Murder City: The Bloody History of Chicago in the Twenties

Book Description

Michael Lesy's portrait of a gruesome era could be fiction—but it's not.

"Things began as they usually did: Someone shot someone else." So begins a chapter of Michael Lesy's disturbingly satisfying account of Chicago in the 1920s, the epicenter of murder in America. A city where daily newspapers fell over each other to cover the latest mayhem. A city where professionals and amateurs alike snuffed one another out, and often for the most banal of reasons, such as wanting a Packard twin-six. Men killing men, men killing women, women killing men—crimes of loot and love. Just as Lesy's first book, Wisconsin Death Trip, subverted the accepted notion of the Gay Nineties, so Murder City gives us the dark side of the Jazz Age. Lesy's sharp, fearless storytelling makes a compelling case that this collection of criminals may be the progenitors of our modern age. 60 illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Murder City - Good Book.......2007-05-08

If you have any interest in the history of Chicago, the twenties, or just true crime, this is a really interesting book. The author chose several stories of Chicago murders that took place in the early twentieth century - including the tale of the women who inspired the musical "Chicago". There is a good assortment of stories - not just "mob murders' fow which Chicago in the twenties is known.

Lament for a former Chicago Newspaper.......2007-03-30

The real stars of this book are the photographs from the defunct "Chicago Daily News." This newspaper was a casualty of declining circulation in the Seventies. It was arguably one of the finer journals in the city, but it was a victim of the television evening news broadcasts that helped eliminate reader interest in newspapers published in the afternoon. "The Chicago Today," the rechristened "Chicago American," succumbed at the same approximate time. "The Daily News" was unique in that it did not print a separate Sunday issue. Saturday's edition was filled with all of the weekend supplements.

These photographs were culled from an exhibit at the Chicago Historical Society and available online from the Library of Congress. One great challenge that Michael Lesy faced was choosing from the thousands of stills in the museum collection and deciding which would be included in the book. Some of the glass plates are damaged while others are as clear as if the photos were developed yesterday.

I do wish that Lesy would have elected to quote from "The Daily News" more often in the text. References to "The Chicago Tribune" predominate. One would think that having relied upon the shutterbugs at "The Daily News" the author would have checked out the articles that accompanied the pictures.

There are also a number of factual errors and omissions in the text. For example, absolutely no mention is made of the disputed allegations that Ben Hecht discovered several incriminating letters of a homoerotic nature that were written by Carl Wanderer and which helped expose his role in plotting his pregnant wife's murder. According to this controversial account, Wanderer confessed his crime after being confronted with the letters. Lesy is not a Chicago native and his lack of familiarity with local history sometimes shows: He repeatedly refers to Municipal Court Judge Edgar Jonas as "Jones;" Lesy marvels that various juries were composed entirely of men, as if this occurred as a result of the selection process, but archaic Illinois jury laws were not revised to permit females to serve as jurors until the late Thirties. Nonetheless, the book is still interesting to read.

How unfortunate it is that Chicagoans do not have the wealth of newspaper choices that their parents and grandparents enjoyed. The monolithic media monopoly does not serve Illinoisians well, but it is an all too familiar complaint that has driven many to the Internet.

Dad's stories were true!.......2007-03-27

I am really enjoying reading "Murder City"...some of the stories are familiar, as I heard of them from my dad and various aunts & uncles who grew up in Chicago in the 1920s. And some are new to me, but no less interesting, especially the one about the Northwestern University student who died during a hazing incident. If anything, reading this book has led me to believe that human beings never really change, that anger, lust, jealousy and more banal things, such as drunkenness, will lead inevitably to "crimes of passion."

Good If Flawed.......2007-03-18

This is an intresting look at the troubled history of Chicago in the 1920s. Lesy steers clear of "five star" murders like Leopold & Lobe and gives us stories of ordinary people who committed murder. He has a knack for giving timelines on the cases that intersected each other, enabling his reader to feel, as the Chicago public felt, the terrible innundation of killings in the city in the 20s, as well as the undeniable fascination about seeing who would get away with murder. He provides insight into the city's way of working (which hasn't changed that much), as well as some truly interesting facts, such as how the musical Chicago evolved from the cases of two women who murdered their lovers and walked.

Lesy's writing does have flaws. Sometimes he seems to contradict himself. In one case out of Wisconsin he writes that the murder victim burned all the letters of her killer; he then writes that the coroner conducting her autopsy found a letter from the killer stuck in her clothes. Upon review I realized that Lesy should have said that the girl burned all the letters except the one she was "wearing" when he killed her. Lesy's writing sometimes suffers from a lack of clarity that requires the reader to reread passages to get the intended meaning.

Far more serious, though, is the fact that Lesy gets some criminal history wrong. In a chapter that touches on a murder committed by Frank and Peter Gusenberg, he states that the brothers were responsible for the death of Machine Gun Jack McGurn "in a phone booth". Which would be pretty difficult to do since (A) McGurn died on Valentine's Day 1936 in a bowling alley, and (B)McGurn was the chief hitman on the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in which Frank and Pete Gusenberg died. This lapse is due to plain carelessness and should never have made it into the published manuscript. There are other errors but this is the most glaring.

That being said, Lesy writes well and uses irony and a wry sense of humor that works in a book about Chicago murders, especially when it discusses the city's gangsters and politcians. Flaws and all, I recommend Murder City for any student of Chicago history.

Welcome to reality.......2007-03-15

With reality TV being such a phenomenon these days, I was expecting a book like "Murder City" to come along. A book that takes literary snapshots of moments in the bloodier side of Chicago history. I'm not talking about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the Dean O'Banion murder, or the killing of Assistant State's Attorney McSwiggin. I'm referring to the average Joes and Janes who lived, killed each other, and died without the same fanfare and media frenzy that accompanied the gangster assassinations of the same period. There are some underworld murders examined here, such as the Hymie Weiss hit, but they don't dominate the book. Each chapter is accompanied by photos of victims, crime scenes, or key players in the drama.

