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juushikaTitle: The Monster of Florence
Author: Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
Published: Books on Tape, 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 370
Total Page Count: 457,995
Text Number: 1597
Read Because: more true crime while house-stuff (gardening this time?), audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This would benefit from less Italophilia and less Douglas Preston. His story works well as a part of the whole, a human interest piece of evidence of the issues in the Italian legal system, speaking to the many, colorful ways that the system itself obstructed this investigation. (I don't even mind all the references to Thomas Harris and Hannibal which, frankly, answered some things I was curious about.) But he's one minor figure among the many that he overshadows in this version of the book - most notably his co-writer, Mario Spezi. Further, his disillusionment with Italy is uninspired and uncomplicated. (And, oh - skip the author interview appended to the audiobook.)
Despite the lackluster trappings, this a fascinating case: a serial killer who operated between 1968 and 1985, killing lovers parked in cars in remote locations and mutilating the female victims, the Monster is an iconic, recognizable model of serial killer who left a compelling trail of evidence - and the investigation was thoroughly bungled by feuding, incompetent, agenda-fueled, combative investigations, and then further complicated by the issues of freedom of the press. It's satisfyingly unsatisfying: complex, surprisingly well-documented, with a good bid for a culprit without offering an easy solution. I like this a fair bit, given how irritated I am by its failings.
Title: Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
Author: Thomas Halliday
Narrator: Adetomiwa Edun
Published: Peguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, 2022
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 466,795
Text Number: 1636
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Snapshots of complete, living ecosystems, moving backwards through the course of deep time. It's an approach that does a lot to contextualize deep time: how significant is both the timescale and the degree to Earth has changed over the eons. ...But I would have liked it better as a CGI nature documentary. Yes, this has a lot more depth. But (and blame it maybe on my aphantasia) I struggled a little to immerse myself; the descriptions are strong, nuanced, clear, evocative, and yet so easy to tune out. Thus some of my appreciation is theoretical, but I still liked this.
Title: When the Moon Turns to Blood: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a Story of Murder, Wild Faith, and End Times
Author: Leah Sottile
Narrator: Leah Sottile
Published: Twelve, 2022
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 470,235
Text Number: 1653
Read Because: personal enjoyment
Review: This is the most breaking-news true crime that I've read, and I find the experience unsettling. Not for any objectively problematic reason - the author has an agenda, but that agenda is a larger view of the case, setting it in context of the culture of Mormon extremism. It's an interesting counterpoint to Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven. Krakauer's book is about fundamentalist Mormonism while this one is about the doomsday/prepper subculture in the Church, but both discuss the relationship between the Church's history and its subcultures. Krakauer is inclined to think they're inherently entwined, effectively that one can't exist without the other, but Sottile is a little more forgiving, arguing that Mormon extremism is uniquely Mormon, but that extremism itself is ubiquitous. I like them in concert, for the overlapping and contrasting approaches, although this book is a little less memorable for rehashing (in less detail) information I'd already read.
Nonetheless ... it's weird to see how much a reporter's framework can bring to a case and to public understanding of a case. I find I don't like having an opinion about something that's still developing, but it's probably a good reminder that this - reporter/author impression of real events informing my understanding of them - is how all true crime works, for better and worse.
Author: Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi
Narrator: Dennis Boutsikaris
Published: Books on Tape, 2008
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 370
Total Page Count: 457,995
Text Number: 1597
Read Because: more true crime while house-stuff (gardening this time?), audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: This would benefit from less Italophilia and less Douglas Preston. His story works well as a part of the whole, a human interest piece of evidence of the issues in the Italian legal system, speaking to the many, colorful ways that the system itself obstructed this investigation. (I don't even mind all the references to Thomas Harris and Hannibal which, frankly, answered some things I was curious about.) But he's one minor figure among the many that he overshadows in this version of the book - most notably his co-writer, Mario Spezi. Further, his disillusionment with Italy is uninspired and uncomplicated. (And, oh - skip the author interview appended to the audiobook.)
Despite the lackluster trappings, this a fascinating case: a serial killer who operated between 1968 and 1985, killing lovers parked in cars in remote locations and mutilating the female victims, the Monster is an iconic, recognizable model of serial killer who left a compelling trail of evidence - and the investigation was thoroughly bungled by feuding, incompetent, agenda-fueled, combative investigations, and then further complicated by the issues of freedom of the press. It's satisfyingly unsatisfying: complex, surprisingly well-documented, with a good bid for a culprit without offering an easy solution. I like this a fair bit, given how irritated I am by its failings.
Title: Otherlands: A Journey Through Earth's Extinct Worlds
Author: Thomas Halliday
Narrator: Adetomiwa Edun
Published: Peguin Random House Audio Publishing Group, 2022
Rating: 4 of 5
Page Count: 400
Total Page Count: 466,795
Text Number: 1636
Read Because: personal enjoyment, audiobook borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: Snapshots of complete, living ecosystems, moving backwards through the course of deep time. It's an approach that does a lot to contextualize deep time: how significant is both the timescale and the degree to Earth has changed over the eons. ...But I would have liked it better as a CGI nature documentary. Yes, this has a lot more depth. But (and blame it maybe on my aphantasia) I struggled a little to immerse myself; the descriptions are strong, nuanced, clear, evocative, and yet so easy to tune out. Thus some of my appreciation is theoretical, but I still liked this.
Title: When the Moon Turns to Blood: Lori Vallow, Chad Daybell, and a Story of Murder, Wild Faith, and End Times
Author: Leah Sottile
Narrator: Leah Sottile
Published: Twelve, 2022
Rating: 3.5 of 5
Page Count: 320
Total Page Count: 470,235
Text Number: 1653
Read Because: personal enjoyment
Review: This is the most breaking-news true crime that I've read, and I find the experience unsettling. Not for any objectively problematic reason - the author has an agenda, but that agenda is a larger view of the case, setting it in context of the culture of Mormon extremism. It's an interesting counterpoint to Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven. Krakauer's book is about fundamentalist Mormonism while this one is about the doomsday/prepper subculture in the Church, but both discuss the relationship between the Church's history and its subcultures. Krakauer is inclined to think they're inherently entwined, effectively that one can't exist without the other, but Sottile is a little more forgiving, arguing that Mormon extremism is uniquely Mormon, but that extremism itself is ubiquitous. I like them in concert, for the overlapping and contrasting approaches, although this book is a little less memorable for rehashing (in less detail) information I'd already read.
Nonetheless ... it's weird to see how much a reporter's framework can bring to a case and to public understanding of a case. I find I don't like having an opinion about something that's still developing, but it's probably a good reminder that this - reporter/author impression of real events informing my understanding of them - is how all true crime works, for better and worse.
