Murder Books

Having grown up in Salt Lake, I found this book to be a riot!

Decker pokes fun at ALL the major players (LDS church, media, federal government, anti-government types, environmentalists, conservatives etc.) in a very evenhanded manner. Everyone is both ridiculous and has a very real point when Decker writes about them.

Each character rang true to the people and politicians that inhabit "Zion". I am buying it for my Salt Lake relatives to read. They will get a big kick out of it.

I've never been to Utah, but I feel like I have after reading Rod Decker's incredible book! Every character leaped of the page, and the ending had me talking to my friends for months. I hope Decker will favor us with a new book soon.

Everyone else is right on, this book is amazing. I recommend it highly to anyone.

I sincerely enjoyed Mr. Decker's book. He is as good an author as he is a reporter. Word has it he is working on a new book about Utah history, I can't wait!

I was passing through Utah about 4 or 5 weeks ago, and I stopped in a bookstore to pick something up for the flight home. "Environment for Murder" looked interesting, but I wasn't expecting much from a local author, even one with the credentials of Mr. Decker. I was pleasantly surprised. As a professor of English Literature I am not easily impressed, but Decker's flowing prose and intricate characters impressed me greatly. I recommend this book to anyone.

Very well written
Extrodinary life of Lois Gibson
I would recommend it to all

I sat down and read the entire book in one night, it was a Christmas gift from my husband. It ranks as one of the top 5 books I've ever read, and I am an avid reader. It was excellent, raw human emotion, but at the same time, like talking to a girlfriend. I just loved it. I felt a strange sense of inadequacy after reading it, like I wasn't doing enough in my own life. It really made me stop and think about my own life. If you get satisfaction out of watching "Forensic Files", "The New Detectives", "America's Most Wanted" and the like, then you will love this book. Lois is an author with a rare combination of sass, softness & wisdom - she knows her stuff but still makes you remember she's a mom and wife.

Truly amazing book. If you are interested in Forensic Art, Compositry or are just a crime story buff who loves to see the bad guys get caught, read this. It's an easy read and completely engrossing.

The Faces of Evil is a very compelling book about how a tenacious forensic artist can help to put murderers, kidnappers, and rapists behind bars. The story of Lois Gibson is a very interesting one, as a victim of a violent crime herself, she brings much more when she visits when a crime victim than a person who was not a crime victim.

Lois Gibson fell into becoming a forensic artist. Her early training was drawing portaits at an amusement park. In her early career she spent time specializing in portraits, not foresenics. She would go on to pester the police department until she could prove that she could draw someone from description. Once allowed to do this, she proved she could do the job. While she wasn't immediately hired on at the Houston police department she would convince them to hire her full time, and later they did so.

She has drawn pictures of many different criminals that the end result was bringing many different criminals to justice. At times these pictures were the only way to bring in criminals. She has helped to catch abusive parents, murderers of children, rapists, and so much more. This is a story of one woman's journey to aide the public is solving crimes as well as a personal story of what can happen if you set your mind to succeede.

Welcome true crime lovers to an inside treatment of a forensic artists' skill and tenacity in bringing down the bad guys. It is refreshing to see that some very special people are out there fighting crime, one stroke at a time. Together with the Houston Police department, this forensic artist is taking her brush against crime. The story is well written and insightful. Don't miss this exciting inside account of what is good about our law enforcement professionals!

This book was wonderfully written. It went into great details and sometimes the reader had to be reminded that he or she was not there, that day in 1946. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has a passion for civil rights literature.

The term, "Fire in a Canebrake", is a phrase that Walton County, Georgia residents used to describe the sounds of the fatal gunshots that commenced the last mass lynching in America; it is also the title of Laura Wexler's historical account of the Moore's Ford lynching where four blacks were murdered in late July 1946. The novel painstakingly details the "who, what, when, where and why" of the horrific crime and is supported by interviews, FBI reports, and other detailed documentation.

Wexler takes us back to the beginning when a black man, Roger Malcolm, stabs a white man, Barnett Hester, for allegedly having an affair with his common law wife, Dorothy. As Barnett lingers near death, Roger sits in jail counting his days left on earth. Eleven days later when Barnett recovers, Roger is then set free when his bail is posted by Loy Harrison, a wealthy landowner and landlord to George Dorsey (Dorothy's older brother) and his common law wife, Mae Murray. It is returning home from the jail that Roger, Dorothy, George, and Mae are dragged from Loy's car by an angry mob of white men and are murdered in cold blood. Loy claims he did not and could not recognize any of the attackers which was why his life was spared on that fateful day....and so the lying begins and never seems to end.

For years, the NAACP, FBI, Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI), and local law enforcement conduct their investigations, interrogations, and examinations only to arrive at no convictions. It is only in 1991, when an "eyewitness" steps forward to tell his story that there appears to be a slither of hope for justice. However, hope fades as holes and contradictions run rampant in his testimony as well; and unfortunately by the early 1990's all of the suspected perpetrators and potential corroborating witnesses are deceased. It appears that the leads had literally died out and one wonders if justice will ever be served.

