Tainted Legacy of Bertha Gifford by S. Kay Murphy

Tainted Legacy of Bertha Gifford by S. Kay Murphy, 167 pages

What would you do if you found out your grandmother was a serial killer?

After one particularly cnhinged family lore drop, S. Kay Murphy found herself taking a journey could could not have foreseen to seek out answers to her grandmother's possible guilt after seventeen friends and neighbors passed under her care.

This work was crafted fastidiously and fairly. It was a winding path that Murphy approached purposefully. The end, while not as definiative as I had hoped, had a satisfying finality to it.

 

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

 Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann-377 pages

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This is a riveting page-turner that is hard to put down. It is a story of how members of the Osage Nation were systematically murdered for their head rights (oil money). Oil had been found on Osage Nation land after their Allotment and the federal government allowed them to keep the money, but many Osage were required to have a guardian who held the purse strings. The federal government didn't think the Osage could handle their own money. In many cases, the Osage were murdered by their guardians for the oil money. However, many of these cases were never investigated and/or solved. During what became known as the Osage Reign of Terror some 605 Osage died between 1907 and 1923. Hundreds of those who died were potentially murdered. William Hale and Ernest Burkhart were at the center of one of the largest plots, but it was far from the only plot. Many of these murder cases went unknown or unsolved for decades, if they were even investigated at all. Justice was never really served for these murders. William Hale was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, but was paroled after 20 years and died of old age in a nursing home. Ernest Burkhart was also paroled and eventually pardoned for his role in the murders. Very few others were ever convicted of their alleged crimes. It leaves readers sickened and infuriated (at least it did me). 

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen

 

If You Tell by Gregg Olsen - 405 pages

After more than a decade, when sisters Nikki, Sami, and Tori Knotek hear the word mom, it claws like an eagle’s talons, triggering memories that have been their secret since childhood. Until now.

For years, behind the closed doors of their farmhouse in Raymond, Washington, their sadistic mother, Shelly, subjected her girls to unimaginable abuse, degradation, torture, and psychic terrors. Through it all, Nikki, Sami, and Tori developed a defiant bond that made them far less vulnerable than Shelly imagined. Even as others were drawn into their mother’s dark and perverse web, the sisters found the strength and courage to escape an escalating nightmare that culminated in multiple murders.

Harrowing and heartrending, If You Tell is a survivor’s story of absolute evil—and the freedom and justice that Nikki, Sami, and Tori risked their lives to fight for. Sisters forever, victims no more, they found a light in the darkness that made them the resilient women they are today—loving, loved, and moving on.

This is a heartbreaking story of torture and abuse of not only three girls but the murder of three individuals at the hands of this horrible, sadistic mother, Shelly Knotek.  She is a master manipulator and pure evil.  What these victims endured is mind boggling.  It is heartwarming that the sisters came together to put a stop to her terrible ways.   

Slow Death by Jim Fielder

 

Slow Death by Jim Fielder - 320 pages

Details the disturbing true story of David Parker Ray, a sadistic Satanist, and his girlfriend Cynthia Hendy, who, along with a drifter and various family members, kidnapped, brutally tortured, raped, and murdered more than thirty women while making "snuff" films. 

Please, please don't judge me by me reading this.  Holy cow, this was probably the sickest book I've ever read.  I had heard of the Toybox Killer but wasn't sure what he was all about and oh boy, he was one extremely disturbed individual.  It was interesting to read about how the trial went; I was surprised that the first trial was a mistrial.  I'm glad that he, his girlfriend, and his friend are all in prison.

Appointment for Murder : the story of the killing dentist by Susan Crain Bakos

          Appointment with Murder : the story of the killing dentist by Susan Crain Bakos-384 pages

I was very interested in reading this book because my parents actually took me when I was 11; to have this dentist; Dr Glennon Engleman, pull two of my teeth.  He was cheap!  We were poor!  Little did we know he had a very lucrative side gig!  He was available to blow up anyone that you wanted to knock off for their insurance money. Or if he held a grudge against you..kaboom!  There were parts of the book that I had to skip over since it is also very sexually explicit.  He even performed back room abortions to achieve his goals.  One very sick man. Thankfully with the help of his third wife they finally caught him.  And did I mention this all took place here in St. louis from the 1950's - 1980's?!  I did not like the book, but since he was a part of my history I found it interesting.     

