.
July 19, 2018
Hardly qualifies as True Crime. Reads like an English student trying to impress some one. Also, if you don't know what male privilege is, a more perfect example can't be found than when the author asks if it really even matters who killed Sabine? She's already dead anyways.
April 23, 2018
Cutter Wood appears to possess the ability to write very well, but that does not manage to save this largely plotless and dull crime novel—or is this a memoir? Love and Death in the Sunshine State follows Cutter himself as he follows a love-triangle affair murder/arson. Readers watch him fall in love and get into Iowa's MFA program but fail to do much in the way of digging up important information on the crime. It is almost as though he spent so much time and money on attempting to research this story that he forced it together with his own life to flesh it out enough to warrant a book, the thought of the fruitless dollars and hours too much to allow to be wasted. Again, he writes well, although the prose and diction, at times, seem forced and unnatural for the genre—especially when he lapses into the guesswork retelling of the events surrounding the crime. Perhaps Wood should have written a "based on a true story" novel instead, allowing him to fully develop the mostly lifeless characters. They all contain the possibility for a deep, interesting story that never comes entirely to the page. I would blame the confines of a true-crime literary nonfiction novel, but Wood happily threw those confines into the Florida surf. So I am left wondering why he didn't go all out, bringing all the players in the story of Sabine alive with his imagination when the truth or research was lacking. I'm also left wondering what happened with the arson. It was forgotten about halfway through the novel, never to be mentioned again as the rest of the crime eventually comes to light. Speaking of light, does everyone in Florida smoke? There is an abundance of cigarettes in this novel. I'm talking more than there are in Mad Men, it seems, and in 2000s Florida. All in all I am left disappointed with the novel, but willing to try another by Wood in the future; his prose could be so great if focused on a single topic and used purposefully.
December 2, 2021
I am at the beginning of chapter two, and I think I've solved the mystery (said mystery being why the narrator's family "doesn't have room" for him at the familial beach house, which leads to his staying at a motel which is later the scene of a murder) -- the author is a tool.
Let me cite an example. In an anecdote meant (I think) to be charmingly self-deprecating, he lists the ridiculous items he packs for grad school, one of which is "an exact replica of Charles Dickens's traveling desk."
AN EXACT FUCKING REPLICA OF CHARLES DICKENS'S TRAVELING DESK.
Although I had already canoed through quite the bog of purple prose, this is the phrase at which I bellowed, "Oh, go FUCK yourself."
Why am I reading about this pretentious hipster moppet's paucity of lifeskills anyway? Why am I treated to a lengthy description of his walk around town (unless it was to set the narrator up as some kind of chaotic literary force with the naughty confession that he enjoys walking around cutesy small towns. My pearls were clutched, I tell you!)
I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE NARRATOR'S BILDUNGSROMAN UNLESS HE IS DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE MURDER IN SOME WAY. I only care if the narrator caught the murderer, is the murderer, or worked next to the murderer at a suicide hotline.
Granted, I ragequit early on. Perhaps the threads of the narrator and murderer become inextricably entwined when the murderer breaks into the author's motel room (familial beach house still lacking room for the foreseeable future) and torches his motherfucking exact replica of Charles Dickens's traveling desk. Hope springs eternal!
Will I finish this book? I don't know, but I am recovering from surgery and have access to excellent painkillers, as well as some hours to kill. If so, I will settle at my exact replica of Hunter S. Thompson's traveling desk (with genuine traces of coke!) and update.
Let me cite an example. In an anecdote meant (I think) to be charmingly self-deprecating, he lists the ridiculous items he packs for grad school, one of which is "an exact replica of Charles Dickens's traveling desk."
AN EXACT FUCKING REPLICA OF CHARLES DICKENS'S TRAVELING DESK.
Although I had already canoed through quite the bog of purple prose, this is the phrase at which I bellowed, "Oh, go FUCK yourself."
Why am I reading about this pretentious hipster moppet's paucity of lifeskills anyway? Why am I treated to a lengthy description of his walk around town (unless it was to set the narrator up as some kind of chaotic literary force with the naughty confession that he enjoys walking around cutesy small towns. My pearls were clutched, I tell you!)
I DON'T CARE ABOUT THE NARRATOR'S BILDUNGSROMAN UNLESS HE IS DIRECTLY INVOLVED IN THE MURDER IN SOME WAY. I only care if the narrator caught the murderer, is the murderer, or worked next to the murderer at a suicide hotline.
Granted, I ragequit early on. Perhaps the threads of the narrator and murderer become inextricably entwined when the murderer breaks into the author's motel room (familial beach house still lacking room for the foreseeable future) and torches his motherfucking exact replica of Charles Dickens's traveling desk. Hope springs eternal!
Will I finish this book? I don't know, but I am recovering from surgery and have access to excellent painkillers, as well as some hours to kill. If so, I will settle at my exact replica of Hunter S. Thompson's traveling desk (with genuine traces of coke!) and update.
June 19, 2018
So much navel gazing. So very much.
July 31, 2023
I picked this up at my local bar's book-swap. I thought it looked good because I like true crime and I grew up on the Gulf Coast, where this book is set.
Wooeeeeeeee. This is a stinker. For some reason the writer thought he could write about the real-life 2008 murder of a woman, when he had no relation to her or the Florida area, nor is he a journalist or true crime reporter of any kind.
If you like true crime, don't bother. Most of the book is his completely fictionalised account of what he imagines happened up to and during this woman's murder, as well as the aftermath. The rest is about himself and his relationship with his girlfriend.
If you like and respect women, don't bother. His descriptions of women and attempts to imagine what goes on in their minds is at best pathetic and at worst, misogynstic. But what do you expect from a book where a man centres his own story around that of a very real and horrific murder case?
But I don't feel it was a waste of time reading this book. My friend and I spent a very enjoyable afternoon reading some of the most badly written passages to each other. But it did go into the recycling after that!
Wooeeeeeeee. This is a stinker. For some reason the writer thought he could write about the real-life 2008 murder of a woman, when he had no relation to her or the Florida area, nor is he a journalist or true crime reporter of any kind.
If you like true crime, don't bother. Most of the book is his completely fictionalised account of what he imagines happened up to and during this woman's murder, as well as the aftermath. The rest is about himself and his relationship with his girlfriend.
If you like and respect women, don't bother. His descriptions of women and attempts to imagine what goes on in their minds is at best pathetic and at worst, misogynstic. But what do you expect from a book where a man centres his own story around that of a very real and horrific murder case?
But I don't feel it was a waste of time reading this book. My friend and I spent a very enjoyable afternoon reading some of the most badly written passages to each other. But it did go into the recycling after that!
August 7, 2024
A relatively unremarkable missing person case in the Tampa Bay Area gets investigated when a struggling grad student with a tenuous relationship with the town can't stop thinking about it. He returns to town, half-asses an investigation, and strikes up a correspondence with a person of interest. Almost half of the book is an account of what the author thinks might have happened. Kind of like if when writing HHhH, Laurent Binet had only done one tenth of the research and spent way more time talking about his ex-girlfriends.
It sounds like it shouldn't work, but a lot of the time, it does. I found myself interested in the intimate scale of a crime that is (like I said) kind of unremarkable. Interesting.
It sounds like it shouldn't work, but a lot of the time, it does. I found myself interested in the intimate scale of a crime that is (like I said) kind of unremarkable. Interesting.
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