Book Description
In two previous books, Janet Malcolm explored the hidden sides of, respectively, institutional psychoanalysis and Freudian biography. In this book, she examines the psychopathology of journalism. Using a strange and unprecedented lawsuit as her larger-than-life example -- the lawsuit of Jeffrey MacDonald, a convicted murderer, against Joe McGinniss, the author of Fatal Vision, a book about the crime -- she delves into the always uneasy, sometimes tragic relationship that exists between journalist and subject. In Malcolm's view, neither journalist nor subject can avoid the moral impasse that is built into the journalistic situation. When the text first appeared, as a two-part article in The New Yorker, its thesis seemed so radical and its irony so pitiless that journalists across the country reacted as if stung.
Her book is a work of journalism as well as an essay on journalism: it at once exemplifies and dissects its subject. In her interviews with the leading and subsidiary characters in the MacDonald-McGinniss case -- the principals, their lawyers, the members of the jury, and the various persons who testified as expert witnesses at the trial -- Malcolm is always aware of herself as a player in a game that, as she points out, she cannot lose. The journalist-subject encounter has always troubled journalists, but never before has it been looked at so unflinchingly and so ruefully. Hovering over the narrative -- and always on the edge of the reader's consciousness -- is the MacDonald murder case itself, which imparts to the book an atmosphere of anxiety and uncanniness. The Journalist and the Murderer derives from and reflects many of the dominant intellectual concerns of our time, and it will have a particular appeal for those who cherish the odd, the off-center, and the unsolved.
Customer Reviews:
How far should they go?.......2007-05-30
Joe McGinniss put himself on the map writing the classic 1969 book, THE SELLING OF A PRESIDENT. That book detailed how Richard Nixon was sold to the public like any other consumer product. It's worth reading if you can find a copy. The Nixon book was such a hit and McGinniss was so young he couldn't find material good enough to follow it up and his next few books were mediocre.
Determined to find another worthy subject, he tackled the case of Dr. Jeffrey McDonald, a man accused of killing his wife and children. That story became the bestselling FATAL VISION and this book, THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER, chronicles the techniques that McGinniss used to get close to McDonald, and how he pretended to support McDonald through the years of legal proceedings although he always thought him to be guilty and wanted a guilty verdict for a better book. McGinniss' technique led to unfettered access to legal files, evidence, but most importantly access to McDonald. They'd drink together, strategize together and were pals during the experience.
The central question is how far can a journalist go to get the story? Although a jury found McDonald guilty of murder, a later jury found in favor of McDonald in his suit against McGuinniss because they felt that his techniques were so underhanded and self-serving that even a murderer deserved better. The book shows the divide between the win-at-any-cost media and the public that grows weary of the techniques used against people to create news. Does the public have the right to know enough that journalists can lie to subjects to bring the story to press?
This short book makes you question a number of journalistic techniques and it doesn't hurt either that McDonald has strong supporters and could possibly be innocent of the murders, at least in the context of this book.
There's more where this came from ..........2004-11-10
Ms. Malcolm slices off the hand that feeds her
With regard to item "a)" from "...pointless exercise," MacDonald v. McGuiness was over when Ms. Malcolm got involved. According to Fatal Justice by Palmer & Bost, McGuiness's lawyers threw a post-trial press conference for the court of public opinion: only Ms. Malcolm showed up.
Otherwise, Journalist & Murderer is mainly about journalistic ethics, if there are any. Here, McGuiness insinuated himself into the defense team (he was privy to trial strategy) of Jeffrey MacDonald, with the promise presenting him in the best possible light. When McGuiness sours on MacDonald, he puts up a cheery front & presses on. After Fatal Vision, MacDonald felt betrayed.
Of course, in our Cartesian-dualist society, since it's always either-or, we ask why he should feel betrayed? Guys convicted of killing their families have no reason to feel betrayed. They're bad guys; they deserve betrayal.
However, when McGuiness concluded that MacDonald was guilty, trial evidence just wouldn't do. McGuiness shamefully proved himself a member of the old Star Chamber (maybe Joe expected some votes as Cheney's heir @Halliburton?) by trundling out Cleckley's (1941) old psychopathology checklist & diagnosing Dr. MacDonald an incurable, speed-fueled sociopath. Dr. Phil's forbearer: super!
Ms. Malcolm is my favorite contemporary writer: she is foremost literate & like my favorite noncontemporary writer Mencken, she can be vicious without being vengeful. However, when you read, say, 1999's Sheila McGough, you may well wonder what sort of journalistic ruse Ms. Malcolm might cook up while slicing vegetables in the McGough kitchen. The Journalist & the Murderer is a blueprint for any such ruse. Better news is that after reading J&M, you can laugh without a twinge of guilt @gaudily & nightly paraded notions like "journalistic integrity."
Zero stars - pointless exercise..........2003-11-10
I'd have a bit more respect for Ms. Malcolm if:
a) she had actually attended MacDonald vs. McGinniss, so that she could write from an informed viewpoint instead of relying on second- and third-hand accounts;
b) she had spent less time oohing and ahhing over MacDonald's personal magnetism, and stuck to the facts of the case at hand;
c) she had bothered to read the literary releases to McGinniss's publishing company, SIGNED BY MACDONALD HIMSELF, that gave McGinniss license to write any type of book he wished (including, one presumes, a book that might actually say that McGinniss himself had concluded that MacDonald was guilty, despite the friendship the Journalist may have felt for the Murderer);
d) she hadn't stated - repeatedly - the total fiction that the jury hung 5-1 in MacDonald's favor. The fact is, the jury hung on ONE QUESTION OUT OF THIRTY-SEVEN, never actually voting on the other 36, because one juror believed that MacDonald had violated his agreements with McGinniss by cultivating other journalists and by ignoring his agreement not to sue McGinniss.
Or is MacDonald next going to sue Malcolm, because in her very title, she herself calls him a murderer?
Let's call an egg an egg, Dr. Jeff. You killed them. Pay the price. Be done with it.
Looking at the murky world of journalistic ethics........2003-06-30
In 1970, a respected army physician named Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald claimed that four strangers broke into his home in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and killed his wife and two daughters. Although an army tribunal tried Dr. MacDonald and cleared him, years later the case was reopened. This time, MacDonald was convicted and sent to prison, where he still is today.
Janet Malcolm does not reopen the MacDonald case in her book, "The Journalist and the Murderer." Rather, she examines the issues behind a libel suit that MacDonald brought in 1984 against his supposed friend, Joe McGinnis, author of "Fatal Vision." Joe McGinniss posed as an ally of Jeffrey MacDonald for years. McGinnis lived with MacDonald for a while and even joined his defense team. McGinniss sent MacDonald sympathetic letters in support of his cause. In these letters, he frequently expressed his belief in MacDonald's innocence.
It was only after "Fatal Vision" was published that MacDonald discovered the truth. McGinniss did not believe in MacDonald's innocence; on the contrary, he portrays MacDonald as a psychopathic murderer. The author posed as a friend for the sole purpose of keeping MacDonald in the dark so that McGinniss would continue to have access to his subject. "Fatal Vision" became a huge bestseller and it eventually became a miniseries.
Malcolm's book, written in 1990, takes on added significance in 2003, when the ethics of journalists are under fire as never before. Time and again, a small number of journalists have been accused of plagiarizing and fabricating stories. The public is beginning to recongnize that reporters are fallible people who suffer from the same pressures, ambitions, and even psychological disorders as other ordinary mortals.
Malcolm's book is not merely a condemnation of McGinniss's behavior towards MacDonald. Her premise is that the journalist's relationship to his subject is, in its very essence, a perilous one. The gullible subject babbles away to his "sympathetic" listener, revealing more of himself than he realizes. When all is said and done, only the journalist and his editors have control over the final product. They are sometimes tempted to distort the facts to make the piece more interesting.
Malcolm asserts that certain journalists are con men who prey on people's loneliness, credibility, and narcissism to get a good story. Journalists have their own agendas and the "truth," which is elusive at best, is not always their top priority. Malcolm's book is a warning not to believe everything that is printed in a newspaper or a magazine, since each story is only one version of reality.
The ethics of blabbermouths.......2003-06-02
In The Journalist and the Murderer, Janet Malcolm examines the transactional relationship between a journalist and her subject, especially the dynamic of what happens during an interview. (Why do so many people repeatedly and voluntarily blabber stupidly to the media? Why is it so difficult to refuse a microphone?) And what moral obligation does a journalist have to her subject?
