“Johnson’s become a liability.”
crime
Sunlight
Sunlight filtered through the partially closed blinds, creating a pattern of artificial lines across her pale skin. She lay still upon the bed, arms out-stretched, hair framing her face, like a sacrificial offering. His eyes roamed her body, flawless, save… Read More ›
DNA Isn’t Infallible
You’ve all watched the shows, right? A crime is committed. The cops know who did it but can prove nothing. DNA evidence is rushed through and proves beyond all doubt that the perp is guilty. Well, apparently, this evidence is… Read More ›
30 Day Book Challenge – Day 22
Least Favourite Plot Device Employed By Way Too Many Books You Actually Enjoyed Otherwise I read a lot of thrillers and mysteries and there are several plot devices that are quite common. There is just one that I find slightly… Read More ›
Once a Rapist, Always a Rapist?
An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a bit of rehabilitation and that’s the end of the matter. Your debt to society has been paid. You can live out the rest of your life in peace. Right?… Read More ›
Books I Read in March 2011
Beside the Sea by Véronique Olmi Death Comes as the End by Agatha Christie Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child Lost Souls by Neil White Illustrated True Crime: A Photographic Record edited by Colin Wilson & Damon Wilson Bloodline by Mark… Read More ›
John Holt in ‘What Do I Do Monday?’
“One of the things adults do, and above all in schools, is invade, in every possible way, the lives and privacy of their students. There are master keys to the students’ ‘lockers’ in schools, so that administrators may search them… Read More ›
Harold Schechter in ‘Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America’s Youngest Serial Killer’
“Affronted by the nonstop barrage of media violence, we pine for a return to a more civilized time – conveniently forgetting that a hundred years ago, public hangings were a popular form of family entertainment, and that turn-of-the-century ‘penny papers’… Read More ›
Lyall Watson in ‘Dark Nature’ quoted in ‘Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America’s Youngest Serial Killer’ by Harold Schechter
“The level of actual violence as measured by homicide…has never been lower…It may seem that we live in violent times, but even the famously gentle Bushmen of the Kallahari have a homicide rate that eclipses those of the most notorious… Read More ›
Marquis De Sade: The Genius of Passion by Ronald Hayman
Opening Sentence:‘To explain evil,’ said Baudelaire in his Journaux intimes, ‘we must always go back to Sade – that is to normal man. Synopsis:The Marquis de Sade and his works – widely banned until the late 1960s – still have… Read More ›
Fiend: The Shocking True Story of America’s Youngest Serial Killer by Harold Schecter
Opening Sentence:Dressed in the street clothes they had given him – a shabby grey suit, it’s baggy pants supported by galluses; a rumpled white shirt, its collar too small to button; an old silk tie that dangled halfway down his… Read More ›
Maggie Hamilton in ‘What’s Happening to Our Girls?’
“One detective, concerned at the problems girls are now facing at a much earlier age, told me he had to deal with a number of rape cases involving girls as young as 11 who had ‘boyfriends’ 16 and above.”
Gun Alley: Murder, Lies and Failure of Justice by Kevin Morgan
Opening Sentence:It is New Year’s Eve, 1921, the city of Melbourne, early morning. Synopsis:Gun Alley strips away the myths surrounding Australia’s infamous “schoolgirl murder” in the 1920s – not only exposing the travesty of justice that sent an innocent man… Read More ›
Never to be Released by Paul B. Kidd
Opening Sentence:This is a book about violent crime. Synopsis:’Never to be released‘. A rare recommendation reserved for the most vicious of killers. The mass murderers. The serial killers. The child murderers. Those who rape and kill in gangs. Killers like:… Read More ›
House of Horrors by Nigel Cawthorne
Opening Sentence:In 1984, two weeks after the end of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, a young woman in a small town in Austria was drugged, dragged into a cellar and repeatedly raped by her own father. Synopsis:In the quiet… Read More ›
Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs
An OK read but not a masterpiece.
The Evangeline by D. W. Buffa
I don’t normally go for courtroom dramas, but this was definitely an exception. Written in an easy to read style, this book was nonetheless gripping from beginning to end.
The Missing by Chris Mooney
Surprises around every corner, and a great storyline.
Dead Famous by Ben Elton
This isn’t the most brilliantly written book in the universe, but I’d say it’s worth taking a look.
Rafferty's Rules is Closing Down 