The author does an excellent job of "peeling back the layers" to set the stage for the story and expertly blends in the national and state political agendas that influenced the course of events surrounding the lynching. By doing so, the reader understands the history of the rural Georgian townships where the story plays out, the role of the key witnesses including their family and criminal backgrounds, public displays of bigotry and drunkenness. She also shares the political tactics of the day used to deny blacks of their Civil Rights and protection under Federal law, numerous contradictions in the witness's statements/alibis/affidavits, and lack of follow-up and missed opportunities by law officials. The handling of the case by the investigators from beginning to end is totally unbelievable by today's standards, but what is moreso shocking is the blatant racism, hatred, and wantonness of the townsfolk toward an atrocity such as this.

This reader ran a myriad of emotions while reading the novel -- first, frustration in that no perpetrators were ever brought to justice and nor was anyone ever held accountable for these heinous crimes -- a fact that is unfortunately recurrent in so many lynching cases. Secondly, anger and sadness when reading about the intimidation and threats against local blacks as well as the breakdown and separation of the victim's families in the aftermath of the lynching. The murders only exacerbated their wretched existence as poor, undereducated sharecroppers. The author's skill in conveying their daily living conditions and lifestyle using census statistics and first hand accounts was outstanding and heartbreaking.

This book is a page-turner! Although Oprah, Dateline, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution have covered this story, Wexler adds a twist: her words breathe life into the pages and add color to the black and white photos in the book; she presents the evidence in such a way to allow readers to draw their own conclusions. Hats off to Ms. Wexler for her perseverance and dedication to finding truth. Well done!

Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, The Nubian Circle Book Club

This book is an accurate and detailed historical account of The Morre's Ford Bridge Lynching that took place in Walton County, GA in 1946. For those of you doing the math that's only 57 years ago. Though certainly not the last recorded lynching, it was significant in that it eventually affected the political landscape of the country. The book combines the best of history, politics, race relations, slavery, and good old fashion detective work.

Laura Wexler is an author and researcher extraordinaire. Her talents are unmatched by anything I have read in recent times and certainly on par with American Literary Giants. Ms. Wexler's (a white woman) only shortcoming is that she fails to capture the anger a person of color could have brought to such events. Without saying anything more, yesterday afternoon I gave the book to my wife, by 11:00pm she had read 168 pages.

As you read be mindful of the following. Focus on the dates of those events, how relatively few years have passed between 1946 and 2003. For that matter think about the climate of America back in 1966. Only twenty years removed from the Morre's Ford Bridge lynching and unilaterally all whites would agree times were still overtly oppressive for blacks. With that, think about Affirmative Action and how 1966 represents one generation of blacks, still not fully removed from out right racist attitudes. I also want my friends to consider the prevailing attitude of whites in 1946 and how to this day, or at least 1997-1999 how those attitudes stood the test of time. Consider not just the rural, simplistic, racist cotton farmers, but the complex, covert, economic, and political powers of those white racists in place at the time. What do you think the power elite taught their children? If they taught their children their core values and belief system (which all good parents do), do you think those children (today's white leaders) would act upon their beliefs overtly or covertly? What struggles do you think Blacks might still face today?

As we STRUGGLE to understand and move past our differences, it is imperative that we recognize the RECENT history of overt racial oppression and the healing power of Affirmative Action. Growing up, Black men used the phrase "my brother" as a greeting. In that greeting we recognized not our biological sibling, nor our color, but more deeply our common struggle. To remove it from the vernacular and express it for what we were really trying to say, "my partner in struggle."

Your Brother,
habworks

This is a book about a horrendous assassination of four black residents of a neighboring county of Atlanta in 1946, but it is also a book on Southern culture, as it had existed since the time of the Civil War. The author depicts a close-knit, rural society dominated by white landowners who basically controlled their communities' affairs including the dispensing of justice as they saw fit. Keeping the blacks of the area under a watchful eye and in a subordinate economic position was a huge part of that control. Any deviation from their prescribed roles and permitted behaviors, generally resulted in some form of physical violence being perpetrated upon blacks. Of course, law enforcement personnel, if not assisting in this extra-legal violence, looked the other way.

The assassination of these four individuals screamed across the nation's headlines in the summer of 1946 to the surprise of the local residents. This dispensing of justice, while more egregious than was usually the case, was from the same timeworn mold. The local thought was, Why the clamor? The FBI, the NAACP, and any number of reporters descended on Walton County, Georgia that summer. But all of those parties met with silence, fear, dissembling, conflicting stories, and a decided lack of evidence. Five months of investigation, including the convening of a federal grand jury, yielded only some potential suspects, but the evidence was slight and inconclusive.

The author seemed to have a vague notion that she would be able to sift through the evidence and solve the case, aided by further digging. That thought was fueled by the fact that an alleged first-hand witness to the murders had come forward with his story in the early 1990s. It becomes evident in the course of the book that the new revelation was largely a fabrication, though the motivation remains unclear.