Themes that concern us today are found in these pages: abused women killing their attackers, fraternity hazing gone too far, men murdering the women they love as the ultimate act of control. As I read, I kept thinking, "The clothes change, but basic human nature does not."

The Vietnam War on Trial: The My Lai Massacre and Court-Martial of Lieutenant Calley (Landmark Law Cases and American Society)

Average customer rating:

Good History of an American War Crime
Extraordinary

The Vietnam War on Trial: The My Lai Massacre and Court-Martial of Lieutenant Calley (Landmark Law Cases and American Society)
Michal R. Belknap
Manufacturer: University Press of Kansas
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books

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The Conquest Of Texas: Ethnic Cleansing In The Promised Land, 1820-1875
Darfur: The Ambiguous Genocide, Revised and Updated Edition
Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe
Four Hours in My Lai
Genocide in Rwanda: A Collective Memory

ASIN: 0700612122

Book Description

The military trial of William Calley for his role in the slaughter of five hundred or more Vietnamese civilians at My Lai shocked a nation already sharply divided over a controversial war. In this superb retelling of the My Lai story through the prism of the law, Michal Belknap provides new perspectives and keen insights into core issues about the war that still divide Americans today.

One of the most highly publicized trials of its day, the Calley case emerged at a time when protests against the war were growing larger, louder, and more intense. Well aware of this, the Nixon administration sought to downplay the My Lai incident, which military officers in Vietnam had tried to cover up in order to protect their own careers and reputations. It might never have come to light had it not been for the efforts of Vietnam veteran Ron Ridenhour and journalist Seymour Hersh. Their investigations revealed the full extent of the My Lai tragedy, further inflamed the antiwar movement, and brought to trial Lieutenant William Calley.

Unfolding the Calley case step by step, Belknap shows how our system of military justice actually works. His dramatic reenactment takes readers through every stage of the trial, from pre-trial investigations to actual courtroom exchanges among prosecutors, defenders, witnesses, and judges. In the process, he reveals how a court-martial conducted within the public eye transformed a purely legal proceeding into a political debate about the conduct of the war. Calley's trial clearly demonstrated both how deeply the Vietnam War had divided our nation and how difficult it was for any court to deliver justice under such intense media coverage.

Scrupulously fair to all parties involved, Belknap portrays Calley as both criminal and victim—guilty of the crimes of which he stood accused, but also an unintended scapegoat of the American military machine. His court-martial, for hawks and doves alike, epitomized all that was wrong with our involvement in Vietnam.

By reopening the Calley case, Belknap helps a new generation of readers better understand why the Vietnam War was so controversial and damaging to national unity. His book, however, also provides insights that apply well beyond events of a particular war, suggesting that the grim lessons of My Lai will continue to shadow the conduct of America's present and future wars.

This book is part of the Landmark Law Cases and American Society series.

Customer Reviews:

Good History of an American War Crime.......2003-10-12

This is a fascinating, balanced history of the My Lai massacre and the prosecution of William Calley. Although the events in Vietnam and in the courtroom are at the center of the book, the narrative ranges from the origins of the Vietnam war and the administration of the draft, to the machinations of the Nixon White House. The writing is clear and the judgments sound. My only serious complaint is that author Belknap keeps the narrative too focused on Calley's personal history, his actions on the day of the massacre, and his subsequent court-martial -- whereas it is clear from the text that many, perhaps most, of the soldiers in Charlie company went berserk alongside Calley and joined in the slaughter of Vietnamese civilians. It would be interesting to know more about the other "grunts" and junior officers who shared responsibility with Calley. Unfortunately, they have a walk-on role in the book, apparently because most of Belknap's research was based on legal materials such as the official record of Calley's trial.

Extraordinary.......2003-07-08

Extraordinary book! Mr. Belknap really cuts to the core of the issues surrounding the My Lai incident and the subsequent Courts Martials (Calley being the only person actually found guilty). His review of the political issues of the era as well as the personal sacrifice made by the prosecution, really help the reader understand what happened after Lt. Calley returned to the United States. Anyone interested in military justice, or who may remeber the incident and not understand fully what was involved, should pick up a copy.

In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I

Average customer rating:

Oh my god
When the politicking that goes on when a pope is elected turns to murder
Expository
Death of a Great Man
a comparison of similar books

In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I
David Yallop
Manufacturer: Bantam Dell Pub Group (Trd)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

20th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

Criminology | Crime & Criminals | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0553050737

Book Description

AN INVESTIGATION INTO MURDER

In God's Name has been at the top of the bestseller lists all over the world. It contains some of the most explosive and dramatic revelations ever published about the internal affairs of the Vatican.

During the late evening of September 28th or the early morning of September 29th, 1978, Pope John Paul I, Albino Luciani, known as 'the smiling Pope' died only thirty-three days after his election.

David Yallop began his investigation into this death at the request of certain individuals resident in Vatican City who were disturbed by a cover-up of the true circumstances surrounding the discovery of the Pope's body. It is his conviction that murder was the fate of Albino Luciani and he presents his evidence in this enthralling book.

Over three years continual and exhaustive research, David Yallop uncovered a chain of corruption that linked leading figures in financial, criminal and clerical circles around the world in a conspiracy of awesome proportions. To this day, several years after its first publication (1984), the central questions raised in In God's Name remain unanswered and the frightening accusations still undisputed.

Customer Reviews:

Oh my god.......2007-08-24

Ever wonder who would benefit from the demise of the only progressive pope in recent memory? What a sinister world. I don't believe in evil, but if I did, it would be these people responsible for killing John Paul I a month after he became pope.

When the politicking that goes on when a pope is elected turns to murder.......2007-01-01

From 1978 to 1983, the Vatican's strategy was to suppress the memory of the liberal 33 day pope and the true circumstances of his mysterious death. Then in 1984, David Yallop's `In God's Name' did a riveting job in proving this pope was murdered. In 1985, the Vatican recruited clergy in several countries to write brief biographical sketches that painted him out to be a man who ignored the issues of his day and spent his life on his knees. Nothing could be further from the truth, as for twenty years as a bishop he had been a rampaging locomotive running about the Vatican, the courts and Parliament of Italy struggling for human rights for the oppressed; the reason he had risen to the papacy.