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

 The Library Book by Susan Orlean

336 pages

★★★★★

Orlean chronicles the 1986 Los Angeles Public Library fire and its aftermath to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives; delves into the evolution of libraries across the country and around the world, from their humble beginnings as a metropolitan charitable initiative to their current status as a cornerstone of national identity; brings each department of the library to vivid life through on-the-ground reporting; studies arson and attempts to burn a copy of a book herself; reflects on her own experiences in libraries; and reexamines the case of Harry Peak, the blond-haired actor long suspected of setting fire to the LAPL more than thirty years ago.

Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes

Unmasked: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes -- 288 pages

From the detective who found The Golden State Killer, a memoir of investigating America’s toughest cold cases and the rewards--and toll--of a life solving crime.

I order another bourbon, neat. This is the drink that will flip the switch. I don’t even know how I got here, to this place, to this point. Something is happening to me lately. I’m drinking too much. My sheets are soaking wet when I wake up from nightmares of decaying corpses. I order another drink and swig it, trying to forget about the latest case I can’t shake.

Crime-solving for me is more complex than the challenge of the hunt, or the process of piecing together a scientific puzzle. The thought of good people suffering drives me, for better or worse, to the point of obsession.

People always ask how I am able to detach from the horrors of my work. Part of it is an innate capacity to compartmentalize; the rest is experience and exposure, and I’ve had plenty of both. But I had always taken pride in the fact that I can keep my feelings locked up to get the job done. It’s only been recently that it feels like all that suppressed darkness is beginning to seep out.

When I look back at my long career, there is a lot I am proud of. I have caught some of the most notorious killers of the twenty-first century and brought justice and closure for their victims and families. I want to tell you about a lifetime solving these cold cases, from Laci Peterson to Jaycee Dugard to the Pittsburg homicides to, yes, my twenty-year-long hunt for the Golden State Killer.

But a deeper question eats at me as I ask myself, at what cost? I have sacrificed relationships, joy—even fatherhood—because the pursuit of evil always came first. Did I make the right choice? It’s something I grapple with every day. Yet as I stand in the spot where a young girl took her last breath, as I look into the eyes of her family, I know that, for me, there has never been a choice. “I don’t know if I can solve your case,” I whisper. “But I promise I will do my best.”

It is a promise I know I can keep.

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule

The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule -- abridged audio

Utterly unique in its astonishing intimacy, as jarringly frightening as when it first appeared, Ann Rule's The Stranger Beside Me defies our expectation that we would surely know if a monster lived among us, worked alongside of us, appeared as one of us. With a slow chill that intensifies with each heart-pounding page, Rule describes her dawning awareness that Ted Bundy, her sensitive coworker on a crisis hotline, was one of the most prolific serial killers in America. He would confess to killing at least thirty-six young women from coast to coast, and was eventually executed for three of those cases. Drawing from their correspondence that endured until shortly before Bundy's death, and striking a seamless balance between her deeply personal perspective and her role as a crime reporter on the hunt for a savage serial killer -- the brilliant and charismatic Bundy, the man she thought she knew -- Rule changed the course of true-crime literature with this unforgettable chronicle.

Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark

Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark -- 304 pages

The highly anticipated first book by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark, the voices behind the #1 hit podcast My Favorite Murder!

Sharing never-before-heard stories ranging from their struggles with depression, eating disorders, and addiction, Karen and Georgia irreverently recount their biggest mistakes and deepest fears, reflecting on the formative life events that shaped them into two of the most followed voices in the nation.

In Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered, Karen and Georgia focus on the importance of self-advocating and valuing personal safety over being ‘nice’ or ‘helpful.’ They delve into their own pasts, true crime stories, and beyond to discuss meaningful cultural and societal issues with fierce empathy and unapologetic frankness.

Furious Hours by Casey Cep

Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep --- 314 pages including a map, a Prologue, and Epilogue, Acknowledgments, Notes and Bibliography.

In the 1970s a murder trial in a small Alabama town briefly captured the nation's attention. It had so many titillating details: a series of alleged murders for profit with an obvious and black suspect, but the police were unable to find the hard evidence necessary to convict; a charismatic defense attorney who continued to defend the suspected killer and helped him collect on multiple life insurance policies the suspect held on the victims; and a neighbor driven by grief and fury to exact his own vigilante justice, now on trial for his life.

Sitting in the courtroom taking in the trial, and pursuing the neighbors and acquaintances of the victims and the accused, was the famous writer Harper Lee, who intended to break through the writers block that had plagued her since the publication of her first novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, and write a nonfiction account of this Southern true crime tale.

