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I finally gave up on this one fifty pages or so from the end. It took me for frickin' EVER to get up to that point. I kept hoping that the book would improve, but it didn't. (And normally I wouldn't have persisted, but I suppose I was baffled that such a nominally sensational event boiled down to a tawdry tale of domestic violence.)
The book starts fairly promisingly, but then erodes into a dull blow-by-blow account. I couldn't imagine this was truly the "murder of the century." What I'd hoped f ...more
The book starts fairly promisingly, but then erodes into a dull blow-by-blow account. I couldn't imagine this was truly the "murder of the century." What I'd hoped f ...more
I'm not a fan of true crime but I love accounts of period New York, so I was sucked in. This is an interesting account of a grisly murder and its aftermath, but it doesn't succeed in fulfilling the promise of its title. Journalism and newspaper wars were given sketchy attention; I'd have preferred to have read more about the papers and less about the minutiae of the investigation and the trial.
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The crime itself feels a bit like the plot of a summer rerun cop show on TV, but the highlight here is how the scandal and sensation is ramped up by the emerging form of tabloid, give-em-the-dirt journalism. Hearst v. Pulitzer? Who wouldn't want a ringside seat for that?
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Jun 03, 2011
Jen
marked it as wish-true_crime
Jun 13, 2011
Kimberly
marked it as to-read
Jul 18, 2011
Maria Yohn
marked it as to-read
Aug 12, 2011
Jocelyn
marked it as to-read
Jun 25, 2012
Tammy AZ
marked it as to-read
Feb 13, 2013
O'Rissa
marked it as to-read
Jun 25, 2015
Rachel
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Oct 20, 2015
Erica
marked it as to-read
Oct 31, 2017
Alan
marked it as to-read
Nov 30, 2021
Keeley
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Jan 22, 2022
Lorri
marked it as to-read
Jul 02, 2023
Deborah
marked it as to-read
