![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: The Killer Across the Table
Author: John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker
Narrator Jonathan Groff
Published: HarperAudio, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 345
Total Page Count: 384,915
Text Number: 1447
Read Because: more true crime while gaming, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A diverse selection of cases and interviews that speak to a broad spectrum of murders, murderers, facets of the criminal justice system, and answers to the nature vs. nurture debate. As such, an approachable overview (and my impression from reviews is that all Douglas books are like this: the same basic arguments with different case studies), but with some frustrating oversights. There's moments of elided logic, where "I didn't believe this part of the testimony" is justified by "because obviously, look how lying liar the subject is"—could be true! but I want to see how interviewers make these distinctions, especially as interview is the heart of the book. More complicated is the relationship with the criminal justice system, which reminds me of Rule's The Stranger Beside Me—the writer finds just visiting prisons claustrophobic and frightening, the writer is aware of the psychological effects of incarceration and death row, Douglas even argues that incarceration directly lead to one subject's later criminal behavior ... and yet the prison system and death penalty stand unquestioned, even celebrated. Atrocious cases like those explored here can feel like the stopping block, the gotcha, of prison abolition, when in reality the status quo is flawed even in those cases; and I don't expect those invested in the system to be the ones providing alternatives to it, but I still wish we could be benefit from their insight.
Title: Death's Acre
Author: William M. Bass, Jon Jefferson
Narrator George Grizzard
Published: Putnam Adult, 2003
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 330, who knows the abridged length
Total Page Count: 385,245
Text Number: 1448
Read Because: more true crime while gaming, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The audiobook is narrated by George Grizzard, who sounds like a grandfather (generic); very comforting to listen to. Author William Bass, unfortunately, doesn't come off as well. He's a relic of another age, not especially heinous but always a little dated, in the way he characterizes his "teaching assistant", the skull of a poor black woman; the "science vs culture" of exhuming Native American burial sites; the beats of his personal life. And most of the book is about Bass rather than the body farm—which comes up but almost anecdotally, glimpses of research sparked by a third party, with little of the farm's development, management, or goals.
Take all my criticisms with a grain of salt, since I discovered upon finishing that I'd read the abridged audiobook. Probably the full book is better (except that it's sans Grizzard). But then, that discovery hasn't compelled me to reread or figure out what I missed. The body farm is so cool, fascinating even, helpful and good, I'm big fan; but I don't want to spend more time with Bass.
Title: Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors
Author: Denise Huskins, Aaron Quinn, and Nicole Weisensee Egan
Narrator Brittany Pressley, James Fouhey, and Samantha Desz
Published: Penguin Audio, 2021
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 388,380
Text Number: 1456
Read Because: more true crime while Animal Crossing, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This sits effectively but uncomfortably at the intersection of memoir and true crime, and runs into predictable stumbling blocks, particularly that the triparte narrative and underwhelming voice (or maybe just audio reading) create issues in tone: it can be repetitious and whiny, which is really super not the aesthetic impression I want to have of a victim memoir, as that makes it too easy to dismiss the contents of the text. On the other hand, some of the bits I worried felt "cringe" (a bad word, but how better to phrase it?) are those which have stuck with me best, particularly the retraumatizing effects of social media. It feels strange to talk about abduction and social media in the same breath, but of course both have consequences; a reminder, delivered in true crime, that I really don't need to have an opinion or voice in criminal cases; a reminder of the multifaceted and cascading consequences of willful police incompetence. And boy howdy is this some incredible incompetence. There's privilege and limitations in the victims's status as middle class white folks, but that's also evidence that if it can happen here—in a recent, high-profile, and clear-cut case—then of course there's more and worse happening elsewhere to more vulnerable people. Anyway, a worthwhile read; I wish it were a smidgen better written, but it achieves a lot.
Author: John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker
Narrator Jonathan Groff
Published: HarperAudio, 2019
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 345
Total Page Count: 384,915
Text Number: 1447
Read Because: more true crime while gaming, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: A diverse selection of cases and interviews that speak to a broad spectrum of murders, murderers, facets of the criminal justice system, and answers to the nature vs. nurture debate. As such, an approachable overview (and my impression from reviews is that all Douglas books are like this: the same basic arguments with different case studies), but with some frustrating oversights. There's moments of elided logic, where "I didn't believe this part of the testimony" is justified by "because obviously, look how lying liar the subject is"—could be true! but I want to see how interviewers make these distinctions, especially as interview is the heart of the book. More complicated is the relationship with the criminal justice system, which reminds me of Rule's The Stranger Beside Me—the writer finds just visiting prisons claustrophobic and frightening, the writer is aware of the psychological effects of incarceration and death row, Douglas even argues that incarceration directly lead to one subject's later criminal behavior ... and yet the prison system and death penalty stand unquestioned, even celebrated. Atrocious cases like those explored here can feel like the stopping block, the gotcha, of prison abolition, when in reality the status quo is flawed even in those cases; and I don't expect those invested in the system to be the ones providing alternatives to it, but I still wish we could be benefit from their insight.
Title: Death's Acre
Author: William M. Bass, Jon Jefferson
Narrator George Grizzard
Published: Putnam Adult, 2003
Rating: 1.5 of 5
Page Count: 330, who knows the abridged length
Total Page Count: 385,245
Text Number: 1448
Read Because: more true crime while gaming, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The audiobook is narrated by George Grizzard, who sounds like a grandfather (generic); very comforting to listen to. Author William Bass, unfortunately, doesn't come off as well. He's a relic of another age, not especially heinous but always a little dated, in the way he characterizes his "teaching assistant", the skull of a poor black woman; the "science vs culture" of exhuming Native American burial sites; the beats of his personal life. And most of the book is about Bass rather than the body farm—which comes up but almost anecdotally, glimpses of research sparked by a third party, with little of the farm's development, management, or goals.
Take all my criticisms with a grain of salt, since I discovered upon finishing that I'd read the abridged audiobook. Probably the full book is better (except that it's sans Grizzard). But then, that discovery hasn't compelled me to reread or figure out what I missed. The body farm is so cool, fascinating even, helpful and good, I'm big fan; but I don't want to spend more time with Bass.
Title: Victim F: From Crime Victims to Suspects to Survivors
Author: Denise Huskins, Aaron Quinn, and Nicole Weisensee Egan
Narrator Brittany Pressley, James Fouhey, and Samantha Desz
Published: Penguin Audio, 2021
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 388,380
Text Number: 1456
Read Because: more true crime while Animal Crossing, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This sits effectively but uncomfortably at the intersection of memoir and true crime, and runs into predictable stumbling blocks, particularly that the triparte narrative and underwhelming voice (or maybe just audio reading) create issues in tone: it can be repetitious and whiny, which is really super not the aesthetic impression I want to have of a victim memoir, as that makes it too easy to dismiss the contents of the text. On the other hand, some of the bits I worried felt "cringe" (a bad word, but how better to phrase it?) are those which have stuck with me best, particularly the retraumatizing effects of social media. It feels strange to talk about abduction and social media in the same breath, but of course both have consequences; a reminder, delivered in true crime, that I really don't need to have an opinion or voice in criminal cases; a reminder of the multifaceted and cascading consequences of willful police incompetence. And boy howdy is this some incredible incompetence. There's privilege and limitations in the victims's status as middle class white folks, but that's also evidence that if it can happen here—in a recent, high-profile, and clear-cut case—then of course there's more and worse happening elsewhere to more vulnerable people. Anyway, a worthwhile read; I wish it were a smidgen better written, but it achieves a lot.