Malcolm answers these questions (as much as she's able to) in the context of a murder trail that journalist Joe McGinniss wrote about, after being given unlimited access to accused murderer Jeffrey MacDonald and his defense team. McGinniss, originally sympathetic to MacDonald, comes to believe that he is guilty of the murder (the jury agreed), but does not reveal his change of heart to MacDonald, in order to maintain access to him. Once McGinniss's book, Fatal Vision, is published, MacDonald is horrified by the portrait presented to him and sues McGinniss for fraud.
Malcolm raises issues that I, a constant reader of journalism, had never considered. Her book gave me insight into what a writer must do to get the story. She's made me a less naïve reader. Those long articles in The New Yorker will never seem the same.
Average customer rating:
- "Strangled" re-opens a forty year old case
- CASEY SHERMAN'S REVIEW
- exciting journalistic investigative thriller
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Strangled
Brian McGrory
Manufacturer: Atria
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ASIN: 0743463684 |
Book Description
Deadly and deep-seated political conspiracies are nothing new to Jack Flynn, the popular lead reporter of the Boston Record. But in Strangled, he finds himself in the middle of a case that everyone thought had closed forty years ago -- the Boston Strangler. From the summer of 1962 to the winter of 1964, eleven women were strangled to death in their homes. The city had been panic-stricken. Dog pounds were cleaned out. Locksmiths worked twenty-hour days. The streets emptied after dark. Single women set up phone trees to check on each other's safety. Then, a year after the eleventh murder, the city breathed a heavy sigh of relief when convicted sex offender Albert DeSalvo confessed to the killings. Eight years later, he was stabbed to death in prison, forever ridding the world of the man who had terrorized a city. Or so everyone thought.
Boston, present-day. A series of murders has occurred in which all the victims, all female, have been strangled and left with markers eerily reminiscent of those once left by the "Phantom Fiend" -- garish bows tied around their necks and their bodies ghoulishly positioned to greet investigators as they entered the crime scene.
In typical fashion, the police and local politicians have turned on their publicity machine full-throttle in an attempt to cool any rumors about the possible return of the Strangler. Little do they know that Flynn is receiving letters from the killer himself, thrusting the newsman between the threats of a madman and several secretive, uncooperative officials, who are tied to the original case. With the lives of innocent women on the line, he must use his keen journalistic skills to determine whether or not this is a copycat on the loose, or if Albert DeSalvo was, in fact, not quite the fiend everyone so easily believed him to be. Is it possible that the Boston Strangler was never captured and that he's been lurking in the shadows, waiting to kill again?
Using fiction to examine the horrifying details of the Boston Strangler case and the possible outcomes of its investigation, McGrory has written an intelligent thriller crackling with newsroom energy and chilling suspense.
Customer Reviews:
"Strangled" re-opens a forty year old case.......2007-05-19
This latest in McGrory's Jack Flynn series is the best to date. The story offers a fresh, fictional look at the puzzling real-life Boston Strangler serial murders when, forty years later, Boston "Record" reporter Flynn is chosen as spokesperson for the perpetrator of a similar series of murders and becomes the traget of someone who wants him out of the way. Is the Strangler back? Was now deceased Albert DiSalvo not really the serial killer he claimed to be? Who doesn't want the truth revealed?
"Strangled" is a fast-paced shuttle between Boston and Vegas that conveys the strikingly different energy of both cities. I loved it.
CASEY SHERMAN'S REVIEW.......2007-02-27
I admit that I was a little skeptical about the idea of fictionalizing the real life horror of the Boston Strangler case. However, after reading Brian McGrory's fine novel, my fears were put to rest. McGrory brings the strangler case back to life by offering enough true & disturbing details about the original crimes to make one wonder; could it happen again?
McGrory also tells his story through a multi-layered hero with flaws and steely eyed determination that would make even James Patterson proud.
Good Job Brian!
Casey Sherman, author of Search for the Strangler: My Hunt for Boston's Most Notorious Killer
exciting journalistic investigative thriller.......2007-02-07
Forty years ago, someone killed Albert DeSalvo, the self-confessed "Boston Strangler", in prison; case closed. Until now that is. Boston Record reporter Jack Flynn, on the verge of marrying his beloved Maggie Kane, ignores his upcoming nuptials to investigate a new string of homicides that eerily parallel that of the Strangler. The press dubs the new killer the "Phantom Fiend".
Jack begins his investigation by scanning the 1960s record to determine whether he agrees with officialdom that DeSalvo was the original killer. However, not surprisingly at least to Jack who used to work the DC beat (see THE INNOCENT), several Massachusetts' prominent citizens especially those in law enforcement today and in the 60s want him to leave the past buried with DeSalvo. His first police contact FOJ (friend of Jack) Leo Goldsmith tells him for his own good to back off from that approach. Pressure to cease and desist comes especially from supporters of Stu Callahan, the State senior Senator who prosecuted the DeSalvo conviction. Ignoring everyone including his fiancée, Jack receives correspondence from the apparent killer who forces him into a contest in which not playing or failure means women will be STRANGLED.
Though an exciting journalistic investigative thriller, STRANGLED is one of those tales that could have been a classic, but chooses the modern day cat and mouse action over the more fascinating look back at the DeSalvo confession. The story line is fast-paced as Jack knows he cannot ignore the deadly contest even if every politico law enforcement type demands he does as he believes the serial killer must be stopped and he has the insider track though the cost on his personal life might prove expensive. Reader will enjoy this murder mystery, but once done wonder about DeSalvo.
Harriet Klausner
Average customer rating:
- Exciting read, especially in the beginning when our ...
- Great read
- Haunting . . . . a real keeper
- Not "Silence of the Lambs" caliber, but good nevertheless
- Suspense not mystery
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Bones: An Irene Kelly Mystery
Jan Burke
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0684855518 |
Amazon.com
Nobody writes better than Jan Burke about the real world of print journalism, and that aspect of her latest Irene Kelly mystery is as strong as ever. The tensions of being the wife of a cop and continuing to work as a crime reporter in the Southern California desert city of Las Piernas have increased with each big story Irene covers: it's almost as though her associates are waiting for her to make some mistake, to fumble a story. When an edgy, rebellious teenage girl asks her to look for her missing mother, Irene crosses the path of a very dangerous serial killer--Nicholas Parrish. He is one of those totally anonymous but enormously gifted and resourceful villains found only in fiction. Parrish kills women who happen to look like Irene (and his abusive mother), and attracts devoted disciples to his grisly cause. Because of Irene's involvement, several more lives are damaged or endangered, and the strain takes its toll on the reporter's mental stability.
Burke is such a fine, realistic writer that she can tread her way carefully across territory already well covered by Patricia Cornwell, Jeffery Deaver, Thomas Harris, et al. and still find something new to say about ritual murder and forensic science. But her real talent is bringing to full, instant life a remarkable woman--and the city she lives and works in. --Dick Adler
Book Description
For Four Long Years, No One Has Known What Became of Julia Sayre
On the morning after this mother of two disappeared, her family sought the help of reporter Irene Kelly. But despite Irene's best efforts, until now only one person has known where to find Sayre: her killer.
Nick Parrish, brilliant and sadistic, already faces the death penalty in a torture-murder case. Now he wants to cop a plea -- life imprisonment in exchange for directing police to the isolated mountain grave where he buried Julia Sayre. The D.A. agrees to the controversial deal, and form a specialized team of law enforcement and forensic experts to accompany Parrish on his grisly journey. When the Sayres and the newspaper pressure the D.A. to include Irene on the expedition, their wishes are honored over the protests of the team.
From the start, Parrish makes Irene the object of his unnerving attention. His knowing smile and relentless stares make her wonder if heavy chains, armed guards, and a protective search dog will be enough to keep him at bay.
But Nick Parrish's deadly plan to regain his freedom is already in motion, and Irene will need all her courage and ingenuity to remain the reporter -- not the victim -- in tomorrow's headlines.