There have been several books written about this pope's unwitnessed death, of which I would give only two of them more than one star. Most of the others have been commissioned by the Vatican to spread the misconception that this man died of a heart attack. Only two of them tell the truth. This book and 'Murder in the Vatican' by Lucien Gregoire.

Whereas, no one is going to walk away from either of these books without the firm conviction this man was murdered. There is a difference. Yallop claims he was murdered because of his involvement in the Vatican Bank. Gregoire presents compelling proof that two Opus Dei bishops, who later rose to high rank, masterminded the murders of John Paul and his six closest friends in the fall of 1978. He answers the question, Did his struggle for planned parenthood, the remarried, women, [...] and others cost him his life? Yet, the credit goes to Yallop, for had he not written his book, Gregoire would have never written his book.

Expository.......2006-06-29

This is one of the most expository and investigative literature I have read. I appreciate the importance of the information supplied in the text.

Many would say it ridiculed the palpacy and its church. I would say, 'it delved into the evils that exist in the heart of the church.'

I can wait to read about any rival book that will touch the deeply on the goodness that exist in the mind of the church.

Death of a Great Man.......2006-05-06

Albino Luciani was elected Pope and chose to be Pope John Paul the First. Not only becoming the first double name in the history, but also appended the first to it. He was known as the "Smiling Pope" and though his reign was the second shortest in history, only 33 days, he was loved the world over. This wonderful Pastor would have taken the Church back to its Gospel roots where it belongs. He was truly a Man of God. And you could see from his 33 days as Pope that he would have been the greatest Pope ever in the eyes the world.

This book builds a very good case showing that Pope John Paul I was murdered, as many has always thought. It also exposes the corruption both within the Vatican and in the Diocese of Chicago during the years covered. All his research show ties between the Vatican, the Mafia and the Freemasons tied to financial corruption. Documented proof is uncovered and other governments have tired to act on them, but they are blocked by the Curia according to the book.

The author actually names those involved in the illegal and immoral acts and their motives and opportunity to have Pope John Paul I killed. It is no coincidence that the Pope was killed the evening before he was going to clean house. Though I was surprised by how obvious the cover-up and lies were. I highly recommend this book.

a comparison of similar books.......2005-08-06

"In God's Name" gets the prize as the most professionally written book about the mysterious death of John Paul I. Its limitation is that it restricts its investigation to the Great Vatican Bank Scandal - yet, there is much more than just that. Although a work of fiction, Yallop does such a riveting job of telling his tale that one is left with the convinction that everything he has to say actually happened - the mark of a great writer. If one wants the facts about the Great Vatican Bank Scandal turn to "Pontiff' If one wants the most comprehensive published record of all of the known facts surrounding the mysterious death of this good man turn to "Murder in the Vatican" by Lucien Gregoire. The latter is also the only existing biography of this Pope - of his struggles as an impoverished child - as a revolutionary priest as an outspoken bishop - and as a compassionate cardinal. It is written by a man who spent much time with this Pope. If one wants the Vatican's opinion of what happened, John Cornwell's "A Thief in the Night" is the obvious choice. Commissioned by the Vatican it is written by a world-reknown journalist. Regardless, don't pass up "In God's Name."

Average customer rating:

A different kind of detective story
"why do I paint in red?"
Disturbingly good !
Excellent, very atmospheric
Wow! They published THIS?

Straight into Darkness
Faye Kellerman
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: B000FL893Y

Book Description

Acclaimed linguist Dr. Robert Blair offers a one-of-a-kind, proven effective systematic learning process that takes advantage of recent innovations to teach Italian to English-speaking listeners and English to Spanish-speaking listeners faster than ever before. Most language-learning methods have not changed much in the past 50 years, offering the same old 'listen-and-repeat' methods dressed up to look new. Dr. Blair's breakthrough method uses the best language teaching strategies from around the world, mixing up a variety of approaches and activities to accelerate learning exponentially-for all types of learners. In these entertaining presentation, listeners are guided to imagine themselves as undercover spies in a secret location who must learn enough Italian and English to pass themselves off as a native speaker.

Customer Reviews:

A different kind of detective story.......2007-09-03

Reading a story about a serial killer set in Munich in 1929, you know there is not much room for a happy ending. The people the killer doesn't kill are going to suffer through a terrible war; if they're Jews, they're going to get gassed.

This is a personal story for Faye Kellerman. She is an Orthodox Jew whose father served in the Second World War and was part of the forces that liberated the concentration camps. She never got his whole story while he was alive, and this fills her with regret. But Straight into Darkness isn't his story, it's an exploration of Munich at the tipping point into Nazism. She did a ton of research for this book, traveling to Munich and meeting with Germans who survived that time. The result is a city that comes to life in sights, sounds, and even smells.

City Homicide Inspector Axel Berg is no hero. He's a persistent cop who doggedly pursues his case. His superior is a power-hungry sadist who values Berg's skills but mistrusts his independence. Meanwhile Berg pilfers evidence and slaps around his teenaged Jewish mistress. Munich in 1929 is a fearful city. It is barely under the rule of law, and the rival political factions are practically private armies, marching around in signature uniforms. The Nazis brownshirts are the most egregious, but there are others who are ready to brawl with them and only the unarmed police are there to prevent mob violence. Times are bad for everyone, with the country emerging from hyperinflation and basic necessities like coal and coffee too expensive for working people to take for granted. If the Jews are responsible for every problem, that takes the responsibility from the government, the police, individuals, and society.

This is an excellent book, with the extra spark provided by Kellerman's passion. Mob-think never goes away, and if we can understand past events with the perspective provided by distance, we are closer to understanding our own time.