But after years of effort, Harper Lee either failed or gave up on the book, She gave away all her notes, interviews and transcripts. Cep re-discovered the story and took up the challenge. She gained access to Lee's research and built upon it with research of her own. Facing up to the problem that seemed to have stymied Lee, how to structure her story, Cep divides Furious Hours into three parts, the story of the Reverend Willie Maxwell, the suspected serial murderer; the story of the lawyer, Tom Radney, who defended Maxwell, then defended the man who killed Maxwell; and finally the story of Nelle Harper Lee, the famous writer who tried and tried but never published another book.

Furious Hours is a gripping, empathetic appraisal not just of Harper Lee, but of  the painful evolution of the South from the 1950s through the 1980s — and the still-unsolved crimes of a serial killer never brought to justice at a time when justice was anything but blind.

Click HERE to read the review from the New York Times.

Click HERE to read the review from National Public Radio.

Click HERE to read a review and interview with author Casey Cep from Southern Living.

The Man From The Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James

The Man From The Train: Discovering America's Most Elusive Serial Killer by Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James - 466 pages

Bill James, the famed baseball statistician, started researching the horrific murder cases in the early 1900s where entire families living near railroad tracks were being axe murdered across the country at an alarming rate.  He hired his daughter Rachel to help him with the research and together they discovered the true depth of depravities committed by "The Man from the Train" over a decade and a half.  Using modern methods and in depth investigative research the authors even believe they identified the killer a hundred years after the fact.  The case they lay out is very compelling and I for one believe they have found the culprit. 

Side note - it's kind of startling to the modern reader how common it was for axes to just be laying around in the early 1900s for wandering killers to find and use.   

The Killer Across the Table by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

The Killer Across the Table: unlocking the secrets of serial killers and predators with the FBI's original Mindhunter by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker - 340 pages

I've been fascinated by serial killers and their motivations since I was young.   What makes someone step so far out of civilized society and commit such unspeakable crimes?  John Douglas was a pioneer in the FBI's criminal profiling unit and basically helped write the book on profiling serial killers.  In this book he examines four of the most disturbing killers he's faced and delves into how each case furthered his understanding of criminal behavior.  True crime afficiandos will find an insightful depth of knowledge here on both famous and not so famous killers, 

Murder, Interrupted (James Patterson's Murder Is Forever by James Patterson

Murder, Interrupted (James Patterson's Murder Is Forever) by James Patterson, 304 pages

Murder Interrupted contains two true crime thrillers.  This is a new series of books Mr. Patterson is writing.  The two stories were fascinating true crime stories.  These books are just as thrilling as his fiction books if not more so.  I especially liked the second one in this book about a mother who is not the perfect person she seems.

Conan Doyle for the Defense by Margalet Fox

Conan Doyle for the Defense: The True Story of a Sensational British Murder, a Quest for Justice, and the World's Most Famous Detective Writer by Margalit Fox --- 319 pages, including Author's Note, Introduction, Acknowledgments, Cast of Characters, Glossary, References, Notes and Index.

The most famous author of detective stories in the world, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a celebrity who did not hesitate to lend his fame in support of social and political causes. Probably the most famous of these causes was Oscar Slater, a Jewish immigrant from Germany who was pursued, tried, convicted and nearly hanged for the murder of an elderly Glasgow woman in 1908. Malfeasance on the part of the police and the courts combined with racial and religious bigotry and resulted in an innocent man serving twenty years at hard labor for a crime he did not and could not have committed.

In this book by turns fascinating and dismaying, Fox tells the story of how Conan Doyle came to take an interest in the case, and how he and other worked for years to clear Slater's name and secure his release.

Click HERE to read the review in Publishers Weekly.

Click HERE to read the review from the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Click HERE to read the review from the New Republic.

Click HERE to read the review from the Economist.

Click HERE to read the review from The Scotsman.

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas-327 pages

I wanted to read this because I met Kara Thomas at the Veronica Roth Own Your Fate tour event in St. Charles. I had honestly never heard of her before the event, but I was curious to read her books after attending the event. The Darkest Corners is a true crime mystery novel that starts slow, but grabs one's attention as one gets further into the story. The ending is satisfying considering all that leads up to it. It does read a little like a Lifetime movie, only it is much better. The book held my attention throughout, which is a sign of a well-written book. Overall, I liked The Darkest Corners and it is well-written.

Home Sweet Murder (James Patterson Murder Is Forever) by James Patterson

Home Sweet Murder (Murder Is Forever) by James Patterson, 297 pages

In his latest books, James Patterson is writing true crime based on the facts of true crime stories.  Home Sweet Murder follows the almost murder of Leo and Sue Fisher in their home.  Murder on the Run was a little more interesting about a true crime involving a serial killer who killed years apart.  Based on true facts, these are fascinating and quick reads.

