Acquisitions ~ And WHAT ARE YOU READING? 2018-19

[Fishface]

I adored The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple but My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers...well, I'm glad you didn't buy yourself a copy.

[Erin]

I just started And Never Let Her Go: Thomas Capano: The Deadly Seducer

[Sadie]

I just finished Serpentine by Thomas Thompson which wasn’t as great as I’ve been told. I just started Death Trap by M. William Phelps. I’m hoping it’s better then my last book.

[Caitlin]

I finally finished Bestial: The Savage Trail of a True American Monster and moved on to My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers and thus far... it's not terrible, but I'm also glad I didn't buy myself a copy lol. I also just grabbed Murder In Spokane (because it's basically impossible for me to step into the library and leave without a book lol) to read once I get done with My Life Among Serial Killers and The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple

[Fishface]

Tara wrote: "I just finished Serpentine by Thomas Thompson which wasn’t as great as I’ve been told. I just started Death Trap by M. William Phelps. I’m hoping it’s better then my last book."

I found myself pretty bored with Serpentine too. I was all psyched about reading it because it was such a runaway bestseller when it first came out.

[Caitlin]

I got about 70 pages into My Life Among the Serial Killers: Inside the Minds of the World's Most Notorious Murderers and then I gave up because the other started getting on my nerves. Went down hill real fast lol.

So, now it's on to The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple

[Fishface]

I got so irritated with Morrison's book that I was actually making marginal notes about how stupid I thought she was. I NEVER write in a book.

The Jonestown one is a whole different level.

[Hari]

Fishface wrote: "I got so irritated with Morrison's book that I was actually making marginal notes about how stupid I thought she was. I NEVER write in a book.

The Jonestown one is a whole different level."

Fishface, I feel your pain. I'm ashamed to admit I have been reduced to defacing a LIBRARY BOOK in frustration at the writing in the book.

[Caitlin]

I got about as far as her trying to alter the definition of a serial killer to suit her own views and decided it wasn't worth the likely spike in my blood pressure lol

[Fishface]

What I couldn't stand was the way she thought of every observation she made about the guys she worked with as some shattering new insight into serial murder. It would probably seem all new to her since she's clearly never read anything about psychology or psychiatry anywhere. I still can't get over the way she totally dismisses head injuries as having an effect on a person's behavior. It's as bad as Joel Norris thinking ALL serial killers must have head injuries because he found out that Henry Lee Lucas had one.

[Caitlin]

I noticed that too. Read less than 100 pages and I still lost count of how many times I caught myself thinking or saying "this is news to you?" Or "you didn't know that already?" lol

[Erin]

Currently reading Right Behind You, By Lisa Gardner.

[Fishface]

Well, crime found me again in Rat Scabies and the Holy Grail: Can a Punk Rock Legend Find What Monty Python Couldn't? At one of the innumerable metaphysical lectures the two questers attend in the course of this book, one of the speakers turns out to be Ivor Edwards, a Jack the Ripper expert talking about Saucy Jack's apparent connection to the Grail quest. Dawes doesn't say exactly what the content of the talk was. I like to think he said that Ivor's favorite suspect (Robert Stephenson) was gutting those poor women to read their entrails to lead him to the Grail.

[Hari]

I have finished reading "I'll be gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara. Not up to it's hype, much as I feared. I think it suffers from a natural lack of organization because it was a work-in-progress when she died, and others prepared her notes, and articles she had completed for it, for publication. The contents reveal a jagged time line (chapters 1-3 of part one are entitled "IRVINE, 1981", "Dana Point, 1980", and "Hollywood, 2009", for example, a jumping back and forth in time that continues through the writing. This may not be down to Ms McNamara, but in any event is not explained.
Still, It is an amazing book if only because of the volume of information she amassed, and the dedication to the case she displayed. Obsession, surely.
I recommend it strongly to all the members of this book club.

[Erin]

Currently reading Gable's Women by Jane Ellen Wayne.

Its a gossipy book about Clark Gable's love life. So far its more rumor than fact.

[Fishface]

Just sent for Deadmonton: Crime Stories from Canada's Murder City and Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder.

[Fishface]

And The Devil's Defender: My Odyssey Through American Criminal Justice from Ted Bundy to the Kandahar Massacre.

[Fishface]

And just received one I forgot all about ordering, The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession, and the World's Most Coveted Fish. As I recall it is a rare example of piscatorial true crime.

[Caitlin]

Okay... trying this again in the correct thread now lol
Finished The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple, which was great. Now I'm on to The Cases That Haunt Us: From Jack the Ripper to JonBenet Ramsey, the FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Unravels the Mysteries That Won't Go Away and Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI

[Fishface]

All kinds of horrors in those three books.

[Fishface]

Now reading Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder Mystery.

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

Fishface wrote: "Now reading Duel with the Devil: The True Story of How Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr Teamed Up to Take on America's First Sensational Murder Mystery."

I read this. I also went to the address where the well is, yes it's still there, but was unable to get in to see it.

Link to my review

[Fishface]

What, is it under the foundations like Sadako Yamamura's well, or is it a tourist trap with set visiting hours and a gift shop that sells quilted muffs?

