Where is your nonfiction section please.
Are you joining up with Molly @ Silver Button Books for Frighteningly Good Reads? There's still one week until Halloween! I managed to surprise myself by reading not only the book I'd specifically set aside for Molly's very fun challenge, but another that had been on my shelves for awhile and is, arguably, the spookier... Continue Reading →
The Case of the Vanishing Blonde, by Mark Bowden (Amazon) Unspeakable Acts, edited by Sarah Weinman (Amazon) Two new books of long-form true crime nonfiction are out this month, and they're both pretty good. Let's get into it. First up is gifted narrative nonfiction author Mark Bowden's The Case of the Vanishing Blonde. My introduction... Continue Reading →
The Cold Vanish, by Jon Billman (Amazon) Outside journalist Jon Billman investigates disappearances that have occurred in national parks and remote areas of North American wilderness. These are what he calls "proverbial vanish-without-a-trace incidents, which happen a lot more (and a lot closer to your backyard) than almost anyone thinks.” The plethora of curious cases... Continue Reading →
Book review: Tamam Shud, by Kerry Greenwood (Amazon / Book Depository) In December 1948, my dad told me, the body of a man was found at the bottom of the steps on Somerton Beach. He was clean, manicured, well-nourished and well-dressed and had no visible wounds. Someone had gone to the trouble of removing all... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Forest City Killer, by Vanessa Brown (Amazon / Book Depository) Author, bookstore owner, and local historian of London, Ontario Vanessa Brown spent five years researching a series of unsolved, decades-old homicides in her quiet hometown. *Keith Morrison voice* Well, mostly quiet, that is: London had the unofficial and unenviable title of the "serial killer... Continue Reading →
Book review: Chase Darkness with Me, by Billy Jensen (Amazon / Book Depository) Crime writer and citizen digital detective Billy Jensen is known for his collaborative efforts to finish Michelle McNamara's I'll Be Gone in the Dark posthumously, but he has an impressive resume of his own in true crime journalism. In this account of... Continue Reading →
Book Review: American Predator, by Maureen Callahan (Amazon / Book Depository) In March 2012, Texas Highway Patrol needed a reason to stop a man on their highways. He'd been using the ATM card of missing 18-year-old Samantha Koenig, who'd been abducted at gunpoint from the coffee stand where she worked in Anchorage, Alaska. When he... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Cases That Haunt Us, by John Douglas & Mark Olshaker (Amazon / Book Depository) Each of the cases we’ll be examining in this book has remained extremely controversial. And each of these cases contains some universal truth at its base to which we can all relate. Taken together, they present a panorama... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Trial of Lizzie Borden, by Cara Robertson (Amazon / Book Depository) Lizzie Borden's is a story that's persistently intrigued us for over a century. This latest nonfiction treatment, coming on the heels of multiple recent novels, a TV movie and series, a work of YA nonfiction, and a feature film shows that's... Continue Reading →
Book review: Foreign Faction, by A. James Kolar (Amazon| Book Depository| Publisher's site to support the author directly) Burke Ramsey recently settled his $750 million defamation lawsuit against CBS and producers of the 2016 docuseries The Case of: JonBenet Ramsey, wherein featured experts and investigators announced their conclusion that he allegedly was his sister's murderer. The series explores and... Continue Reading →
Book review: The Phillip Island Murder, by Vikki Petraitis and Paul Daley (Amazon / Book Depository / ebook available directly from Clan Destine Press) Listening through back episodes of the eerie and excellent Australian true crime podcast Casefile, I came across one that featured such a perplexing story: that of the 1986 murder of 23-year-old Beth... Continue Reading →
Book review: They All Love Jack, by Bruce Robinson (Amazon / Book Depository) ... there was nothing illaudable about being a Victorian Mason, any more than it was improper to enjoy membership of a tricycle club. But ... this narrative is about the bad guys, and about one in particular who went rotten, and what... Continue Reading →
What's Nonfiction? 