The author's project began in 1997, fifty-one years after the crime. Virtually all of the suspects and witnesses had died by that time. Most of the recapitulation of the days leading to the killings was derived from the extensive interviews conducted by the FBI in 1946. Other sources were newspaper accounts and files from the NAACP. In the beginning, the author attempts to piece together the steps and actions of the principals in the days leading to the murders. Most of the book is devoted to bouncing around the conflicting evidence as it was gathered. Some conclusions can be drawn, but mostly the truth remains obscure.

Of course, anyone reading this book would realize that the crime has not been solved, so that is not a good reason to read the book. And it is a slight criticism of the book that after that much effort, the author does not in the end offer much in the way of speculation as to the perpetrators. The importance of this book is that it lays bare the notion that Southern society treated blacks, though perhaps differently, benignly. Life for blacks in the olden South was nothing short of brutal. One wonders just what it is from the past that Southerners want to defend in the various flag controversies now raging throughout Southern states. This book makes quite clear that atonement for the past should be on the minds of rural Southerners, not preservation.

I live 20 minutes away from where this tragic event occurred. I have lived in this area for over 30 years and just recently became aware that the lynching occurred. I decided to read the book when a friend of mine told me it was out - we had discussed the history of the event a few months earlier as he was raised in Walton County and knew of some of the people mentioned in the book. I have to say that the entire book was very disturbing to me. I cannot in any way imagine an entire community keeping quiet about what happened. I cannot imagine the hate that caused this tragedy. I cannot understand the fear instilled in the black population so that they did not even come forward with information. I am in a interracial marriage and it is amazing to me that a few decades ago this would've caused an uproar that may have lead to murder.
The book is a good one. It will keep you interested throughout. Of course I knew before starting how it would end up - no conclusions on who did it - I learned a great deal about what actually occurred and have drawn my own ideas about what happened and who may have been involved. Knowing the area added to the "enjoyment" for lack of a better word, of reading, but it is definitely not necessary.
I am glad I was disturbed while I read this book. I hope everyone who reads it is as well. Too bad we'll never know what really happened.

Great book! Full of suspense and humor. If you like Laurell Hamilton or Kim Harrison, you will like this book.

Private detective Chase Dagger finds an Indianapolis cop and auniversity professor on his doorstep revealing their theory behind arecent series of homicides. The professor beliefs there is an evilthat has been passed down from generation to generation and is at itsworst during a full moon on Friday the 13th. Dagger feels theprofessor knows far to much about the murders and the killer. FullMoon-Bloody Moon is an X-Files style mystery that brings back ChaseDagger for another tautly written, reader-gripping, mysterythriller. Also highly recommended is Lee Driver's debut novelintroducing Chase Dagger and an unusual blend of horror and mystery inThe Good Die Twice (5-3,...). END

FULL MOON-BLOODY MOON is the second in the Chase Dagger series. This one combines mystery and horror in a story about a little known phenomena -- the combination of a full moon and a Friday the 13th. Dagger is confronted by an Indianapolis cop and a university professor who have a theory behind a series of murders. They believe a man has inherited an evil passed on through generations that is at its worst during a full moon on a Friday the 13th. This book pits an evil shapeshifter against Sara, Dagger's shapeshifting partner. As in THE GOOD DIE TWICE, Sara's shapeshifting is the catalyst in this series. And the existence of this evil shapeshifter becomes real when it starts communicating telepathically with Sara. This is a tightly written thriller that will have you looking at a full moon quite differently. To show you how rare the combination is, October 13, 2000, was only the thirteenth time since 1800 that it has occurred.

Author Lee Driver returns with the second in her series starring mysterious private investigstor Chase Dagger and his Native American shapeshifter associate Sara Morningsky and scarlet macaw Einstein--Full Moon Bloody Moon. This entry finds them with a more gruesome case as the bodies keep piling up, but no logical suspect can be found.

Lisa was a really good cop, a quick and accurate shooter. So, it was a real surprise when she was found dead along her regular jogging path with her gun still holstered and with the safety still on. The other surprise was that she was found twenty feet up, stuck in the V of a tree branch. Of great import to this case is the rarity of the combined occurrence of a full moon on a Friday the 13th. The story takes place during the five days leading up to Friday, October 13, 2000, when it is believed that the killer will attain his greatest level of power during the upcoming full moon.

Meanwhile, Chase and Skizzy are also working on a case involving weapons thefts from a local police station. Skizzy's invention of the "Mick," a mechanical spider-shaped surveillance camera, provides much of the intrigue in this subplot, which otherwise feels much like another day on the job.

Things really take a turn in Full Moon Bloody Moon when it is discovered that the killer can communicate with Sara through the telepathy that, until then, the reader had thought that only she and Chase could share. Is the killer a shapeshifter, too? Chase's ability to overhear their conversations causes his pragmatic worldview to begin to crumble. Able to accept Sara as a shapeshifter, because that was how he discovered her, the idea that there are more is almost too much for him. And the closer he comes to a solution, the more it seems that the killer is something that Chase is not entirely prepared to deal with.