"why do I paint in red?".......2007-06-04

This novel begins with the words of an old artist in New York in the year 2005: "red is the color of shame...the shame of my generation, of a people who accepted genocide as the most expedient way to restore the Fatherland to purity and greatness...[we] must carry the burden of shame and guilt for [our] elders' unspeakable acts."

Straight Into Darkness is set in Munich in 1929 and conveys with accuracy the cultural and political atmosphere of Munich in the years when Hitler's threat was not yet taken seriously. Kellerman decided to write this book after a book promotion tour to Germany in 2001, which led to her discovery of her father Oscar Marder's experiences as a Jewish GI stationed in Germany during World War II. In her preface, she mentions many of the historians of Bavaria and Munich which she consulted in person - the historical facts and descriptions are well integrated into her story for the most part. Her picture of the neighborhoods, the class structure, the architecture and decorating styles of the period, as well as of the squalor of the working classes, is visually and olfactorially involving, making vivid a vanished time.

The police face many moral dilemmas in the course of solving the murder cases, as well as in dealing with the personalities, political beliefs, and demands of their superiors and fellow policemen. The historical setting adds a fascinating layer to these routine conflicts. "So easily I could have become one of them," says the old artist at the end - and as I read, I had to agree. No one's hands are clean in this book, not even Axel Berg's, and yet his choices must be respected. I found Kellerman's treatment of Germans and Jews to be quite evenhanded; she goes into detail to convey the historical roots (the first war's treaties, the Weimar republic, and the fall of the Wittelsbacher dynasty in Bavaria) that led ordinary Munich citizens to be vulnerable to Hitler's rhetoric. I had read the facts - but this book shows us people enraged and humiliated by these events.

Berg dialogues with his teenage son Joachim:
Joachim: "It disturbs me that the Nazis mock anyone who disagrees with them. Sometimes I speak up...but sometimes I don't."
Berg: "Part of being clever, Joachim, is knowing when to hold one's tongue."
Joachim: "But being clever isn't the same as doing the right thing."

Joachim, near the book's end: "I know you don't like Herr Hitler, but he knows the problems that face us. And he's working hard to bring the German race back to glory ----"

Yes, there is a "love story" - Axel loves his wife but has a Jewish mistress, Margot. I cannot remember ever reading such an honest rationale for infidelity as this one:
"Britta was agreeable in bed, warm and enthusiastic - a far better lover than Margot. He strayed not because he lacked desire for his wife. He strayed because of the bitterness of her harsh speech...because his wife's flexibility was morally superior to his rigid stubbornness. He strayed because sex with Margot held no demands."

All that good stuff aside, the search for the murderer involves a tangled web of family relationships that you'd better be awake enough to follow. If you like less complex solutions, you won't be happy with the resolution of the mystery itself. It's not predictable, though! And the ending is not "happy" in the usual sense. The assortment of policemen are sometimes difficult to keep track of, but one stands out - Kommissar Martin Volker - a complex and unforgettable character. At the end, you will discover another reason why the painter paints in red....

Disturbingly good !.......2007-03-30

I read this book without being prejudiced about Faye and her previous works, this book in my opinion an exceptional fictional experience of the 1920's Germany, The political and social scenario's can be experienced and felt.
You can alost smell Hitler, his Brown Shirts and the streets of Munich.
Hitler's uprise and his impact on the German youth, overall characterization of Munich and depiction of post war depression is what held my attention.
Nicely tied with the murders and lead characters with personalities that almost seem real.
I highly recommend this book - but please note that it contains some disturbing sexual and voilent accounts.

Excellent, very atmospheric.......2006-11-21

Faye Kellerman has made a reputation for herself as a detective novelist, writing books mostly with modern characters, the primary ones being a LA cop and his wife. She's also done some other stuff, one involving strange supernatural events and characters, another a cop thing with her husband, and some years ago she wrote a historical novel set in England several centuries ago.

This current book is a historical novel too, but the main character (Axel Berg) is a police inspector in 1929 Munich. As the story begins, he's confronted with the murder of a young married woman whose body has been found in a large park in the city. From there, things get complicated. A second body is discovered, and while the plot is thickening, we also learn that Axel isn't exactly an angel himself. As if things weren't complicated enough, Hitler and the Nazis try to take advantage of the murders by blaming them on the Jews. Berg's not convinced: whatever else he is, he isn't an anti-semite.

The book operates on a number of levels. Kellerman's handling of the main character and Germans of the era in general is generally fair, and interesting. She doesn't pull any punches with regards to the anti-Semitism (not surprising: she and her husband are both Jewish) but she doesn't make the Jewish characters in the story into saints, or all the Gentiles monsters, either. There are many layers and nuances to the characters, and not all of them are immediately apparent.

I will not one semi-negative thing. The author has several of the characters saying at various points in the book that Hitler was illegitimate. At one point someone recounts that this was in a newspaper, and several of the characters then discuss whether it's the case or not, even adding to the story by saying that Hitler's father married his mother while she was pregnant, to provide legitimacy for the child before he was born. I've never read anything like this in any of the books I've read about Hitler (and I've read more than a few). I have no idea if such things were in the press at the time in Germany, but nothing like this occurs in the modern writing about Hitler.

That said, this is an excellent book. I enjoyed it a great deal. It *is* a bit long, but if you stick with it you'll find it a very good book.

Wow! They published THIS?.......2006-09-19

I had not read any of Faye Kellerman's books before and her name is not what drew me to this book, it was rather the subject matter that enticed me to pick this book up after eyeing it for a long time. My wife and her family are German and I lived for three years in Germany before moving back to the states this year. I invested a lot of time studying this dark period of history both in Germany and here in the states. This book is very one dimensional in it's portrayal of Nazi Germany to be. There are historical inaccuracies and the book paints nearly every German out to be a cold blooded villain. In many ways the book is very black and white about judging the common German during the late 20's in Germany. I am surprised that it seems Ms. Kellerman received assistance from modern Germans in her research considering how the book paints everyone in Germany as a killer or close to it. While this book vastly oversimplifies the circumstances that led to WW2 and Nazi Germany I can understand that this is fiction and not necessarily meant to be historically accurate.