Download Description
"What really happened to Julia Sayre? She disappeared four years ago. A young mother of two, Sayre was more than a news story to reporter Irene Kelly. When Sayre's family sought Irene's help, the search became a personal mission--and a fruitless one. Despite Irene's best efforts, only one person knew where to find Sayre: her killer. Now, years later, one of the most notorious criminals on death row is willing to talk. Condemned for unimaginable acts of torture and murder, Nick Parrish is plea bargaining for a life sentence--by leading Irene and a select group of officials to the secluded mountain grave of his victim. Soon, in the dark isolation of the Sierra Nevadas, they will discover what really happened. But Parrish's most terrifying secret is yet to come. And he's saving it just for Irene... "
Customer Reviews:
Exciting read, especially in the beginning when our ..........2007-08-07
... heroine is stranded in the wilderness with the serial killer. Longer review available at my website the Impatient Reader. See My Amazon profile for URL.
Great read.......2007-06-29
Don't miss one of Jan Burke's Irene Kelly stories. They are wonderfully crafted and hard to put down.
Haunting . . . . a real keeper.......2006-05-09
In 2002, my brother gave me a gift certificate to Amazon.com. I decided to shop for some books and stumbled on Bones by an author I had never heard of before. The premise of the book sounded good and I decided to take the plunge and buy it.
This started a love affair with Jan Burke and everything she has written that lasts to this day. What an amazing storyteller. I have read them all, loved them all and of the hundreds of books I have read, hers are some of my treasured few that I keep to reread again and again.
Bones is still my favorite of hers and can stand alone as a great book even though her character Irene Kelly stars in books before this one. The plot was really good, the character development amazing - I really came to know these people and care about them - and suspense was terrific. Overall, the book was really fantastic and a truly great read.
Not "Silence of the Lambs" caliber, but good nevertheless.......2006-02-09
I read this book on the strength of its Edgar Award, and while I thought it was a very good book, I would not say that it was "not put down-able" since it took me a solid two weeks to read...meaning that I put it down a lot.
Here is the basic premise, longtime Jan Burke protagonist Irene Kelly and a notorious serial killer are included on an expedition bound for the burial grounds of one of his victims. The serial killer is actually allowed out of prison to lead this expedition. The expedition includes a dozen (plus) forensic experts, forest rangers, and sheriffs/guards. Enough of a security force that one would assume they'd all be safe. Bad assumption, the whole expedition heads south rather quickly and that's what the rest of the book is about.
Jan Burke has a real knack for turning out memorable phrases and she has the requisite plot twists that maintain a good interest level.
Recommended for all mystery lovers. I certainly enjoyed the book and based on that, will go back and read some of the books that came before Bones.
Suspense not mystery.......2005-10-31
There is a mystery within this book, as within all great stories to varying degrees, but its primary mode is one of suspense. Some work is required to get past simplistic settings and language necessary to market a book these days, but once you get into this book, it's a journey through the rapids of fear: you can feel what it is like to be stalked by a psycho. Now, we all know this book is not designed to be "reality," so it's safe to say that yes, some parts of it are overdramatic and fudged and sometimes silly. The overall mood however is a crushing sense of pursuit and paranoia (I never feel this way except when reading the news). Burke's prose is extremely readable and sometimes artful, and although it could use a good edit to drop fifty pages of fat from this otherwise fighting trim book, which is more believable than most movies or TV shows in this genre, and better by far than most books of its type. I would recommend this book to mystery writers who like suspense, with a cross-over audience of those who read Stephen King late at night with only a flashlight as a companion.
Amazon.com
In True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa, disgraced New York Times writer Michael Finkel recounts the story of the murderer who assumed his identity and examines the reasons for his own fall from journalistic grace, in a memoir that is gripping, perceptive, and bizarre. In 2002, Finkel, a rising star at the Times, was fired for fabricating a character in a story about child laborers in Africa. Just as the story of his downfall was about to become public, he learned that a man named Christian Longo, arrested in Mexico for the murder of his wife and three small children in Oregon, had been living under an assumed identity: Michael Finkel of The New York Times. Sensing a story--and an opportunity for redemption--Finkel contacted Longo, initiating a relationship that would grow increasingly complex over the course of Longo's trial and conviction.
Finkel makes no excuses for his actions. Nor does he deny his own narcissism--a narcissism that allowed him to rationalize his own lies as surely as Longo rationalized his crimes. Ultimately, Finkel says, his year with Longo taught him "how a person's life could spiral completely out of control; how one could get lost in a haze of dishonesty; and how these things could have dire consequences." The lesson, Finkel need not add, applies as much to the disgraced writer as it does to the killer. --Erica C. Barnett
Book Description
In the haunting tradition of Joe McGinniss's
Fatal Vision and Mikal Gilmore's
Shot in the Heart,
True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa weaves a spellbinding tale of murder, love, and deceit with a deeply personal inquiry into the slippery nature of truth.
The story begins in February of 2002, when a reporter in Oregon contacts
New York Times Magazine writer Michael Finkel with a startling piece of news. A young, highly intelligent man named Christian Longo, on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for killing his entire family, has recently been captured in Mexico, where he'd taken on a new identity -- Michael Finkel of the
New York Times.
The next day, on page A-3 of the
Times, comes another bit of troubling news: a note, written by the paper's editors, explaining that Finkel has falsified parts of an investigative article and has been fired. This unlikely confluence sets the stage for a bizarre and intense relationship. After Longo's arrest, the only journalist the accused murderer will speak with is the real Michael Finkel. And as the months until Longo's trial tick away, the two men talk for dozens of hours on the telephone, meet in the jailhouse visiting room, and exchange nearly a thousand pages of handwritten letters.
With Longo insisting he can prove his innocence, Finkel strives to uncover what really happened to Longo's family, and his quest becomes less a reporting job than a psychological cat-and-mouse game -- sometimes redemptively honest, other times slyly manipulative. Finkel's pursuit pays off only at the end, when Longo, after a lifetime of deception, finally says what he wouldn't even admit in court -- the whole, true story. Or so it seems.
Download Description
"
In the haunting tradition of Joe McGinniss's
Fatal Vision and Mikal Gilmore's
Shot in the Heart,
True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa weaves a spellbinding tale of murder, love, and deceit with a deeply personal inquiry into the slippery nature of truth.
The story begins in February of 2002, when a reporter in Oregon contacts
New York Times Magazine writer Michael Finkel with a startling piece of news. A young, highly intelligent man named Christian Longo, on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list for killing his entire family, has recently been captured in Mexico, where he'd taken on a new identity -- Michael Finkel of the
New York Times.
The next day, on page A-3 of the
Times, comes another bit of troubling news: a note, written by the paper's editors, explaining that Finkel has falsified parts of an investigative article and has been fired. This unlikely confluence sets the stage for a bizarre and intense relationship. After Longo's arrest, the only journalist the accused murderer will speak with is the real Michael Finkel. And as the months until Longo's trial tick away, the two men talk for dozens of hours on the telephone, meet in the jailhouse visiting room, and exchange nearly a thousand pages of handwritten letters.
With Longo insisting he can prove his innocence, Finkel strives to uncover what really happened to Longo's family, and his quest becomes less a reporting job than a psychological cat-and-mouse game -- sometimes redemptively honest, other times slyly manipulative. Finkel's pursuit pays off only at the end, when Longo, after a lifetime of deception, finally says what he wouldn't even admit in court -- the whole, true story. Or so it seems.
"
Customer Reviews:
Compelling, compelling.......2007-03-18
Back in December 2001, a heinous act occured along the Oregon coast that would forever alter the lives of the people involved with it. Christian Longo, newly relocated to the area a few months back, savagely took the lives of the people closest to him, and then fled the country. The shock and horror of the crimes reverberated strongly through the community and the state. While in Mexico, Longo assumed the identity of disgraced NY Times reporter Michael Finkel. Thus, this unusual pairing of these two men was born, and the end result, this quite unusual recounting of the Longo murders in "True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa".
Michael Finkel was once top of his game, reporting on serious stories with serious implications. However, due to frabrications made in an "child slavery" story, he quickly fell from grace, retreating to his life in Montana. No sooner than that happened, his phone rang, and a reporter calling from the Oregonian fills him in on the Longo story. Having nothing better to do with his time, Finkel contacts the now-captured Longo, who responds, creating a very strange, symbiotic relationship during the time Longo was awaiting trial for the murders.
This whole book is quite amazing. From Finkel's complete, honest confession to his fabrications, to the letters that Longo writes to him, the story is quite the page turner. Finkel's writing style is uncluttered and easy to read. He builds his story well, from the introduction to the final, horrifying conclusion. Finkel's honesty is compelling; he cuts himself no slack for his fabrication. You must forgive him for his mistakes, and hopefully, he'll find himself back to writing.