The sexual tension between Sara and Chase continues building, with their friends invariably making comments to Chase about questionable situations. These are still some of the most intriguing characters in fiction, and any male reader is undoubtedly going to want to be Chase and want to be with Sara. Their relationship is an engaging combination of sibling and romance that succeeds because of not engendering any untoward feelings whatsoever. I'm becoming as comfortable with these people in just two books as I did Ed McBain's 87th Precinct crowd. I can only hope that Lee Driver exhibits McBain's longevity. Add to that her skill at writing epilogues that make me want to begin the next book immediately (in this case, The Unseen), and what we have is a terrific fantasy mystery series that deserves bestseller status.

FULL MOON BLOODY MOON is the second Chase Dagger mystery; the first was THE GOOD DIE TWICE.

Chase Dagger is back, but this time he will need more than luck to catch a killer that has been around for more than 200 years.... Knowing that Oct. 13th a Friday was not even here yet, the worse was yet to happen.

FULL MOON BLOODY MOON has the same unconventional and fetching characters as THE GOOD DIE TWICE. Einstein the bright red macaw that has a big mouth, Chase's right hand woman, Sara, Simon the mailman who knows everybody's business. Padre and Skizzy are also back as well as some new characters. FULL MOON BLOODY MOON is a ferocious horror-filled ride that will stick with you well after you have finished reading the book. Mixed with sex, violence and plenty of fast paced action. I hung onto every word.

Lee Driver (aka S.D. Tooley ) you have done it again, keep up the good work.

I read this book shortly after it was published and given recent events, I'll be reading it again. It beautifully illustrates the paradox of political institution of religion versus the spiritual faith while investigating possible murder (Pope John Paul 1) and corruption (money laundering, etc) in the Vatican.

Other contradictory activities are uncovered; e.g. contraceptive factories/companies whose existence/ownership is traced back to the Vatican which preaches against contraception. Some critics say the book names no sources and has no footnotes; why should he? The facts are so clearly described that you are able to confirm certain things if you needed to (what with other evidence cited like documents, etc) without necessarily interviewing his sources who obviously helped on condition of anonymity for their own protection.

As much of a furor as this book caused, it's interesting to note that almost 20 years later, not a single allegation contained from within the book has been proven to be false. Rather, much of it has been officially established as true. (see author's site yallop.co.uk). I'd recommend to anyone, especially Catholics.

Whether or not you buy the premise of this book--that a conspiracy among Vatican hard-liners, the Mafia, Freemasons, and others killed Pope John Paul I--IN GOD'S NAME by David Yallop presents a world of Church intrigue that is little discussed. The internecine wars among the Cardinals, the influence of huge amounts of dirty money, and the need for control of the Vatican are fascinating, if disturbing. It is a grim portrait to say the least. IN GOD'S NAME is an important book that deserves a new edition. Until then, pick up a used copy available here.

This book gives a terrible tarnished picture of the Vatican, even if the author is wrong and there was no murder or active murder (they could have let Pope John Paul I die, by not administering him his medicine).
A Vatican controlled by a bunch of corrupt, merciless, avid for power, 'holy' cardinals (Villot, Cody, Marcinkus, Baggio), implicated in a web of depraved banking, masonic and Mafia figures like Calvi, Gelli and Sindona. (I recommend for the 'banking' part also the book by Richard Hammer 'The Vatican Connection').
What is also intriguing, or should I say 'demonic', is the fact that the next pope didn't remove anybody entangled in these murky affairs from his office.
The author gives also very plausible hints why, besides personal career interests, there were moral (the issue of birth control, for instance) and financial (money laundering to help friendly unions or parties) motives.
A devastating book. Not to be missed.

Wow! What a read. This non-fiction reads almost like a novel, but with LOTS of information. My head was dizzy trying to keep up with all the names of who did what and when. How did the author manage to keep it coherent? Anyway, I got the jist of it and was completely intriqued through all of it. It became obvious throught Yallop's investigation that Pope John Paul I was murdered. And, admittedly, he doesn't name his sources for their protection, but there's enough information to convince even the hard-to-convince. He mentions Freemasons and P2 (Propoganda 2), some clerics, and Mafioso persons who could stand to lose a lot of money by having this Pope in office. For a moment I thought I was reading the Godfather. As Yallop pointed out, was reality imitating art (or the other way around)?

The web of deceit and manipulations that are weaved in this story is harrowing and endless. This is a must read for anyone interested in how our economy, politics, wars, and religions are affected by the Vatican (and have been for centuries), run by deceitful, self-serving or indifferent people choosing to play this dangerous game.

Although this book is 20 yrs old, it's a great insight to the dangerous games played by those in power - at the final cost to the layman, citizen, and hard-working persons of the world.

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 names those involved in the illegal and immoral acts and their motives and opportunity to have Pope John Paul I killed. The author leads the reader to see that 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 according to what we read here. I highly recommend this book.