So if I am to judge this book on the merit of the writing, plot development, characters, etc. where would I be? I still can easily call this one of the worst books I've ever read (in fact I can only think of ONE worse book I've ever read and that is Daniel's Veil by RH Stavis). The writing here is horribly amateurish, reminding me of high school level creative writing courses, the characters are flat and act out of character depending on what plot twists are needed to advance the plot, descriptions are boring, drawn out and repetitive and I didn't care for anyone or anything in this book (and I promise you, I DID give it a chance in spite of my misgivings).

One of the things that really sealed the amateurish-ness of this book was at the end of the book, the hero is confronting the killer and while the killer has him in a tense situation he goes through a very Scooby Doo type moment and explains his plot in extreme detail while he supposedly has the hero against a wall. Only in terribly bad movies do I expect a villain to sit there with a gun in their hand and explain their diabolical plot in such detail. This is just a horribly baaad book and I don't expect I'll ever give Kellerman another shot. If you are really searching for a fantastic thriller author or a whodunit author, checkout writers like Martin Cruz Smith (Gorky Park, Polar Star and Red Square all run circles around this book), Elizabeth George is also good as is Anne Perry (for a more Sherlock Holmes-y type style). I know Kellerman has her fans out there and maybe this book is off the mark for her. I'm surprised it ever got published.

Average customer rating:

The murder of Lidice,
Edna St. Vincent Millay
Manufacturer: Harper & Brothers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Average customer rating:

Cute
Who knows what evil lurked in the hearts of......
Great sense of time and place
Very Welles done
A body turns up on the night of Welles' famous broadcast

The War of the Worlds Murder
Max Allan Collins
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Historical | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0425204014

Book Description

October, 1938. Orson Welles, known as radio's The Shadow, is accused of killing his mistress on the night of his War of the Worlds broadcast. Only Walter Gibson, The Shadow's creator, knows if Welles is truly guilty.

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Customer Reviews:

Cute.......2007-06-13

I REALLY like Max Allan Collins. I think his writing is to die for. His work tends to be a little gimmicky, and this is certainly true for this book. However, the gimmick works nicely, and is acutally charming and believable here instead of cheap and distracting. I didn't give this five stars because of the gimmick, and also because it lacked a little of his classic, hardboiled, midcentury pulp style.

Who knows what evil lurked in the hearts of.............2006-08-21

This is a fun outing in this series by Collins. As always, he has done his homework and put together a believeable and intriguing story about Orson Welles, John Houseman and Walter Gibson. They were tied together through The Shadow stories from pulp novels and radio plays. In its own way the story is much like the War of the Worlds radio play Welles was famous for. To say more would be to say too much. Sit down and enjoy this quick read.

Great sense of time and place.......2006-07-19

Max Allan Collins' historical mysteries are some of the best reading available. His Nathan Heller series has been nominated nine times for the Shamus award (winning twice, for True Detective and Stolen Away) and his "disaster" series has received similar acclaim, with was also nominated for the Shamus). Mysteries are often considered fluff writing, but Collins mixes fact and fiction in a way that is irresistible to those of us who like a little grit in our meringue.

The War of the Worlds Murder is the sixth in the Collins' "disaster" series, and it continues the series on a slightly different note. It is both less "disastrous" than previous entries and slightly less effective. But that doesn't keep it from being fascinating reading, especially to such a rabid fan of Orson Welles, the Shadow, and old-time radio as myself.

This War of the Worlds does not focus on the H.G. Wells novel (although it was undoubtedly released to coincide with the recent film adaptation). It instead features the 1938 Mercury Theatre radio presentation that "panicked America."

Collins introduces the novel, much like the Orson Welles film F for Fake, with the assertion that what follows is true -- the result of a conversation with Walter Gibson in 1975. (Gibson created the Shadow, authored over 230 novels featuring the character, and was the person who recommended Welles the young actor for the role on radio.)

However, also like F for Fake, he abandons this tactic once we are well and truly hooked, introducting a fictional murder into the proceedings. (Welles' mistress, or one of them, is murdered in CBS studios on the night of the broadcast and it is up to pulp writer Gibson, in town to assist Welles on a Shadow film project that never materialized, to solve the crime.)

Unfortunately, it is the murder that is the weak point in what is otherwise a fascinating portrait of an important incident in entertainment history -- it plays little or no role other than slightly enhancing the storyline. It is the real story of the events on the night of October 30, 1938, that keep the reader turning pages: showing the famous War of the Worlds broadcast from behind the scenes (from Gibson's point of view primarily) and how the radio play affected those millions of listeners who tuned in late and missed the opening announcement. By the time they switched from the popular Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy program (once Nelson Eddy began singing), the Mercury play and the "Martian invasion" were well underway.

Max Allan Collins puts a lot of research in his work and often comes up with surprising, heretofore unknown facts. After all, who knew that Judy Holliday (who would later win an Oscar for her portrayal of not-so-dumb blonde Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday) was an office assistant at CBS studios back in 1938, subject to abuse from Welles' Mercury Theatre partner, John Houseman? I didn't. (Interestingly, as Welles' career was coming to an embarrassing close, Houseman's second career was just taking off due to his own Oscar-winning performance in The Paper Chase.) This use of facts brings further enjoyment to The War of the Worlds Murder, and offers a further example why I'll pick up a Max Allan Collins novel over any other.

Very Welles done.......2006-06-26

This book by Stuart Kaminsky was alternatingly fascinating and a tad plodding. I thoroughly enjoyed the history of how The Shadow was created and William B. Gibson's role in it. I can still feel the pain of his bandaged fingers pounding out 100,000 words a month every month, on a typewriter no less. Those who love this book might also be interested in The Chinese Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont.

The interweaving of a murder, didn't have to be the Shadow to figure that out, into the more real events surrounding the War Of The Worlds broadcast was plausible and provided a nice counterpoint to the larger than life Welles, Houseman and Paul Stewart. The latter a very underrated character actor of the time.