This story is chilling, in so many aspects. Longo, a merciless killer, sits on Oregon's death row, living with his crimes. You wonder how he does, but after reading Finkel's book, which provides an unusual insight into the distorted mind of a killer, more light is shed on this subject. In short, it's a great read.
Self-Serving.......2006-11-10
This book is about a murderer's theft of the author's identity to help him escape police apprehension. The author makes much of this fact,seeing himself as a victim, but an account I read of the actual murders has no mention of the author, nor does it need any for the purpose of telling its story.
Nor is the author a very sympathetic character, having announced at the beginning of the book that he has been fired for fictionalizing a news story for the New York Times. (a practice becoming more and more popular, it seems)
My main complaint, however, is that the book is just not that interesting unless you're fascinated by the inner workings of a journalist's mind.
What's one man's demise is another's redemption...or is it?.......2006-06-02
Michael Finkel wrote this book in an effort to alter the popular opinion that he is a dishonest reporter who falsified his articles. He wrote with one objective in mind - to emerge as a talented author and honest human being. But was he able to do so? It's up to the readers to decide.
What's the book about? As it turned out, a serial murderer used Mr. Finkel's identity to hide from the law. Luckily, the FBI did their job and caught the man. And when Mr. Finkel found out that his identity has been compromised for nearly a month, he saw an opportunity to use the story as a stepping stone toward redemption, toward purification of his own public character.
The book is written well, but having read it, I wouldn't recommend it. For one thing, it does little to reveal something new about the character of the murderer. It simply affirms the man's deceitful nature. And I could care less about Finkel's correspondence with the murderer. There were times when I felt like I was reading a gnostic gospel- an account of lies between two corrupt men = the dishonest journalist and the two-faced murderer - what a pair.
If anyone is interested in the story, the Internet is a perfect source about Longo's biography. Use it, don't waste your time with the book.
- by Simon Cleveland
Brilliantly done, but unsettling.......2006-01-30
I found this fascinating. I stayed up until two o'clock in the morning to finish it. It is a true crime story written in a clear, elegant style. Every sentence is polished, and every sentence is planned and placed in exactly the right place. There is no obvious striving for effect, no lurid prose, no fancy writing. Michael Finkel employs what George Orwell once called the invisible style. The writing is so unobtrusive, so deliberate in not calling attention to itself that what the reader experiences is the story itself, pure and simple.
Or stories. The book is like a film or a commercial novel in that there is a main plot and a subplot. The main plot is the story of Christian Longo who murdered his wife and three children and then ran to Mexico where he pretended to be Michael Finkel, ace reporter for the New York Times. This was a startling coincidence because Finkel had just been fired from the Times for falsifying a story about cocoa plantation "slaves" in West Africa. He was disgraced and fallen from the pinnacle of journalistic prestige. That is the subplot. Both stories are interwoven together in a masterful way. And the sequence of events is presented in a dramatic--not a strictly chronological--way so that the tension is maintained and the reader is led to eagerly turn the pages.
The overall story began when Finkel found out about Chris Longo impersonating him. Struck with the coincidence, he felt compelled to know more about Longo and why the accused murderer took on his name. He contacted Longo and worked hard to establish rapport and a friendship. His motive was to get as much information from Longo as he could in order to write a book. The book would fuse the story of his disgrace with that of a man who had murdered his family. The thread that ties the stories together is not just the initial coincidence but an obsession with honesty that haunted both men and the obvious lack of honesty that they both practiced. Both Finkel and Longo strove again and again to come completely clean about what they had done and what they were doing while using each other under the guise of friendship. Longo used Finkel as somebody to talk to (he had been isolated from the other prisoners and had almost no contact with anyone other than his lawyers) and as a sounding board for his defensive strategy. Finkel used Longo as a source for a story that would restart his career. As Finkel makes vivid, both men were more than a little desperate.
At one point Finkel gives part of the voluminous correspondence he had with Longo to three shrinks. They conclude that Longo has a narcissistic personality. He may indeed be narcissistic, but more to the point, Longo is a psychopath. He has all the classic features: a charming personality; a behavioral record of lies and thefts and murders; a grotesque sense of ultimately caring about nobody but himself; and finally an ability to be completely without remorse and able to party after his crimes, as he did in Mexico.
Ironically, I think it is Finkel who has at least a touch of the narcissistic personality. We can see this in his tendency toward an exaggerated sense of his own importance, first in imagining that the world would be all that interested in his story (ah, but he made the world interested by his skillful writing) and in this from page 267 (he's talking to Longo's lawyers who want ideas for Longo's defense): He writes, "I felt, at that moment, as though Longo's life was in my hands--that if I said the right thing, he'd be spared the death penalty." We can also see this in the tremendous amount of energy Finkel put into researching and writing this book. He desperately wanted to regain his reputation and to be regarded again as a top flight journalist.
Both men are caught in a moral confusion about lies and honesty, Longo because he's a psychopath who doesn't understand how people can be so upset about lying since it would seen to be the natural thing to do if it might benefit you (sociopaths learn at an early age that they are supposed to be remorseful about lying, and that it's bad, but they never really appreciate why, and so they are fascinated with the dynamics); Finkel because as he freely admits has told many lies in his life including the lies that ended his career at the New York Times. Neither has apparently thought much about Emerson's "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." Neither seems to understand that it is not so much the absolute consistency of what you say as it is your motive for what you say and especially how what you say affects others. That is what counts. Most people know this. Furthermore everybody lies at one time or another, but not when bearing witness and not when the lives of other people might be adversely affected.
I think what fascinated Finkel about Longo was that he could see in him a caricature of himself; and as long as he could imagine that Longo might not be guilty or as long as he didn't look too closely at the murders, that was tolerable. However after sitting through the trial and hearing Longo's grotesque self-serving lies about the murders and the horrific details, Finkel had to psychologically distance himself from his would-be, partial alter-ego. And rightly so since there is something terribly unsettling about their symbiotic relationship.
But in the final analysis I say good for Michael Finkel. This is an outstanding work, a fine addition to a genre I like to call "participatory journalism." What Finkel learned about himself from this chancy venture is possibly as important as what this book has done for his career and for his self-esteem.
True Story??.......2006-01-02
Never having heard before of either Chris Longo or Mike Finkel, I assumed that the title of this book was intentionally misleading. I was then fascinated by the story and the skill with which it is told (and, I thought, created from whole cloth). I concluded temporarily that the author has the most fertile imagination I'd ever encountered. Imagine my disappointment now that I've learned that what I thought was creative fiction is actually true!
Book Description
In Webster County, where a ruthless sniper is claiming victim after victim, a media circus is in full swing with local TV reporter Sam Stevens at its center. But despite his beleaguered personal life, Sam wouldnt rather be doing anything other than working this grim, gruesome assignment, even complementing his coverage with a series entitled Inside the Mind of a Serial Killer based on interviews with a local prisoner. Obsessed with his work and trapped in a loveless marriage, the towns beloved, trusted reporter cant help fantasizing about escape, and as his research reveals the secrets of the crimes at hand, he begins to see a dark way out. Parting Shot takes on crime in an age when the media rules supreme. Its a breathless thriller, where a reporter and a killer are engaged in a lethal pas-de-deux with an unknowing, terrified community at their mercy. Jonathan Stone returns to top form here, with a story that blows like a freight train to its startling conclusion.
Customer Reviews:
Thriller? REALLY?.......2007-09-22
I fell asleep trying to read this....thriller. I got to page 30 of the droning narrative and fell asleep, literally. It's going back to the library. I'll read something a bit more thrilling, thank you.
Serial sniper thriller filled with dark twists.......2007-06-17
Having lived throught the Malvo/Muhammad beltway sniper attacks made reading PARTING SHOT a bit unnerving. Sam Stevens is an ambitious local TV reporter who gets the scoop of a lifetime covering the serial sniper case terrorizing "Webster County". Nine random victims have fallen from his surgically precise shots. Sam seethes with resentment married to his philandering wife Denise. Their ten-year-old son Tommy keeps them together. Meantime the local sheriff, Billy Wyatt, is in over his head with this nationally covered crime. The FBI is looking over Billy's shoulder as more victims fall prey to the sniper. Then Sam gets involved in a more personal way with the case. The twists are clever. I'd prefer more dialogue and action while less introspection and fewer adverbs. But that doesn't spoil this first-rate thriller.
page turner indeed.......2006-08-15
This was my first book by Jonathan Stone and I was very impressed. I intentionally avoided the jacket notes or any reviews so I was a little surprised by the first twist. After that, I was hooked. This is a great thriller with twists and turns that surprise but never seem out of place. Stone is a master of plotting and pace. Once the story takes off, you won't put it down.