A haunting and unforgettable collage of voices, Harold Jaffe's Jesus Coyote combines fiction and documentary in order to examine the complexities and continued relevance of the Manson "family" murders.

Harold Jaffe is one of the few writers I trust to never disappoint. Readers familiar with his numerous collections (namely his trademark DocuFictions) will be pleased to find all his dark-and-smart tricks in one book (my personal favorite is his question-and-answer un-situated dialogues) as well as a few fresh narrative swirls (telephone transcriptions, formal letters, and the like). And for those not accustomed to his work, you're in for a treat, the darkest of chocolates... and then after there's plenty more where that came from in 15 Serial Killers (recently translated in French!) and Sex For The Millennium.

The multiple voicings, the clean prose, the ongoing play of ambiguities and transparencies all add up to make Harold Jaffe's Jesus Coyote a very smooth book. We expect it to be disturbing of course. No surprise there. What catches us off-guard is how engaging it all is, how easily it goes down. I recently watched a Manson documentary, and was surprised at how trite and dull the behavior of Mansion and his women seems now, almost 40 years later. Jaffe has taken what at this point looks like played out subject matter and made it work as literature. No mean feat.

Jaffe's provocative tour de force pastiche of one of the best-known episodes in popular culture history analyzes and undermines the Manson myth.

As with 15 Serial Killers and other texts in his ouvre, Jaffe neither celebrates nor turns away from the violence or the perpetrators of it but looks beyond the easy responses, the media knee-jerk sanctimony, and cable network fetishization of Manson, intimately re-imagining and making new what miles of newsprint and videotape and collective historical amnesia have turned stale.

And beyond all that, it's an enjoyable read.

Harold Jaffe has emerged as the most critically important writer of our time. In the midst of a publishing world full of commercial texts littered with clichéd romance and crime drama; a literary world infected with mass-produced, politically correct "workshop" fiction; and a journalistic world plagued by false "non-fiction" accounts sold by charlatans and purchased by acquiescent conglomerates, Harold Jaffe' work--fiction and "docu-fiction"--offers acute societal insights in the context of innovative, highly energized fictive and literary structures, epistemological investigations, and compelling character portraits.

These are the characteristics which define Jaffe's latest work, JESUS COYOTE, an incisive investigation and portrait of events, characters, social dynamics, and motivations surrounding Charles Manson and his followers. Notably, JESUS COYOTE, refers to actual individuals only obliquely, by action and tangential reference, renaming those individuals involved. Additionally, in the text timelines are inverted and/or conflated to emphasize societal connections. However, it is clear that the motivations for these literary choices have nothing to do with concerns of legalistic accuracy or limitations of artistic license regarding public figures, but rather these literary choices function tropologically to expand the presentation of characters and events such that they can be examined within their larger social contexts, in addition to being viewed individually. This scrupulous literary process enables a macroscopic overview and provides an organic unity to the ostensibly nonsensical acts of Manson and his followers, and presents their subculture as an outgrowth of the facades and failures of dominant society, as opposed to an individualized societal or psychological aberration.

JESUS COYOTE has a bifurcated form. The initial sections of the text provide a series of communications, via telephone, media, office memoranda, and personal conversations, among various characters which, taken together, comprise an outline of a myriad of social forces. The next sections of the text provide personal statements of various characters, forming intimate psychoanalytical portraits which exist both autonomously and in relation to the social dynamics set forth in the first sections of the text. This combination offers an examination of "reality" in its completed form: an ever-fluctuating relationship between reality proffered by social, institutional, and political forces as a societal exoskeleton-- juxtaposed and conjoined with individuated perceptions. In a larger sense, this combination is in fact a representation of the tension between collective consciousness and self-perception.

The result of this polarized representation is to generate systematic social investigations, particularly as they concern institutional and commercial dysfunctions. The prison system, both juvenile and adult, is delineated as the primary producer of Jesus Coyote, and the de-facto creator of his power as both a misfit and master of society at large. Throughout this society at large, potent capitalist strains lead to the commodification of all aspects of human behavior: police "operatives" sell their information, psychics provide no guidance and betray their patrons for material gain, media sources forsake the Jeffersonian "need to know" for titillating headlines at the expense of accuracy--fully aware that in a repressed and commodified society, consumers are hungry for grisly and lusty details to enable vicarious experiences.

Such media sales dynamics are inexorably linked with the ever-present, quasi-Puritanical desire of institutions and government to control sexuality and utilize the inherent repression of that control to fuel consumerism and materialism. As Coyote acolyte "Hedda" explains from prison, merging broad socialist orientations with a 60's free-love agenda: "In America..., the body is seen as private property, another kind of capital. With us, the body was communal property..." As if to provide an excuse for readers' lurid fascination with sex and violence, the dominant society depicted in JESUS COYOTE engages in a never-ending attempt to blame all aspects of counter-culture behavior on drugs as a shield to cover any inherent dissatisfaction with that dominant culture itself.