Books using real people inserted into the tale, usually mysteries, trade highly on the familiarity of the public with their hero. Perhaps this is why you do not see The Screech Mysteries or The Bobbsey Twins with special guest sleuth, Dick Van Patten.

I enjoyed the book but would have fared better in hardcover with larger, more accessible print.

It is worth the money and worth your time.

A body turns up on the night of Welles' famous broadcast.......2006-01-27

As Collins notes in his afterward, "The War of the Worlds Murder", the sixth installment in Collins' "disaster" series (following The London Blitz Murders, The Lusitania Murders, The Titanic Murders, The Hindenburg Murders, and The Pearl Harbor Murders), features a real life crime fiction writer functioning as an amateur sleuth in a fact-based mystery. This time out, the writer/sleuth is none other than pulp writer Walter B. Gibson. Gibson, the journeyman writer who penned dozens of adventures of the pulp hero The Shadow, has been invited to New York by none other than actor/director Orson Welles, who is interested in bringing the enigmatic avenger he has portrayed in radio dramas to the silver screen.

Arriving in New York City on Thursday, October 27, 1938, Gibson observes Welles and the rest of the Mercury Theatre players in action as they prepare for their Halloween broadcast of their adaptation of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds; swept up by the whirlwind that is Orson Welles, Gibson has great fun, until the night of that fateful performance, as a body turns up in a room adjacent to the broadcast studio. Gibson, who has witnessed the passions that Welles arouses, realizes that anyone in the studio, including the great actor himself, is a potential suspect.

A quick, compelling read, TWOTWM features Collins' trademark exhaustive research and unparalleled creativity, as the author deftly weaves fact and fiction into a winning tapestry. Mystery mavens will appreciate the puzzle Collins has concocted; those who know the histories of Welles and Gibson will appreciate the way the author painlessly inserts details about their fascinating lives into the narrative. Collins makes these historical figures and the times come alive, providing his audience with a pleasant way to spend a few hours.

Hitler's Death Squads: The Logic of Mass Murder (Eastern European Studies (College Station, Tex.), No. 25.)

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Hitler's Death Squads: The Logic of Mass Murder (Eastern European Studies (College Station, Tex.), No. 25.)
Helmut Langerbein
Manufacturer: Texas A&M University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1585442852

In the Dark: The True Story of the Blackout Ripper

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Like It Is

In the Dark: The True Story of the Blackout Ripper
Simon Read
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Lethal Embrace

ASIN: 0425212831

Book Description

In 1942, London faced a reign of terror unknown since Jack the Ripper.

The nightly air raids had darkened London's neon dazzle but not its urge to live it up. With death a daily possibility, drinks and sex were everywhere. But one man had other urges. Over a five-day period, "The Blackout Ripper" murdered with a lightning-fast ferocity that stunned and baffled investigators. He left few clues in his bloody wake-until a slip-up revealed his true identity, and shocked a city that thought it had seen it all.

Customer Reviews:

Like It Is.......2006-11-20

Simon Read strikes again...

John Douglas, author of Mindhunter and one of the agents who started the FBI's Behavioral Profiling Unit, once said that serial killers shouldn't be treated like celebrities. Rather, they should be given sneering nicknames and treated like the scum they are. Simon doesn't give "The Blackout Ripper" any derrogatory nicknames, but he doesn't give the guy any breaks, either. And that's what I love about this book.

So many true crime novels give a dramatic spin to the murderer. They're given a status far beyond what they deserve, elevated to the ranks of purest evil rather than pointed up as the dregs they are. You get a "poor darling" sense as horrible childhoods are excavated for some reason why such a nice, quiet guy happens to be such a sadistic [...].

Simon doesn't deliver that kind of schlock. What he gives you is unvarnished reality. He writes in such a way that you can feel the old London pavements under your feet, cringing fear as you become a citizen dodging not only Luftwaffe bombs but also the killer taking full advantage of blackout conditions to live his sick fantasies. You get to meet this [...] face-to-face, and you get to stare into the all-too-human face of inhumanity. The book creates a total atmosphere. You will end up feeling the grinding despair of people dealing with two very overwhelming situations, and you will get to see not only the worst predations of a man, but the amazing things ordinary people can do.

There was a war on. They shouldn't have had to deal with a murderer on top of it. But they did. And Simon gives them the rare gift of telling it just like it was, making sure those extraordinary ordinary people will not be forgotten.

Murder on the Ballarat Train (A Phryne Fisher Mystery)

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Murder on a train
Amusing Throwback to the Golden Age
Another Runaway for Phyrne
miss fisher advances
fine Phryne Fisher mystery

Murder on the Ballarat Train (A Phryne Fisher Mystery)
Kerry Greenwood
Manufacturer: Poisoned Pen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1590582411

Book Description

When the 1920s' most glamorous lady detective, the Honourable Miss Phryne Fisher, arranges to go to Ballarat for the week, she eschews the excitement of her red Hispano-Suiza racing car for the sedate safety of the train. The last thing she expects is to have to use her trusty Beretta .32 to save lives. As the passengers sleep, they are poisoned with chloroform.

Phryne is left to piece together the clues after this restful country sojourn turns into the stuff of nightmares: a young girl who can't remember anything, rumors of white slavery and black magic, and the body of an old woman missing her emerald rings. Then there is the rowing team and the choristers, all deliciously engaging young men. At first they seem like a pleasant diversion....

Customer Reviews:

Murder on a train.......2007-08-28

The third installment of the Phryne Fisher series 'Murder on the Ballarat Train' begins quite literally, with a bang, when Phryne decides to leave Melbourne with her trusty and reliable companion Dot, and travels by train leaving behind her beautiful, fast Hispano-Suiza. Some sinister plot is afoot and Phryne has to shoot out the window of a train compartment to save the passengers. Thus begins the highly amusing investigation into an old lady's murder and a child's background suffering from amnesia and now given into Phryne's care. As the previous books, the story is vastly entertaining and Phryne solves the cases with her usual flair and common sense. The cast of secondary characters is growing and they are immensely likable, as is the heroine. I would definitely recommend reading the series in their publishing order as each of the characters becomes more rounded and a full picture begins to build.