I found a package under the desk chair in the front room. It must have fallen out of my bookbag. Slit it open and found my eagerly-awaited copy of Wolf Man: The True Story of Francisco Arce Montes - The First Global Serial Killer.

[Caitlin]

Picked up Nightmare in Rochester: The Double-Initial Murders from the library yesterday and got started on that so I can finish quickly since the author will be at our library in February to talk about it.

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

Fishface wrote: "What, is it under the foundations like Sadako Yamamura's well, or is it a tourist trap with set visiting hours and a gift shop that sells quilted muffs?

I found a package under the desk chair in t..."

It's in the basement of a building in Soho, on Spring St. Used to be a cafe/restaurant but when I went there the business had shut down. I don't remember where I saw the address, it might be in the book.

[Fishface]

That's very Sadako Yamamura, then. How cool that the well still exists.

*rushes to the den to watch RINGU*

[Fishface]

Just got my copy of Deadmonton: Crime Stories from Canada's Murder City! To my suprise it's been autographed by the author...

[Koren]

Reading Fatal Charm: The Shocking True Story of Serial Wife Killer Randy Roth by Carlton Smith. Goodreads says I haven't read this book before but it sounded familiar. Finally I did a search and found out Ann Rule also wrote a book about Randy Roth, A Rose for Her Grave and Other True Cases. I should have known as it takes place in her usual stomping grounds.

[Caitlin]

Finished Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI a couple days ago, which I thought was really good. Then plowed through I, a Squealer: The Insider's Account of the "Pied Piper of Tucson" Murders in about two hours. And now I'm about halfway through In the Name of the Children: An FBI Agent's Relentless Pursuit of the Nation's Worst Predators, which so far is pretty good but also a tough read given the subject matter.

[Koren]

Needed a book with 'snow' in the title for a challenge and chose A Wicked Snow by Gregg Olsen. Absolutely love this guy's True Crime but not a fan of his fiction. The plot reminded me a little of Hell's Princess: The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men by Harold Schechter.

[[deleted user]]

Earlier this year I finished Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit which was great, although it was not very informative with regard to the profiling technique itself. I might read other books by this author later.

Now I'm slowly and carefully walking through the streets of London in the 19th with The Complete Jack the Ripper.

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

Lori-Ann wrote: "I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, Michelle McNamara. I cannot recommend this book enough. Although she died (in her sleep, @ age 46, accidental OD), HER assistant researchers completed her book. I was pleased they..."

Reposting to add link

[Fishface]

LOVED Daughters of the Lake.

[Fishface]

Just started The Murder of Bob Crane right before bed. It was so absorbing that before I got in the shower this morning I was almost halfway into it.

[Fishface]

Finished The Murder of Bob Crane and started Wolf Man: The True Story of Francisco Arce Montes - The First Global Serial Killer.

[Fishface]

Finished The Child Killers amd now well into The Mutilators: From the Files of True Detective Magazine. The latter started right out with Andrei Chikatilo and gave a great deal of grisly detail about what The Goose did to his victims. Then it moved on to Ricky Lee Green. Guh.

[Koren]

Bought today:

The Manson Women and Me: Monsters, Morality, and Murder



The Education of a Coroner: Lessons in Investigating Death

[Fishface]

Finished the ho-hum Treating Anger, Anxiety, and Depression in Children and Adolescents: A Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective.

[Fishface]

Reading the badly-needed The Mutilators: From the Files of True Detective Magazine.

[[deleted user]]

I am now reading The Stranger Beside Me: Ted Bundy: The Shocking Inside Story. I got to page 50 or so, so far. I like the way she writes, very detailed and honest.

[Fishface]

Finished Jeff Davis 8: The True Story Behind the Unsolved Murder That Allegedly Inspired True Detective, Season One in a couple of hours and started on Diamond Street: The Story of the Little Town with the Big Red Light District.

[Fishface]

Just got my copies of Spouse Killers: From the Files of True Detective Magazine, Cult Killers and From the Files of 'True Detective: Hooker Killers in the mail. The latter was remarkably expensive, suggesting that it is wildly popular for reasons that would probably be disturbing if I knew what they were.

[Fishface]

Also well into I Am Cain by Gera-Lind Kolarik with WAYNE Klatt.

[Erin]

Im reading The Godfather, The Girls in the Picture, and Accidental Presidents: Eight Men Who Changed America

[Sadie]

I’m reading For The Thrill of It Leopold and Loeb

[Rita]

Tara wrote: "I’m reading For The Thrill of It Leopold and Loeb"

Awesome Tara! I read about these two many decades ago and I want to revisit this one.

[Fishface]

I just got my copy of Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?. I have zero memory of having ordered it.

[Lady ♥ Belleza, Gif Princesa]

Tara wrote: "I’m reading For the Thrill of It: Leopold, Loeb, and the Murder That Shocked Chicago Leopold and Loeb"

Re-posting to add link.

[Fishface]

Just got my copy of Bizarre Murderers II: From the Files of True Detective Magazine. Whoo-hoo! Also just started reading Over The Top, which is great stuff.

[Fishface]

Started Remembering Denny last night when it came in for me at the library. It's an outstanding addition to my Prep-School Trauma shelf.