Jaffe's literary form in JESUS COYOTE allows the expansion of subject matter beyond the original Manson-related events and personalities, without minimizing the importance and intrigue of individual personalities. Broad concepts such as ecology and free will are explored in statements by Coyote-followers Hedda and LuAnn during an illegal interrogation:

Hedda: How much will does a leopard in a cage have?
LuAnn: How much will does a homeless person have? ...
Hedda: How much will does a polluted birch tree have? More than you can imagine.

And as America-centered as JESUS COYOTE is, transcontinental social commentary is evident nonetheless, as in veiled criticism of a European filmmaker's careerism and egocentricity, even in the face of his young wife and child's brutal murders. Yet French and American preferences in media stimuli are differentiated, as are artistic and bourgeois perceptions of events. Reporting the murders, American headlines immediately highlight drug-use as the cause of events, while French media emphasize orgying and sexual mutilation. And while bourgeois American readers avidly consume specific details of the crimes, self-proclaimed European artistic-geniuses and cognoscenti eschew the banality of those same details. Upon close inspection, it is clear that these very assertions of banality are in fact attempts at self-inflation and self-congratulation.

The character investigations in JESUS COYOTE are both generalized and specific. The precise nature of Coyote's manipulative power and imagination is exposed, including the content of his linguistic guises, which simultaneously invert stereotypes and merge polarities--Jesus as Satan, Beauty in Death, etc. And always, death itself exists simultaneously as threat and premonition. Coyote harnesses the power of sexuality by preaching a "free love" which is by no means free, but has its own tithes, purveyances, and instantiated rituals. Yet Coyote's power is seen to be more than merely psychological and manipulative. He embodies a certain spiritual connection and enables a form of peace and belonging which his young followers find irresistible, and irresistibly satisfying. Moreover, the connection with the natural world that Coyote professes seems, in part, to be actual and documented. At the point in the text when Coyote, sleeping outside with his young lover, is apprehended, the police report: "The peculiar thing is that [their] sleeping bag was surrounded by a pack of coyotes that growled at us but then fled." The implcation is that Coyote had in fact summoned his animal brethren for protection.

In JESUS COYOTE, Harold Jaffe has once again created a text which is both extremely significant from a literary point of view, and intensely incisive from a sociological standpoint. The text is simultaneously informative and provocative, entertaining and cautionary. It is this multi-leveled nexus of forces, conscious and unconscious, which the genius of JESUS COYOTE conveys.

Joel Davis literally leaves no stone unturned in telling the heart-breaking story of the horrific double-murder of college sweethearts in his hometown of Davis, California, and the winding and bizarre 25 year investigation that followed. The fact he grew up in Davis and was an acquaintance of one of the victims provides a unique perspective to the book, and his unexpected involvement in the case is a fascinating twist. I didn't want to put it down!

Hi... I know this story because I am somewhat involved in it.. All though I am only 20 years old... The killer happens to be my mothers ex brother in law... Pretty sick... I don't know the book... If it goes into detail of his life.. But I know more of the story than I think anyone else does... He had a very very traumatic childhood... His father was the lowest form of scum there is on this planet.. His name was Casper... My mom is actually in the book briefly.. I got kind of mad because I heard the author changed only her first name, and used her current last name, which is Keaton... Even though she did not get that last name (The last name of my father) years and years later... And guess what they changed the first name to? Sally... That happens to be the name of my aunt!!! I'm sure it's a good book... But the author didn't even research a real life persons last name, and carless through it into the book. It is not that big of a deal... But sometimes people don't want to be linked to certain things like this... And now a real life person that is somewhat connected to this tragic incident is carelessly thrown in the mix.. Not that anyone would notice.. Just the locals that we all know....

An unforgettable story beautifully told by Joel Davis. "48 Hours Mystery" devoted a broadcast to this tragic double murder of sweetheart college students, solved over two decades later with the use of DNA. Joel Davis brings the reader back to a foggy night in December 1980, when Sabrina Gonsalves and John Riggins are driving to a birthday party for her sister. The horror which unfolds for the families is told in chilling detail, as Sabrina and John's bodies are found two days later. Joel Davis' investigation in this unsolved case spurred its resolution. This is a haunting, memorable story, impossible to put down. "Justice Waits" was not available locally and I ordered it directly from AMAZON. It arrived beautifully packaged with a bookmark autographed by the author, and a copy of the "San Francisco Chronicle Magazine" interview with Joel Davis.

Joel Davis' first book is excellent! From the moment I started reading it, I didn't want to put it down. It's a very intense story that's full of interesting details. I grew up with one of the murder victims--John Riggins--and after reading Justice Waits, I feel like I knew Sabrina Gonsalves as well as the other people in the book, because of Joel's descriptive story-telling. Interestingly, Joel didn't just tell the story, but he became part of it. I highly recommend this book.

I'm not usually a reader of crime-books, but, having gone to Davis, I wanted to give this one a try. Once I started, I dragged it around from the kitchen sink to the car to the sidewalk outside of my kids' school because I didn't want to put it down! It's terribly gut-wrenching and made my heart ache for the Riggins Gonzales' families; but it also provides an important reminder of how vulnerable our justice system truly is.