Amusing Throwback to the Golden Age.......2007-03-08

"Murder on the Ballarat Train" hearkens back to the English Golden Age of Mysteries, where amateur detectives work hand in glove with obsequious police officers, the servants tip their caps and serve tea and where college boys are not louts and college girls are not sluts. Golden, in this book, if you overlook the stomping of a corpse, the rape and sexual enslavement of girls and the detective's requited lust for college boys.

Weighing in at a mere 150 pages, this 1991 Australian vintage, imported and published last year by Poisoned Pen Press, is set in the late 1920s and features the Honorable Phryne (pronounced Fry-knee) Fisher. This Carrie Bradshaw of Melbourne is slim, successful and acerbic, especially on the subject of unruly children. She carries herself like a duchess, except when she's trolling bawdy houses to hunt for missing girls, or mingling with the members of the college rowing squad in her pursuit of a murderer. Except for her unabashed admiration for the male gender, there's little else that distinguishes her, but she's surrounded by enough interesting characters that it doesn't matter.

The mystery centers around a verbally abusive harridan who is tossed from a train after her daughter's been gassed with chloroform. Miss Fisher is in the same car (and nearly overcome herself), but effects a rescue and is drawn into the investigation. But there's not much of an investigation, and the case quickly gets shunted aside for Miss Fisher to deal with an abandoned child who she takes into her home. This leads elsewhere for awhile and to the aforesaid collegians, until it's all brought together near the end.

There's some grim material about white slavery, and the story threatens to fall apart when the old tropes that were moldy in that era reappear, and especially when Miss Fisher draws a conclusion out of thin air, but by that time you're either rolling with Miss Fisher and her crew -- enjoying a time when motoring is still new, murders were few and notorious and the college boys wonder if they should admit girls into their glee club so they could sing the Brahms "Liebeslieder" -- or you've already set it aside to return to Christie or Sayers or Marsh.

Another Runaway for Phyrne.......2007-01-09

Love this series. It's always something new but Phyrne and her 'gang' are always reliable. Kerry Greenwod captures the spirit of this character and you become submersed in the caper.

miss fisher advances.......2006-11-22

in the third of the series, phyrne solves a murder, rescues two children and a cat, and proves once again that she is the most admirable fictional character in any genre. of course, any fan of golden age mysteries will be entertained by references and hallowed plots (which ms. greenwood makes completely her own).

the writing is not merely grammatical (a major plus after too many american mysteries apparently written by authors new to the language), it is funny, sarcastic in the inimitable aussie style, revealing, wonderfully descriptive, in all ways entertaining. occassionally enlightening. the plot, as usual, has lovely twists and red herrings.

i have come to think of her in the same terms as i think of patrick o'brian--a superlative writer with a secure grasp on her time period and an excellent, even uncanning, insight.

and, of course, the food, drinks, fashions and phyrne's pets are always fun.

fine Phryne Fisher mystery .......2006-11-06

In Australia, the Honorable Miss Phryne Fisher is on the train to Ballaret to visit some cousins when she wakes up in her compartment to the smell of chloroform. She starts opening the window reviving herself and her maid Dot. They open the windows in the other three compartments in first class. One elderly woman, Mrs. Henderson is missing until her body is found thirty feet from the track.

Her daughter Eunice hires Phryrne to find out who killed her mother. Another mystery on the train presents itself in the form of a young child suffering from amnesia. Phryrne calls her Jane and takes her home with her and has her examined by her doctor who tells her the child was sexually molested. Phryrne is determined to find out who did this to the child and who killed Mrs. Henderson; because of her reputation, she has the full support of the Melbourne police who are in awe of the indomitable Miss Fisher.

In chronological order, the third Phryne Fisher mystery is as exciting as the rest of the books in this fabulous series. Taking place inin Australia in the 1920's where women are gaining more freedom, the heroine is in the forefront of the equality under the law movement. She is independent, stubborn and generous to those she cares about. The killer hides in plane sight and for a time, much to Phryrne's chagrin, fools the intrepid heroine.

Harriet Klausner

What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany: An Oral History

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A book for the academic.
Primary Source? Or, Secondary Source?
Interesting but redundant
Magnificent

What We Knew: Terror, Mass Murder, and Everyday Life in Nazi Germany: An Oral History
Eric A. Johnson , and Karl-Heinz Reuband
Manufacturer: Basic Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0465085717
Release Date: 2005-02-01

Book Description

The horrors of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust still present some of the most disturbing questions in modern history: why did Hitler's party appeal to millions of Germans, and how entrenched was anti-Semitism among the population? How could anyone claim, after the war, that the genocide of Europe's Jews was a secret? Did ordinary non-Jewish Germans live in fear of the Nazi state? In this unprecedented firsthand analysis of daily life as experienced in the Third Reich, What We Knew offers definitive answers to these most important questions.

Combining the expertise of Eric A. Johnson, an American historian, and Karl-Heinz Reuband, a German sociologist, What We Knew is the most startling oral history yet of everyday life in the Third Reich, drawing on gripping interviews as well as a unique survey of four thousand people, both German Jews and non-Jewish Germans.

What We Knew shows firsthand the disparity between German Jews like Elise and Hermann Gottfried, to whom all Germans seemed like "detectives in civilian clothing," and non-Jews like Hubert Lutz, who spent ten years in the Hitler Youth, and "never heard anybody suggest that you spy on your parents or that you spy on anybody else."

Johnson and Reuband's research confirms that much of the German population-at least one-third-were aware of the mass murder of European Jews as it was going on. They were similarly aware of the murder of the mentally ill and handicapped, and the widespread torture employed by Hitler's Gestapo. And surprisingly, the research confirms that Hitler and National Socialism were so immensely popular among most Germans that intimidation and terror were rarely needed to enforce loyalty.