A Shot in the Heart of Our Conscience.......2006-07-22
Readers of Jonathan Stone's work are familiar with his ability to weave diabolically complex and compelling mystery narratives that never reveal their astounding solutions and conclusions until the final plot twist occurs.
In Parting Shot, Stone delivers his same master-puzzler story-telling and also twists the mystery genre itself. Instead of the usual battle between good and evil protagonists, Stone gives us a world of competing villains who grip and shake the moral sensibilities of the reader. Without the safe, simple and familiar context of good people pursuing bad people, Parting Shot portrays a fallen world that is more frightening, more engaging and ultimately more profound as criminality and morality run unchecked. By forgoing the standard dichotomy of cop and killer, Parting Shot implicitly shows how slim the line is that divides everyone from their shadow selves - and in this way Parting Shot evokes powerful and disturbing responses. Stone's tight, spare, taught prose rockets Parting Shot along, and fans can look forward to the trademark plot twists and masterly construction of story for which Stone is rightfully and repeatedly praised.
Parting Shot delivers a shot to the heart of our conscience and moral sensibilities with impact and pure page-turning entertainment.
A Great Read.......2006-07-17
This is a great read to start the summer (or for that matter anythime of the year) One of those books that is difficult to put down once you start-had to stay up late to finish. A great gift to readers and causal readers
Average customer rating:
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Entering Hades: The Double Life of a Serial Killer
John Leake
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
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Breach (Widescreen Edition)
ASIN: 0374148457
Release Date: 2007-11-13 |
Book Description
"I was a greedy, ravenous individual, determined to rise from the bottom to the top . . . It wasn't me!"--Jack Unterweger's final words to his jury
Serial killers rarely travel internationally. So in the early 1990s, when detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department began to find bodies of women strangled with their own bras, it didn’t occur to them at first to make a connection with the bodies being uncovered in the woods outside of Vienna, Austria.
The LAPD waited for the killer to strike again. Meanwhile, in Austria, the police followed what few clues they had. The case intrigued many reporters, but few as keenly as Jack Unterweger, a local celebrity. He cut a striking figure, this little man in expensive white suits. His expertise on Vienna’s criminal underworld was hard-earned. He had been sentenced to life in jail as a young man. But while incarcerated, he began to write—and his work earned him the glowing attention of the literary elite. The intelligentsia lobbied for his release and by 1990, Jack was free again. He continued writing, nurturing his career as a journalist. But though he now traveled in the highest circles, he had a secret life. He was killing again, and in the greatest of ironies, reporting on the very crimes he had committed.
With unprecedented access to Jack’s diaries and letters, John Leake peels back the layers of deception to reveal the life and crimes of Jack Unterweger, and in unnerving detail, exposes the thrilling twists—both in the United States and Europe—that led to Jack’s capture and Austria’s “trial of the century.”
Average customer rating:
- Refreshingly different view of reality
- Surreal Story Country Style
- Disturbingly hilarious!
- Try it again, Naysayers, this book is a riot
- Preposterous
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Fender Benders: A Novel
Bill Fitzhugh
Manufacturer: William Morrow
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Highway 61 Resurfaced: A Novel
ASIN: 0380977575
Release Date: 2001-11-06 |
Book Description
In his first three novels, Bill Fitzhugh created new strains of homicidal insects, sliced open the illegal transplant business, and sinfully skewered the Church and Madison Avenue with the same spear. Now he turns his attention to the hitmaking machinery of Music City, U.S.A.
Depending on your point of view, Fender Benders is either a skewed look at the country music industry or a clear-eyed view of a damn screwy business. It's a Grand Old Opera complete with murder, treachery, greed, drugs, twangy music, a love triangle, and the best fried swimps you'll ever put in your mouth.
First off, some folks down South have taken to dropping like flies. One minute they have a headache, the next they have a date at the funeral home. Seems some lunatic is tampering with boxes of headache powder, lacing them with sodium fluoroacetate. It's a nasty death, but at least it's quick, and it makes you forget you had a headache.
Second off, Eddie Long wants to move to Nashville and become a country music star, but right now he's stuck in Hinchcliff, Mississippi. Eddie's big break comes with a contract to tour the Mississippi casino circuit. While he's on the road, his wife dies, the victim of an apparent serial killer. The emotional turmoil of his wife's death causes Eddie to write the best song of his life. He takes it to Nashville, hooks up with a hoary management company, and launches his career.
Meanwhile, Jimmy Rogers is a freelance writer covering the Mississippi music scene. He loves writing and a girl named Megan. Jimmy decides early on that he is going to write Eddie's biography. But as he's researching Eddie's wife's murder, Jimmy comes to a surprising conclusion. He can't prove it, but publishing it might make his own career.
Megan is a smart, talented, and popular radio personality in a tiny market. But she wants a faster way to Easy Street. So she turns to Eddie. In Nashville.
Before it's all over, everybody's planning to make a killing one way or another -- including the kind that has nothing to do with money. But, as frequently happens on Music Row, things don't always turn out as planned.
Rip-roaring with the author's trademark blend of withering insight, divine absurdity, and an outrageous cast of players, Fender Benders is a hilarious, action-packed, no-punches-pulled look at the music makers and fakers who would do literally anything for a hit record. Here is the irrepressible Bill Fitzhugh at his wildest and funniest. Betcha dolla!
Customer Reviews:
Refreshingly different view of reality.......2007-08-25
If you understand the statement "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture," then you'll know some of why I have such a hard time describing the extreme pleasure I had reading FENDER BENDERS.
Eddie Long had a plan. He wanted to become a country music star, so he set about making it happen. He practiced his guitar, took some classes at night school, and started playing at dives and bars, paying his dues. When his wife Tammy died suddenly, a deep and profound song found its way from his soul. Not a dry eye remained in the house the night he debuted "It Wasn't Supposed to End That Way." Eddie knew he had a hit, so he moved on to Nashville.
Now Jimmy Rogers followed Eddie's career from the very beginning. He figured there was a book in this story somewhere, depending on whether Eddie made it big or not. Jimmy's girl Megan had eyes for Eddie, too, but with something very different than a book in mind.
About the time Eddie met up with the artist management firm of Herron & Peavy in Nashville and struck the most unique contract known to country music, Jimmy was frantically working on Eddie's biography and discovering that Eddie's wife didn't die naturally. Neither did three other people who had headaches one night. Seems like a serial killer might be on the loose.
Add to that the fact that Herron and Peavy weren't exactly choir boys. Twisted legal contracts and complicated money schemes bring some disgruntled clients to this scenario. Take all these ingredients, mix, and you have the wild romp that ensues in FENDER BENDERS.
It takes an ingenious and wacky mind to take all these varied storylines and have them flow so incredibly smoothly. I'm amazed at just how well all the clues tumbled together and fell over each other. Coincidence? No way. Kind of like writing a song where all the elements must gel just right. Poetry to music. Understated hilarity is what Bill Fitzhugh brings with his writing.
Not knowing much about the country music business detracted nothing from my enjoyment of this inspired frenzy. Expert details were scattered liberally throughout the story. I never knew what the differences between, say, digital and analog recording sessions were, but I have a pretty good inkling about it now. Was this explanation just a way to show off Fitzhugh's research? Nope. A well calculated clue, just as every detail included was. Turns out that the explanation was integral to the story, I just didn't know it until later.
It bewildered me how what should have been such a simple story could become so incredibly elaborate yet could also be so very subtle as to have me doubting my own senses. I'm not quite sure which direction is up, but I am sure that this was a highly satisfying tale that left me breathless and smiling. Be sure to treat yourself with this refreshingly different view of reality.
Disclaimer: Any similarities between my husband "Bill Herron" and the character "Big Bill Herron" are completely imagined, except for the name.
Surreal Story Country Style.......2006-07-18
While most surreal authors such as Carl Hiaasen and Dave Barry base their novels in Florida it is refreshing to see someone such as Bill Fitzhugh prepared to make fun of other US states. This time in Fender Benders Fitzhugh gives us a surreal look into the American country music scene and although to be honest this novel isn't quite up to the quality of Cross Dressing and his previous work it is still a great and very enjoyable light read.