Another great story from Terri Blackstock. I tend to stick to Christian authors because I enjoy the content. This book was no different. Terri can shape the characters into anything she desires. This book is full of romance, suspense and intrigue. A who-done-it that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I have now read all the books in this series. I am waiting patiently for another one of her fantastic stories. Thanks Terri.

Another Teri Blackstock goodie! This has a different twist from the beginning that is enjoyable. I am a Mary Higgins Clark fan and have found Teri Blackstock to be a comparable author and story teller. I especially appreciate her Christian perspective. It is not overwhelming but realistic about how real Christians live their lives. They are not super people who never have problems but real folks who deal with their problems through their faith in Christ.

I bought this book for my Mom as a Christmas gift. She read the book in two days and absolutely loved it!! She now has 2 books from this series and can't wait to get the other ones!!

"Justifiable Means," the second book in Terri Blackstock's four-volume "Sun Coast Chronicles," is a superb page-turning thriller... perhaps her best novel I've read so far (although everything she writes is great). Given the opportunity, I would rate this book worthy of TEN stars! And, while this suspenseful work is as good as any of the top-ranked authors of this genre (and better than most), Ms. Blackstock's ability to skillfully weave into her stories her strong Christian faith, makes it all the more special. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! --Ron Howe (a.k.a. Toby Martin II) / Erskine, Minnesota.

Terri Blackstock is a master story weaver. Her characters are believable and she keeps you glued to the pages until the very last one.

Rachel Howard tells a compelling story in "The Lost Night," a memoir that reads like an extended episode of crime documentary shows like "48 Hours Mystery." A pre-teen when her father was stabbed to death in what seemed like a botched break-in, the loss haunts Howard until she can find a way to make sense of it. Suspicion surrounds Howard's step-mother, whose brother is questioned by police, but it is eventually cold cased. As an adult, Howard investigates further, a decision which brings her back in contact with both her father's family and her dreaded step-mother (who has since married again and moved away.)

The book effectively sets the scene in California's Central Valley, and Howard successfully plumbs the psychological effects of growing up without a murdered parent. She is candid about many of her struggles with men as a result of the loss, although she is slightly dreamy about her wedding and happy relationship with her husband. (This aspect of the memoir seemed overly one-sided and idealistic.) Her father's murder is never solved, but Howard does find a way to come to peace with it, including an acknowledgment of her own biases against her former step-mother, who makes a memorable reappearance in some of the book's best latter moments.

What we end up learning about in "The Lost Night" is the effect of crime on those left behind, and the mysteries that remain when crimes aren't solved. Although the writing is no where near the quality of classics of the true crime genre, this is a worthy effort and worth a read.

Met the author at a book signing and was impresssed by her impeccable poise and story-telling ability. Then I went home and read the book. Wow. I had the same experience as the other readers. This is an excellent and poignant memoir.
One feels the you-are-there quality of a little girl awakening in the middle of the night to see her father covered with blood on the floor. The people in her book are like characters in a Dickens novel, yet they are (were) all very real. Howard captures the cultural milieu of Merced California in the mid '80's. Her father loved Rod Stewart with a passion and the lyrics of his songs weave through the true story of a child trying to make sense of what is going on around her.
The child matures into an adult and becomes a writer! What an awesome contribution to the memoir genre. I do hope that the killer is eventually caught.

This is a wonderful combination of memoir and true crime. I felt as though I realy got to know the author. Her willingness to examine the fragility of memory and adjust her conclusions accordingly made her more appealing. The change in her attitudes toward the people in her life caused me to re-examine my own feelings toward people in my life. This book is a definite addition for anyone's library.

William Grimes has always been one of my favorite NY Times reviewers. Although he tends to be negative, when he waxes effusive, I take notice. When I saw this....
------
"As a memoirist, she succeeds BRILLIANTLY. "The Lost Night" is ENTHRALLING, a skillfully narrated story that begins as a tale of detection but quickly becomes something more."
--William Grimes, NEW YORK TIMES

I figured I'd take a chance. Well, it's been sitting on my nightstand for 6-months now and damn if it's not enthralling. Although I was hoping for a bit of a who-done-it, I couldn't put it down. The descriptions of the messed-up Central Valley(to put it delicately)were terrific. With some sex, drugs, and even some 80s Rod Stewart in the mix, for good measure, it was a joy to read.

Lost and Found - a past reclaimed

I finished Rachel Howard's "the lost night" at 3 this morning. From the minute I cracked its spine, the pages turned themselves, inviting me to ignore every routine chore of mine: dirty dishes, daily exercise, even meals (though I did manage to go to work and feed the cat).

Masterfully written, the book tells a riveting story of the murder of Rachel's father when she was only 10 years old. How she handled the loss of this beloved man, her protector and playpal, is a glimpse into how children cope with tragedy of this magnitude. The experience retrospectively defined Rachel, her relationship with her family and also with her stepmother Sherry, her father's third wife when he was murdered. Rachel, the product of divorce, was spending a few summer weeks at her father's home during this time. She was witness to his last waking minutes and remembered details that would replay themselves with increasing vividness as time went by.

