Some minis today: A town with no WiFi, growing up in a sex cult, and the unsolved murder of a Jazz Age dancer. They have nothing in common besides their blue-green cover schemes. I didn't plan it that way, but I like it! The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence... Continue Reading →
Two Crimey New Releases: Death on Ocean Boulevard and Don’t Call it a Cult
Death On Ocean Boulevard: Inside the Coronado Mansion Case, by Caitlin Rother. Published April 27 by Citadel The story of what happened to Rebecca Zahau and her boyfriend Jonah Shacknai's son, Max, is both a mesmerizingly compelling puzzle and deeply sad. No matter how you puzzle over its innumerable oddities and curious details, and the... Continue Reading →
The Man Who’s Forensic Science’s Best Kept Secret
Book review: American Sherlock, by Kate Winkler Dawson (Amazon / Book Depository) Innocent men were being hanged while criminals escaped justice. The complicated crimes of the 1920s demanded a special type of sleuth -- an expert with the instincts of a detective in the field, the analytical skills of a forensic scientist in the lab,... Continue Reading →
Paula Fox’s Vignettes of Childhood
Book review: Borrowed Finery, by Paula Fox (Amazon / Book Depository) For years I assumed responsibility for all that happened in my life, even for events over which I had not the slightest control. It was not out of generosity of mind or spirit that I did so. It was a hopeless wish that I... Continue Reading →
An Insider Perspective on Scientology
Book review: Beyond Belief, by Jenna Miscavige Hill (Amazon / Book Depository) As Scientologists, we believed that when our current body died, the spirit inside it would begin a new life in a new body. Our founder, L. Ron Hubbard, said that, as spirits, we had lived millions of years already, and we would continue... Continue Reading →
The Long Story of an LAPD Cold Case
Book review: The Lazarus Files, by Matthew McGough (Amazon / Book Depository) In 2009, a decades-old cold case, the 1986 murder of Sherri Rasmussen, a young newlywed nurse in Van Nuys, heated up when a suspect was finally arrested. As in many recent cases, new testing of old DNA evidence - here, an allegedly misplaced... Continue Reading →
Long-Form Journalism from the Storyteller of “Dirty John”
Book review: Dirty John and Other True Stories of Outlaws and Outsiders, by Christopher Goffard (Amazon / Book Depository) Christopher Goffard, the journalist behind last year's wildly popular Dirty John podcast, opens this frequently California-centric collection of his long-form investigative reporting with an introduction explaining the beginnings of his journalism career. It has to be... Continue Reading →
The Historic Los Angeles Library Fire Sparks a Bigger Story: What Libraries Are to Us
Book review: The Library Book, by Susan Orlean All the things that are wrong in the world seem conquered by a library's simple unspoken promise: Here is my story, please listen; here I am, please tell me your story. Journalist and author Susan Orlean began her latest book by investigating the devastating 1986 fire at Central... Continue Reading →
Writing Her Grandparents’ Lives and a Memoir of Childhood
Book review: On Sunset, by Kathryn Harrison (Amazon Book Depository) Never mind that we live in Los Angeles and that I was born in 1961; my childhood belongs to my mother's parents, who, in the way of old people, have returned themselves to their pasts, taking me along. Author Kathryn Harrison writes a memoir of... Continue Reading →
The Fall of a Too-Good-to-Be-True Medical Startup
Book review: Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou Amazon Her emergence tapped into the public’s hunger to see a female entrepreneur break through in a technology world dominated by men. Women like Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg had achieved a measure of renown in Silicon Valley, but they hadn’t created their own companies from... Continue Reading →
A 1937 Crime and Trial Setting Historical Precedence
Book review: Little Shoes, by Pamela Everett (Amazon / Book Depository) I noticed this book was coming out after reading Piu Eatwell's take on Elizabeth Short's infamous murder, Black Dahlia, Red Rose. In that book, Eatwell repeatedly references the profiling work of Dr. Paul De River, a psychiatrist who, before psychologically profiling and interviewing Dahlia suspect Leslie... Continue Reading →
Moving, Hopeful Writing on Growing Up Under Control and Getting Away
Book review: Apocalypse Child, by Flor Edwards Amazon I have no memory of my ancestry or record of my lineage; there is only Father David...When I picture my family tree, I see Mom...Dad...and my siblings - too many to count on two hands. When I envision my ancestors I see faraway Nordic countries where fjords... Continue Reading →