In Fender Benders Eddie Long is a talented writer and singer whose wife is pestering him to take a job in her dad's two dollar store as she has got sick of waiting for years for his career to begin. After taking a couple of headache tablets from a box tampered by a serial killer Eddie learns of her death while playing the casinos in Mississippi. In his grief he writes the best country song for years which attracts the attention of a couple of corrupt and self absorbed producers in Nashville who careers are on their last legs but see Eddie's song as a way to put themselves back on top. They try to take Eddie for a ride but he isn't as stupid as they think and has grand plans for marketing his song and himself. Throw in Jimmy, a disgruntled and jealous autobiographer who feels betrayed by Eddie, Jimmy's sugar daddy looking ex girlfriend Meagan who sees Eddie as her ticket to the good life, corrupt publishers, a 'swimp' cook who could have been huge if he hadn't had bad luck years before and you've got a great tale. After the first chapter it does start off a bit slow but once the main story gets going you can't put it down.
If you enjoy surreal novels check out Carl Hiassen, Dave Barry, C.J. Box and Max Barry as well.
Disturbingly hilarious!.......2006-02-02
Read it!
This was my first Fitzhugh book... and I couldn't put it down. (I know, skip the cliches!) But this one should be read in as close to one sitting as possible.
Really, Fitzhugh is funny... in the same vein as Carl Hiassen and Christopher Moore. "Fender Benders" characters are well-conceived... the story flows well... and the conclusion is mysterious enough. No, it's not a mystery... it's a darkly comic novel. Be sure to read "Heart Seizure", too.
Try it again, Naysayers, this book is a riot.......2005-04-21
How did anyone read Fender Benders and NOT know whodunnit? There are clues peppered throughout the story. Sure, some of them can be dismissed as circumstantial, but in the last scene when Eddie and Jimmy meet, the answer is all but spoon fed to the reader. If at that point you don't know who did it then you have not paid attention. The story was a hoot and the ending satisfied. In typical Fitzhugh fashion the tale is decorated in rich, fine-eyed detail, from the machinations of NashVegas to the lives and motivations of the wannabe stars who are drawn to the lights.
Preposterous.......2005-04-13
Journeyman guitarist Eddie Long gets his big break following his wife's death. His debut album goes double platinum. Sad sack Jimmy Rogers gets his big break when he accuses Eddie Long of murder and the resulting tell all book rises to the top of the NY Times bestsellers list. Jimmy's two-timing girlfriend Megan gets what she deserves--a sock in the jaw by Eddie Long. Scumbag producer Big Bill Heron also gets what he deserves a shot in the forehead by an old client who he double-crossed decades earlier. Songwriter Whitney never gets anyting. Short order cook Otis loses his wife to a heart attack. Philandering Carl the sporting goods salesman tampers with evidence at a murder scene and promptly disappears from the story. Franklin Peavey arranges for a contract hit on his partner. Too many characters. Too many loose ends. Too many plot lines that go nowhere. And the clincher--the author never discloses whether Eddie Long is in fact a serial murderer. This is unforgiveable because the book is written from an omniscient point of view. The storyteller knows all, and therefore knows the identity of the real killer, but he chooses not to tell. Not fair, especially after drudging through 300 plus pages of drivel.
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A Gentleman in Charleston And the Manner of His Death
William P. Baldwin
Manufacturer: University of South Carolina Press
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ASIN: 1570036020 |
Book Description
Once deemed "the most powerful man in the South," Charleston newspaper editor Frank Dawson met his violent death in March 1889, at the hands of his neighbor, a disreputable doctor who was attempting to seduce the Dawson family governess. Drawn from events surrounding this infamous episode, the third novel from the Lillian Smith Award-winning William Baldwin pulls back the veil of a genteel society in a fabled southern city and exposes a dark visage of anger and secret pain that no amount of imposed manners could restrain, and only love might eventually heal.
With a southern storyteller's passion for intricate emotional and physical details, Baldwin, through the fictional guise of Capt. David Lawton, chronicles editor Dawson's fated end. Having survived three years of bloody Civil War combat and the decade of violent Reconstruction that followed, the liberal-minded Lawton is now an embattled newspaperman whose national importance is on the wane. Still, he remains a celebrated member of Charleston's elite, while in private life moving amid a pantheon of proud and beautiful women—Sarah, his brilliant wife; Abbie, his sensual sister-in-law; Mary, the all-knowing prostitute; and Hélène, the discontented Swiss governess—each contributing to an unfolding drama of history-haunted turmoil.
Though Lawton loathes the South's cult of personal violence, by the customs of his era and place he is duty-bound to protect his household. Unable to act otherwise, Lawton meets his rival in a brutal physical contest, and in the aftermath, Sarah, Abbie, Mary, and Hélène must make peace with their own turbulent pasts.
War, earthquake, political guile, adultery, illegitimacy, lust, and murder—all the devices of gothic romance—play a role in this tale closely based on the lives of Charlestonians who lived these events over a century ago.
Average customer rating:
- Close but not quite
- Deliciously Evil with a Different Perspective
- great book...
- A Gruesome and Disturbing Story about Tortured Detective and the Female Serial Killer Who is Responsible (B Grade)
- Derivative Pop Fiction
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Heartsick
Chelsea Cain
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Minotaur
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Sleeping Doll: A Novel
ASIN: 0312368461
Release Date: 2007-09-04 |
Amazon.com
Chelsea Cain steps into a crowded, blood-soaked genre with Heartsick, a riveting, character-driven novel about a damaged cop and his obsession with the serial killer who...let him live. Gretchen Lowell tortured Detective Archie Sheridan for ten days, then inexplicably let him go and turned herself in. Cain turns the (nearly played out) Starling/Lecter relationship on its ear: Sheridan must face down his would-be killer to help hunt down another. What sets this disturbing novel apart from the rest is its bruised, haunted heart in the form of Detective Sheridan, a bewildered survivor trying to catch a killer and save himself. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Jeffery Deaver
Jeffery Deaver is the internationally number one bestselling author of 23 thrillers and collections of short stories. He's the author of The Bone Collector, which was a feature film starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie, and most recently The Sleeping Doll.
In the last twenty years we've seen a huge escalation of thrillers whose antagonist is an id-driven sociopath with flexible working hours, plenty of duct tape and a shovel--so much so that it's increasingly hard to tell a serial killer tale in a fresh and compelling way. Yet Chelsea Cain has managed to do just that in Heartsick.
For years a joint taskforce based in Portland, Oregon, pursued the "Beauty Killer," who tortured, dismembered and murdered victims throughout the Northwest. (The nickname came not from the fact the killer was an attractive woman, which she happened to be, but from a medical examiner's observation that one of her torture-murders was a real "beauty.")
Patient and brilliant, the killer stayed a step ahead of her pursuers for ten years. Personnel on the taskforce would come and go but one cop remained a constant fixture, lead detective Archie Sheridan, who was relentless to the point of obsession in his handling of the investigation.
Too relentless for his own good, as it turned out. After dozens of kills, the murderer, Gretchen Lowell, grew weary of her standard fare and went for a variation. She kidnapped Sheridan himself. Drain cleaner and surgery without anesthetic typified his days in her basement. She went so far as to kill him but then, curiously, she changed her mind and revived the hapless man just in time. She called 911, got him to a hospital and turned herself in.
Off she went to prison for life, leaving Sheridan a shell of a man, divorced and living on disability, addicted to pain killers and, more harrowingly, to Gretchen Lowell herself, whom he visited regularly to learn the location of her victims' bodies--information she doled out on whim, the same way she administered IV drugs during Sheridan's captivity to prolong the torture.
Heartsick opens in the present, two years after Lowell went to prison. Portland is plagued by a new killer and another victim, a teenage girl, has vanished. Archie Sheridan is pressed back into service to track the murderer down, and the Beauty Killer taskforce is reunited. Complicating the investigation, and Sheridan's fragile, solitary life, is ambitious yet insecure newspaper reporter, Susan Ward. Pink-haired, clad in cowboy boots and alternative rock group t-shirts, Ward is pulled off a politically awkward story and told to profile Sheridan, in what appears to be a kiss-and-make-up gesture after a media-police brouhaha during the Beauty Killer investigation some years ago.