But memory is elusive...and selective. The author comes to realize that her memories were circumscribed by the limited frame-of-reference of a young life.

What I found so compelling here is the child's perspective. I have read (and probably own!) just about every true-crime/courtroom/forensic book that exists, yet I never read such an account from a 10-year-old point-of-view. Rachel illustrates the sometimes graphic, sometimes muted terror-of-the-night children of murdered parents are heir to, their wispy and unexpressed--indeed unconscious--suspicion of significant-others, and their necessary dependencies on adults who, often not comprehending the nuances involved, believe that by trotting the kid to therapy, they absolve themselves of the pain of revisiting the circumstances themselves. In Rachel's case, her father's family remained largely silent with her about that night. They may have felt that openly speaking about the murder with someone so young would somehow legitimize it for her. In fact, their passivity had the opposite, and quite damaging, effect on a young mind hungry for assurance and validation.

Palpable throughout Rachel's memoir is its raw honesty. The writing is often brutally introspective, devoid of the self-pity and lachrymose language which the author might easily --and justifiably-have indulged. She is seeking information and answers, and by the last page, I realize she has found those things, and some peace along the way.

Therese Hercher

I don't imagine anyone would ever call this a 'great literary masterpiece", but it was fun! That is what is so delightful about Jennifer Colt's books - they are fun! I love Terry and Kerry, identical twins who are anything but identical in personality, who are private investigators trying to scratch out a living in southern California. Jennifer Colt's writing puts me in mind of Sue Grafton with Kinsey Milhone - at times I laughed out loud reading this book.
It is a fun read and I enjoyed it so much I bought all of Ms Colt's other books about Terry and Kerry McAfee. Truly a lot of fun.

Another entertaining installment in the McAfee Twins mystery series. I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed the first. These books are too much fun!

If you like the genre of humorous mystery, you should also try the "In High Heels" series by Gemma Halliday.

> The red-headed twin PIs are at again. In a fast-paced, action-packed
> story, they manage to save a plane from terrorists and come off
> wearing bags over their heads to trying to keep their rich aunt and
> idler cousin from being charged with murder by an eager-beaver prosecutor.
>
> They look guilty to any and all when a headless corpse is found in one
> of aunt's rugs and the cousin turns up carrying the head but he can't
> remember how he got it. Involved in this messy situation are the
> denizens of the posh Malibu Canyon area. Will the girls be able to
> ferret out the killer or could they become his or her next victims.
>
> Add a cult of the rich and famous who believe in alien abduction to
> the tale and you have a tongue-in-cheek tale that will have you
> wanting to ride with the girls on your own pink Harley. The cast of
> fun characters includes producers who take advantage of starlets and
> those who want to join the movie star fraternity, trophy wives, cast
> off wives, and other members of filmdom's population, a cross section
> of that world that will have you laughing even as you consider the
> seriousness of the murder.
>
> A fun read that I'm pleased to recommend to any mystery fan who enjoys
> a lighthearted look at life in the fast lane. Beware the coke
> snorters and settle back for some enjoyable hours.
>
> Enjoy. I sure did.

After enjoying The Butcher of Beverly Hills so much, I couldn't wait to read this book. I hoped Colt wouldn't lose her touch, and she doesn't disappoint. She's a clever plotter and a pro at creating realistic dialogue and quirky characters. The fun starts immediately and never lets up, keeping you guessing the whole time. I look forward to The Vampire of Venice Beach, and hope that Colt has more Kerry and Terry adventures in store for her readers. Fans of Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series will find plenty to like here, but Colt has created an original series that can stand on its own merits. Skeptics might also enjoy the plot's zings at certain well-funded alien-centric Hollywood religions...

Double the fun! Twin sisters Kerry and Terry McAfee are PIs in Los Angeles. You can't miss them with their bright red hair and hot-pink Harley. They are a hoot!

Their rich aunt Reba finds a decapitated body in her new Malibu beach house. Detective John Boatright, the hunky detective Kerry is interested in, arrives to investigate. Then in walks their cousin Robert with a blonde-haired head in a mesh bag. He has no idea where he's been. Soon both Robert and Reba are confessing to the murder and end up in jail.

Terry and Kerry know they have to find the murderer to clear their cousin and aunt. In the process, they end up involved with Malibu movie producers, actors, cultists, and visitors from outer space. Can they sort through all the possible suspects and find the killer without putting themselves in danger and before Robert and Reba are convicted?

This series is fabulous. I just discovered it and can't wait to read the next book, The Vampire Of Venice Beach. There's also the first in the series, The Butcher Of Beverly Hills. I hope these girls will be around a long time. The writer has such great wit. I ended up laughing out loud many times from their antics. Kerry and Terry are quite different and that's what makes this work so well.

I highly recommend this book and series.