Eric Johnson's earlier book, Nazi Terror, was praised by to the Associated Press as "a benchmark work in Third Reich studies" and by The New York Times Books Review for its "levelheadedness and common sense, backed by painstaking research." Continuing this tradition of erudition, What We Knew redefines our perception about life under the Third Reich and changes the way we think about the Holocaust.

Customer Reviews:

A book for the academic........2007-05-15

I just finished this book after some weeks of reading and putting it down then reading again, etc. In short, it was a difficult read but having made that qualifier, it was also positive and surprisingly interesting and valuable. For any person, primarily students, who are researching with an intention of writing a paper about Nazi Germany and any subtopics therein, this is a must-read book.

The first two thirds of the book are fascinating primary sources--interviews with people who experienced various aspects of being caught up in this horrendous machine that was Nazi state power. The conclusion makes the premise that virtually everybody at the time knew what the Nazi state was working to accomplish. The authors lay waste to the old claim that "we didn't know". Almost every person knew of the collections and the deportation because it happened in daylight and no attempt was made to hide the event. The "network information" that came from stories told by soldiers on leave and by undercover BBC broadcasts contributed to this general knowledge. The plethora of work camps in Germany itself provided evidence of major wrong-doing. The size of the operations and the number of people involved preclude any reasonable denial that major parts of the Nazi Party's Manifesto was being acted upon.

The general reader and I certainly include myself among this group, will particularly get bogged down in the last section. The authors take their data and display it in numerous charts and conduct a precise analysis of this raw information. It is all terribly useful if you are footnoting a research paper but considerably less so if you are trying to have a quiet read. Therefore, be warned. This is a book containing many pearls of information but the water where they are located is deep and sometimes murky.

Primary Source? Or, Secondary Source?.......2007-04-17

"What We Knew" by Eric A. Johnson and Karl-Heinz Reuband.
Subtitled: "Terror, Mass Murder, and Every Day Life In Nazi Germany".
Basic Books, Cambridge, Massachusetts 2005.

This book was written by a team of authors, one, an American historian and the other, a German sociologist. The excellent team of writers has compiled a lengthy book (434 pages) that attempts to determine what, if anything, the ordinary German knew about the extermination of so many people, including more than six million Jews, by the Nazi regime which held power from 1933 to 1945. The authors have applied the techniques of modern statistical analysis, interviewing a large sample of individuals who lived through the terror, in an attempt to extrapolate their opinions, into an estimation of the actual feelings and actual knowledge of the actual participants, Jew and Gentile. I emphasize the word, "actual". I congratulate the authors on their efforts. I would be frightened to attempt the same thing.

The greater portion of the book (some 253 pages) accumulates selected interviews with both Jews and Gentiles. Pages 3 to 135 deal with interviews of the Jewish participants while pages 141 to 259 deal with the testimonies of the "ordinary Germans". These interviews represent a "primary source" as Historians define them. By their very nature, however, these interviews do not lend themselves to a flowing, comprehensive story. This makes it difficult to read. The interviews do present a statistical sample of how the people felt about the terror and what they knew about the camps.

In the next few chapters, called "Part THREE", pages 263-399, the authors analyze the data. This section of the book is a good "Secondary source", as defined by Historians. There are tables summarizing a wealth of information, such as the "Level of the Knowledge of Mass Murders of Jews among Jewish Survivors", broken down by the country to which the survivor escaped. Interestingly, on page 313, Table 10-3 shows that the main "Source of Knowledge" of the Mass Murders of Jews was radio broadcasts!

Technology affecting History. One wonders what television would have done. I served in the United States Navy in the segregated South during the late 1950s. Back home, in Manhattan, my tales of water fountains for "Colored" and "Whites" were looked upon as sea stories from a distant country. It took television reports of incidents such as Selma, Alabama, to make the nation conscious of the meanness of segregation. Who knows what a future statistician might make of our nastiness in segregation and what the ordinary citizen, living in The Bronx, knew about the evils of segregation?

The final conclusion of the authors is that "...a dictatorship can enjoy widespread popularity among the majority even while committing unspeakable crimes against minorities and others". (Page 398).

Interesting but redundant.......2007-02-01

I found the premise of this book very interesting and looked forward to cracking it open from the moment I made the purchase. Overall I think the concept of the book is solid, but it just becomes a bit redundant after a while as many of the stories begin to sound exactly the same. The final 100+ pages were a chore to make it through because it became so overly analytical in its investigation, which is subjective in my opinion, that it read more like an overly long business meeting full of graphs and charts, ad nauseum.

I would have preferred the authors have presented fewer interviews with greater detail paid to the more interesting ones. The end result is close, but misses the mark of my expectations.

Magnificent.......2005-02-13

I was born and raised in Germany, many years after the end of World War II and the Nazi period. There is a tremendeous amount of information available about the Third Reich, the war, and the Holocaust; but for me, there was always something lacking: How could all that happen? How was it possible? And what did people really know?

The standard answer, which I was given a lot when I aksed people about it, was that they didn't know anything about the Holocaust until after the war. I never found that very convincing. There is just no way that a country can organize the killing of millions of people, many of who were their own citizens, with the vast majority of people being absolutely clueless. It simply doesn't make any sense. Didn't people notice how their neighbours disappeared? And wouldn't soldiers on visits home mention things they had seen? Given the involvement of the German Army in many of those crimes - a fact that is still hotly contested in shamefully large circles to this date - I have never found the claim credible that "we didn't know anything".

Finally, there is a way to get better information. "What We Knew" contains the results of a decade long scientific study about what people - Jewish and non-Jewish - knew and experienced. A large part of the book consists of interviews, separated into different categories. Of course, the picture is infinitely more complex than "we didn't know anything" or "they all knew" - but now finally, it is starting to make sense.

I admit that even having read so many voices I am still at a complete loss as to how this all was possible. But at least now we know what people knew, how many people knew etc. This book is a masterpiece, and it's a must-read for anybody interested in what was going on almost 70 years ago.

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