Cain masterfully weaves a number of story lines together--the hunt for the After School Strangler by the pill-popping cop and his associates, flashbacks to Sheridan and Lowell in her grim basement, Ward's pursuit of the story that'll make her career (and the one that could destroy it) and Sheridan's one-step-forward-two-back struggle to re-emerge as a feeling human being.
Among the most harrowing scenes are those in the Oregon prison where Archie Sheridan continues to meet with his former captor, who, though deprived of her implements of torture, has lost none of her talent for sadism.
The story moves forward on a sure track and accelerates appropriately toward the end when another schoolgirl is kidnapped and has only hours to live. Heartsick is not, however, a roller coaster. It's a methodical, brilliantly realized examination of human beings and the torture both literal and metaphoric they experience as they live their complex lives. We see ourselves and people close to us perfectly reflected in Archie Sheridan and Susan Ward. That same could be said of Cain's palm-sweating portrayal of Gretchen Lowell, but I'll take those insights on faith; none of my friends--to the best of my knowledge--stick a scalpel in somebody's chest and then twist, saying, "I don't like to be ignored. Understand?"
The appeal in most serial killer fiction comes from amped-up violence and blood (plenty of that here) and a race against time, with the sides of good and evil drawn clearly and known from the outset. Cain, though, creates a more nuanced story that blends this concept of thriller with the classic mystery elements of whodunit and why it was done.
On one level Heartsick is a well-crafted three-dead-and-a-bunch-to-go thriller, entertaining and exhilarating. Yet it's more. It's about dependency, about people using their fellow human beings. Sometimes the motive for that is symbiotic and worthy, allowing us to emerge as whole creatures. Other times it's exploitative or, at worst, horrific, as when the After School Strangler or Gretchen Lowell use their helpless victims to satisfy unspeakable needs.
In the end, the author makes clear that that the more powerful weapon isn't the scalpel that cuts flesh and organ, but the resolution and courage to cut ourselves free from what controls us.
--Jeffery Deaver
(photo credit: Charles Harris)
Questions for Chelsea Cain
Amazon.com: Gretchen Lowell haunts every page of Heartsick. Even when she actually appears in the jail scenes with Sheridan, she reveals nothing, and yet it's obvious she's anything but one-dimensional. What is her story?
Cain: I purposely didn't reveal Gretchen's past, beyond a few unreliable hints. I thought there was a really interesting tension in not knowing what had driven this woman to embrace violence so enthusiastically. The less we know about killers' motives, the scarier they are. Maybe that's why people spend so much time watching 24-hour news channels that cover the latest horrible domestic murder. We want to understand why people kill. Because if we can peg it on something, we can tell ourselves that they are different than us, that we aren't capable of that kind of brutality. Plus this is the launch of a series and I thought it would be fun for readers to get to learn more about Gretchen as the series continues. I just finished Sweetheart, and I promise there's a lot more Gretchen to come.
Amazon.com: As a first-time thriller author, you've got to be elated to see early reviews evoke the legendary Hannibal Lecter. Did you anticipate readers to make that connection, or are there other serial series (on paper or screen) that inspired the story of Gretchen and Sheridan?
Cain: I thought that the connection to Lecter was inevitable since Heartsick features a detective who visits a jailed serial killer. But I wasn't consciously inspired by Silence of the Lambs (or Red Dragon, which is the Harris book it more accurately echoes). I grew up in the Pacific Northwest when the Green River Killer was at large, and I was fascinated by the relationship between a cop who'd spent his career hunting a killer (as many of the cops on the Green River Task Force did) and the killer he ends up catching. I'd seen an episode of Larry King that featured two of the Green River Task Force cops and they had footage of one of the cops with Gary Ridgway (the Green River Killer) in jail and they were chatting like old friends. They were both trying to manipulate one another. The cop wanted Ridgway to tell him where more bodies were. Ridgway is a psychopath and wanted to feel in control. But on the surface, they seemed like buddies having a drink together at a bar. It was kind of disturbing. I wanted to explore that. Making the killer a woman was a way to make the relationship even more intense. Making her a very attractive woman upped the ante considerably.
Amazon.com: Reading Heartsick I was actually reminded of some of my favorite books by Stephen King. Like him, you have an uncanny ability to make your geographical setting feel like a character all its own. Do you think the story could have happened in any other place than Portland?
Cain: Heartsick Hawaii would definitely have been a different book. (Archie Sheridan would have been a surfer. Susan would have worked at a gift shop. And Gretchen would have been a deranged hula girl.) I live in Portland, so obviously that played into my decision to set the book here. All I had to do was look out the window. Which makes research a lot easier. But I also think that the Pacific Northwest makes a great setting for a thriller, and it's not a setting that's usually explored. Portland is so beautiful. But it's also sort of eerie. The evergreens, the coast, the mountains--the scale is so huge, and the scenery is so magnificent. But every year hikers get lost and die, kids are killed by sneaker waves on the beach, and mountain climbers get crushed by avalanches. Beauty kills. Plus it has always seemed like the Northwest is teeming with serial killers. I blame the cloud cover. And the coffee.
Amazon.com: In a lot of ways, Heartsick is more about the killer than the killings, and it's hard not to suspect that Gretchen killed only to get to Sheridan. That begs the question: is the chase always better than the catch? As a writer, is it more exciting for you to imagine the pursuit--with its tantalizing push-and-pull--than the endgame?
Cain: The most interesting aspect of the book to me is the relationship between Archie and Gretchen. Really, I wrote the whole book as an excuse to explore that. The endgame is satisfying because it's fun to see all the threads come together, but it's the relationship that keeps coming back to the computer day after day.
Amazon.com: Your characters--Susan Ward in particular--are raw, tautly wired, imperfect but still have this irresistible tenderness. It's their motives and experiences that really drive the story and ultimately elevate it way beyond what you might expect going into a serial killer tale. How did you resist falling into something more formulaic? Did you know what shape Susan and the others would take going in?
Cain: I knew I wanted flawed protagonists. I'm a sucker for a Byronic hero. Thrillers often feature such square-jawed hero types, and I wanted a story about people just barely hanging on. The psychological component is really interesting to me, and I liked that Susan's neuroses are, in their own ways, clues. In many ways, I embraced formula. I love formula--there's a reason it works. And I decided early on that I wasn't going to avoid clichés for the sake of avoiding them. Some clichés are great. My goal was not to write a literary thriller, but to take all the stuff I loved from other books and TV shows and throw them all together and then try to put my own spin on it. Heartsick is a pulpy page-turner with, I hope, a little extra effort put into the writing and the characters. Basically, I just wrote the thriller that I wanted to read.
(photo credit: Kate Eshelby)
Book Description
Damaged Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent ten years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful serial killer, but in the end she was the one who caught him. Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, but instead of killing him, she mysteriously decided to let him go. She turned herself in, and now Gretchen has been locked away for the rest of her life, while Archie is in a prison of another kind---addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off his mind. Archie's a different person, his estranged wife says, and he knows she's right. He continues to visit Gretchen in prison once a week, saying that only he can get her to confess as to the whereabouts of more of her victims, but even he knows the truth---he can't stay away.When another killer begins snatching teenage girls off the streets of Portland, Archie has to pull himself together enough to lead the new task force investigating the murders. A hungry young newspaper reporter, Susan Ward, begins profiling Archie and the investigation, which sparks a deadly game between Archie, Susan, the new killer, and even Gretchen. They need to catch a killer, and maybe somehow then Archie can free himself from Gretchen, once and for all. Either way, Heartsick makes for one of the most extraordinary suspense debuts in recent memory.
Customer Reviews:
Close but not quite.......2007-10-19
This is an interesting novel in that it features a female serial killer and a compelling, disturbing relationship between that killer and the detective who hunts her. Unfortunately, that story is told in flashbacks and the 'current' story (the search for another serial killer) is far less compelling. As the detective detects, a reporter reports, he searching for a killer, she for a story. The plot lines eventually come together and everything is tied into a tidy package.
Since the central concept (the female serial killer and her hunter/prey) is a good one, it should have been the focus of the novel. Unfortunately, it is not, though it might be utilized again in a future work. Thus, the problem is that while the b-story plot is reasonably tight it is not as engaging as most readers of suspense fiction will desire. Most will find the a-story plot far more interesting. Indeed, the novel comes alive whenever the female serial killer appears, but it pales when she is off stage.
The writing improves as the novel develops, but initially it is often crude with many non-sequiturs and strange variations in tone. Some sentences and paragraphs are outright amateurish though, as I said, the writing improves noticeably after the initial chapters.
