Sorry folks, I just have to call him on it. Gregg Olsen wrote The Confessions of an American Black Widow and he did a terrible job of writing. I won’t go into vast details, but he started with the arrest of the protagonist and then began a ‘sort of’ flash back style of writing.
Problem is he could not keep his 'pinions out of things. He also could not continue his flash back style as he kept throwing in little digs about the woman in question. He used every cuss word/dirty word, etc. in the book and then some to describe her, her actions, her co-murderer, etc. I’m a firm believer in there is a little bad in every good person and a little good in every bad person, but this guy, even aside from his atrocious style of writing, thought only in black and white terms.
My favorite books are novels, not factual writing. But occasionally, I read a True Crime or a biography just for a change of pace. Stay away from this guy, if you like True Crime stay with Anne Rule, she rules.
If you like the old stuff—and judging by your name, you might—go to bookfinder.com and search for some of Edmund Pearson’s true-crime books of the 1920s–50s. He was one of the best.
Thomas Thompson is good. He doesn’t have a lot of books though. Ann Rule is pretty good, but sometimes I think she can get a little pulpy. (But I do read all her stuff). Aprodite Jones does a decent job too. But a lot! of true crime writers are really, really, bad.
Ok, spooje, you may be right…I only read Dead by Sunset and it was actually a pretty good piece of writing, though not the best. My daughter in law, an avid true crime zealot, says that Ann Rule’s A Sranger Beside Me is her best. It’s about Ted Bundy, and I believe she actually worked beside him. Woo! Woo!
I figured I’d get one or two responses to this, my usual limit. :rolleyes:
Ok, spooje, you may be right…I only read Dead by Sunset and it was actually a pretty good piece of writing, though not the best. My daughter in law, an avid true crime zealot, says that Ann Rule’s A Sranger Beside Me is her best. It’s about Ted Bundy, and I believe she actually worked beside him. Woo! Woo!
I figured I’d get one or two responses to this, my usual limit. :rolleyes:
How’d this thread get so far without a mention of “Fatal Vision.”
Yeah, Joe McGinnes is a putz (as opposed to a :wally ), but he did a great writing and researching job.
Unfortunately, he became a magnet for the pro-Macdonald faction, who tend to omit that the book came out after the guy was convicted. It was the jury back in North Carolina who convicted the Green Beret doctor, not Joe. He just stuffed and mounted the trophy.
And speaking of Bundy, there are a couple of other books on the subject worthy of interest. “The Phantom Prince” is a memoir of Bundy’s girlfriend during his Seattle period, and supports Philo’s belief that “there is a little bad in every good person and a little good in every bad person.”
Then there’s “The Only Living Witness,” in which two investigators got Bundy to talk about the crimes from the standpoint of a “disinterested expert,” one who is using his proximity to the case and his researches to describe what “might have happened” to those women.
I think everyone would agree, Ann Rule is abysmal.
Joe Mcginnis is good.
Jack Olson is also very good. Some of his books are Son, Charmer, & Salt of the Earth. I like his writing style so much that I eagerly await each new book of his.
Btw, if you don’t like Ann Rule you probably won’t like Aphrodite Jones or Edna Buchanan, either.
Me too. My first True Crime and he’s got to be the best. I’m not sure how many true crime books Truman did, but he certainly researched this one well. You felt you were right there. It’s been downhill ever since. Perhaps that’s why I stick with fiction.