Murder Beyond the Grave (James Patterson's Murder is Forever) by James Patterson

Murder Beyond the Grave (James Patterson's Murder is Forever) by James Patterson, 295 pages

This book contains two true crime thrillers as seen on Investigation Discovery's.  I read this book in one day.  I found this book captivating as far as true crime goes.  The first story is Murder Beyond the Grave, the true kidnapping and murder of Stephen Small.  The second story is Murder in Paradise, the true story of Jim and Bonnie Hood at Camp Nelson. 

All American Murder: The Rise and Fall of Aaron Hernandez by James Patterson & Alec Abramovich

All American Murder: The Rise and Fall of Aaron Hernandez by James Patterson & Alec Abramovich, 388 pages

I don't think James Patterson has written many nonfiction books, but this is one of his latest true crime thrillers.  I must say I found this book very haunting and made me almost sick to my stomach to read.  Because it was a true story, it was very hard to take it all in that this really happened.  I had heard the Aaron Hernandez story before and remembered some of the vague details.  But, this book contained so many details, it is hard to believe what Aaron Hernandez was capable of and what crimes he committed and what he got away with.  I knew he had murdered Odin Lloyd, his girlfriend's sister's boyfriend in Boston, but I had not known of the other two murders he committed.  Aaron Hernandez hung himself in his jail cell, which has made everyone wonder if all his years of playing football had really done all that damage to his brain.  This book contains color pictures and even a cross section of his brain.  A fascinating read indeed!!

The Book of Matt by Stephen Jimenez

The Book of Matt by Stephen Jimenez - 353 pages


Late on the night of October 6, 1998, twenty-one-year-old Matthew Shepard left a bar in Laramie, Wyoming with two alleged “strangers,” Aaron McKin­ney and Russell Henderson. Eighteen hours later, Matthew was found tied to a log fence on the outskirts of town, unconscious and barely alive. He had been pistol-whipped so severely that the mountain biker who discovered his battered frame mistook him for a Halloween scarecrow. Overnight, a politically expedient myth took the place of important facts. By the time Matthew died a few days later, his name was synonymous with anti-gay hate. 

Stephen Jimenez went to Laramie to research the story of Matthew Shepard’s murder in 2000, after the two men convicted of killing him had gone to prison, and after the national media had moved on. His aim was to write a screenplay on what he, and the rest of the nation, believed to be an open-and-shut case of bigoted violence. As a gay man, he felt an added moral imperative to tell Matthew’s story. But what Jimenez eventually found in Wyoming was a tangled web of secrets. His exhaustive investigation also plunged him deep into the deadly underworld of drug trafficking. Over the course of a thirteen-year investigation, Jimenez traveled to twenty states and Washington DC, and interviewed more than a hundred named sources. 

The Search for Anne Perry by Joanne Drayton

The Search for Anne Perry: The Hidden Life of a Bestselling Crime Writer by Joanne Drayton --- 352 pages, including End Notes, Bibliography and Index.

In 1994 film director Peter Jackson established an international reputation with his breakthrough film, Heavenly Creatures, a dramatic story based on a notorious real life murder in his native New Zealand in the 1950s,

The two teenage girls convicted of murdering one's mother, served five years in prison before being released, given new identities, and allowed to leave New Zealand. Both girls disappeared into new lives.

Fast forward forty years, to the day when best selling Victorian crime writer Anne Perry's agent receives a call from a New Zealand reporter announcing that she has identified Perry as one of the two adolescent murderers. This is the scene that opens Drayton's literary biography.

Drayton traces Perry's painful personal odyssey of self-redemption by juxtaposing her unhappy childhood and feelings of abandonment by and alienation from her parents with her solitary struggle to establish a new identity and find redemption through her writing. She is clearly sympathetic to Perry's situation. At the same time, although she acknowledges that Perry and her closest associates agreed to extensive interviews and provided access to personal materials, Drayton insists that this is not an "authorized" biography. Perry did not review or approve the book before publication; in fact, Drayton says to her knowledge Perry has never and most likely will never read the book.

As a fan of Perry's two best known mystery series, the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt series and the William Monk series, I found this book interesting, although not as vivid in recreating events and people as an earlier work, Anne Perry and the Crime of the Century, by New Zealand author and attorney Peter Graham. Graham also did a better job of presenting the story of the other girl convicted, Pauline Parker, the daughter of the murder victim. The biggest weakness in Drayton's book, I think, is that she gives short shrift to Pauline and her unhappy family.

Click HERE to read a New Zealand review of the book.

Click HERE to read a Canadian review, and HERE to read an American review.