The book is worth reading for the serial killer plot and there are elements here that suggest that the author could do something far more impressive the next time out.
Deliciously Evil with a Different Perspective.......2007-10-19
If you like serial killers, the one in this book is deliciously evil.
What separates this novel from most of the genre, is the perspective. The evil serial killer, "Beauty" has already been caught. She was caught after she nearly tortured the main character cop to death. The policeman comes out of sick leave to try and catch another serial killer The novel continuously flashes back to the torture. He is admittedly obssessed with "Beauty" even as he knows the obsession has already ruined his life and will continue to do so.
The plot is not the tightest. One wonders throughout why this policeman is brought back to lead the same force that could not catch Beauty for over ten years. As you will learn early on, she turned herself before he died. If he was that inept the first time, why bring him back? Oh well, if he had not come back to lead the task force, the novel would not work. The ending to the plot is very good. The way the story lines are tied together makes one smile, but a postscript is a bit trite.
The current serial killer is not nearly as interesting as Beauty, actually Gretchen Lowell. It is the flashbacks and the control she has over the main character that carry the book.
The story is told through the perspectives of Lowell, in the flashbacks, the cop and a young female reporter brought in to tell the story of the cop pursuing the new killer. She brings color and some amusement to the book, which breaks it up nicely. She is not all that she seems, which adds another element to the plot. She is also a nice off-set to the cop who is an appropriately dark and gloomy character who only half-heartedly tries to cope with his addiction to pain-killers and Gretchen.
This is a very good serial killer mystery taht is as much a psychological thriller as a mystery. it only doesn't get to a five star rating because the plot is just off. The bottom seems that that the plot was merely a vehicle to bring the terrificcally evil Beauty to the pages. highly recommended.
great book..........2007-10-17
This book lives up to the hype. I am pleasantly surprised with this book. Cain has great characters throughout this book. The storyline is excellent, dramatic and suspenseful. I felt bad for the cop and creeped out by the serial killer. This book reads fast because you don't want to stop, my curiosity kept me turning the pages. I did not want the book to end, I can't wait for the next. Give this book a chance, I promise you won't regret it.
A Gruesome and Disturbing Story about Tortured Detective and the Female Serial Killer Who is Responsible (B Grade).......2007-10-17
Heartsick one disturbing book that grabs you and won't let you go. I was hooked from the first page on and the torture throughout the book as told through flashback are very gruesome and sick for no reason just because the serial killer likes to inflict pain.
But in essence this is much like a love story. A very sick one at that!
Archie is a detective who worked for ten years on a case about a serial killer known as the Beauty Killer because of his art of carving heart figures into his victims' chests among other brutal tortures. But the surprise about this killer is that "he" is a "she" and a very beautiful and cold woman at that. Gretchen was able to capture Archie and torture him for ten days. A very bloody and vomit inducing ten days. She drugs him, cuts him up, and makes him drink draining fluid to see him die a horrible death. There is no insight on why, more of a shock plot device if anything. Gretchen encompasses very trait you can think a serial killer will have.
But she saved Archie in the end because being alive is more of a torture than being dead. Now they have a long lasting relationship where he visits her each week in jail. Archie can't stay away from her.
But Archie is back because there is another killer out there killing teenage girls and he is asked to help on the case. As we read along with his investigation, he has a reporter, Susan writing about him. We see her insights on this man and the people in her life, and mainly Gretchen.
Some are comparing this to Silence of the Lambs which was more of a clinical view about a psycho killer and his relationship with an FBI agent. Archie and Gretchen's relationship is more emotional and tangible. Since this is suppose to be the first book in a series, we should get more insight on things to come and why Gretchen seems enamored of Archie and why he feels the same.
But overall, an intriguing read with some minor faults. But beware because there are some gruesome parts that will make your stomach turn.
Katiebabs
Derivative Pop Fiction.......2007-10-15
I had high hopes for this book and bought it because it received a decent review in Publisher's Weekly. From now on I will trust my gut instinct. There are so many things wrong here. First off, the plot is too convoluted. It is not hard to follow (to the writer's credit) but there are too many extraneous threads and most are distracting and uninteresting.
Archie Sheridan is a vicodin popping cop who was once held hostage by a female serial killer, Gretchen Lowell. Archie gets pulled out of retirement to hunt a new serial killer, "the after school strangler". He is shadowed by a pink haired reporter, Susan Ward who wants to write her first big story. This is the skeleton of the story. There are sub-plots involving Archie and Gretchen Lowell, Ward and her high school teacher, Ward's involvement in the other big story she plans to write. You get the idea..
Now this is a thriller and I was not expecting to find a literary masterpiece, but there are factors that make the story, events and characters implausible. I wonder where the editors are in all this.
For instance, while Ward is being tortured and strangled, she holds it together remarkably well given that she has no experience of being in such dire straits before. People being strangled are rarely this composed. They beg, plead and bargain. They lose control of bodily functions. I bring this up because the writer has no problems from shying away from gruesome details when they involve inconsequential characters (like a murder right at the start of the book). Archie also handles his torture at the hands of Gretchen Lowell like a superhuman.
Now for some technicalities. Vicodin has hydrocodone, not codeine. Lowell performs a splenectomy on Sheridan (just to prove that she is Evil, it seems). Even if she has the know how to perform such a procedure, it cannot be performed by one person. That is why there are so many assistants in the operating room holding retractors and performing other essential tasks. Lowell is unable to procure antibiotics for Archie, although she is able to find a morphine drip!! I won't go into other medical impossibilities in the book. They are too many.
During his visit to Lowell in the prison (at 3 am!!), Archie kisses her and she gropes him. Now keep in mind this is a serial killer in a Max. Security Penitentiary. Need I say more?
The torture performed by Lowell on Archie during his captivity bears resemblance to the actions of serial killer Robert Bardella. Bardella subjected his victims to many of the same acts (injecting drain cleaner, torture, mutilation and even administration of antibiotics). So really, there is no originality.
My request is only this. If you are going to write a bad book, please at least get the research right.
Average customer rating:
- Good, But could have been better
- Just not written well
- The Action Keeps Coming
- Simply Awesome!
- Didn't like it
|
A Hunting We Will Go
Hal Friedman
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
United States
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Friedman, Hal
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ASIN: 0060182644 |
Book Description
Katyln quickly realized that she'd left her office door unlocked, a careless habit that could have just become a terrible mistake.
Bolting from her desk, she lunged for the door and twisted the insubstantial metal lock until it clicked. The mechanism jiggled when she tried it and gave little assurance it would hold if someone tried to force it. The glass door put her on display, like a parakeet in a cage with a nasty cat on the prowl. No place to run, no place to hide.
If Starman had come for her, there would be no one to hear her scream.
Customer Reviews:
Good, But could have been better.......2003-06-27
I enjoyed this book as a "beach read", but was disapointed by some of the aspects of the story. First of all, Mr. Friedman's editor should have informed him that radio and news stations in California (and all of the states west of the Mississippi River) begin with a "K" not a "W". Also, I had a hard time seeing Katlyn as a target. I'm not sure that local news anchors share the same celebrity status as rock musicians or film stars. These aside, I liked the characters, but also thought they needed a little more development at the beginning for me to care about them. Not bad for a first novel.
Just not written well.......2003-05-07
I enjoy reading a mystery that keeps the suspense high until the end. This was like watching a movie that was a compilation of several bad movies all rolled into one. You just know what will happen next. Writing was banal and just predictible.
The Action Keeps Coming.......2001-04-09
A Hunting We Will Go by Hal Friedman reminds me of a great action advenure movie. The chapters are like scenes,short and without extra words. The plot is weird in a good way. A serial killer controlled by a woman so that she can get revenge on people who she believes have harmed her. Friedman writes in short chapters so you can stop and go whenever you get a few minutes. These also help the pacing of the book. The ending is totally unexpected and makes you wonder what kind of imagination it takes to dream up these things. Definately read it.
Simply Awesome!.......1999-12-12
I love to read, and am very picky when it comes to choosing a good book. If I lose interest after the first few chapters it's all over for me. I read this book in 3 days! All 350 pages! I was on the edge of my seat with every turn of the page. Anyone who thinks this book was bad needs to check there pulse to make sure they are not dead!
Didn't like it.......1999-11-04
I managed to finish this book somehow. I thought it might get better, but it didn't. Not a well-developed plot or characters. I found this story and the characters boring.
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