Murder Books

This is a very well written account of obsession that escalates into absolute madness. I found it very difficult to put this book down. Since the other reviewers have done an excellent job of summarizing the story, I won't be redundant.

The author has done a wonderful job of writing a true crime story that reads like a novel.

I highly recommend it!!

This beautifully written, highly detailed and extraordinarily resarched book probes into the case of a fatal attraction.

Tanya Tarasoff is a bright Russian-American girl attending a local community college in Berkely, California. She hopes to be accepted at Berkeley. Her father, a cruel, domineering problem drinker appears to have some rather paleolithic views of women in general. He verbally and physically mistreats his wife and Tanya's younger brother and sister. He snoops in Tanya's room, roots through her drawers and reads her mail. Tanya spends as little time as she possibly can at home, preferring the company of her fat friend Cindy. Cindy is described as Tanya's opposite number. Noncerebral and not academically inclined, Cindy appears to be more interested in the dating scene and is perfectly content to remain in a community college.

Tanya's aspirations are much greater. She takes a cultural dance class at Berkeley where she meets a student from India named Prosenjit Poddar.

Poddar, an Indian native and grandson of an Untouchable sees California as the Golden Dream. He falls into an obsessive love with Tanya and demands every minute of her free time. Tanya is plainly not interested in Poddar and involves herself in a number of sporadic flings. She falls in love with a boy identified as "Jeff" in a health food store and is crushed by his refusal to see her again after they have sex; she has a relationship with a boy during the last summer of her life and becomes pregnant. Tanya does not appear to have any sexual responsibility and she does not sound like she treated other people very well. One gets the feeling that Tanya likes using Poddar and having the superior position. She appears to like manipulating Poddar by acting like the brass ring; maybe, just maybe he can win her love if he plays his cards right. Of course, this is impossible and Tanya remains out of his reach at all times.

Poddar's obsession takes a dangerous tone when he stalks the girl, making recordings of their conversations and even buying her an Indian sari. He demands that she go out with him and chastises her like a stern parent when she does not show up at the appointed time. His controlling attitude towards her probably reminds her of her father's controlling attitude towards women in general.

Her father extends that controlling philosophy towards his only son. Beaten and browbeaten too many times, Alex leaves home and takes an apartment in the Berkeley area. Poddar learns of this and rooms with Alex. Alex is described as being a lot like the father -- he is cruel, explosive and completely contemptuous of Poddar. He dangles Tanya in front of Poddar's face like a treat. If Poddar will fix his Dodge Charger, he will repay the favor by telling him about Tanya. Tanya does not like Poddar and wants him out of her life.

Other Indian students who room with Poddar in the International House (I-House) insist that he seek counselling. His running obsession with Tanya is frightening and alarming. They successfully get him in therapy where Poddar further reveals his obsession with the Russian-American girl.

He hounds Tanya by telephone, sends her gifts and waits for her at her home. Tanya's repeated entreaties that he leave her alone go unheeded. Fortunately for Tanya, she had an aunt in Brazil who had been encouraging her to visit. Tanya's parents endorsed the idea, so Tanya spent the entire summer of 1969 in Brazil. Poddar deteriorated mentally and mourned the loss of having Tanya.

When Tanya returns to California in early August, Poddar appears to be at least trying to put her out of his mind. His doctors are alarmed at his choosing Tanya's brother as a roommate. One wonders why Poddar disclosed that fact. That was asking for more intervention, which was sorely needed by that point.

Poddar never really is able to release his obsession with Tanya. He resumes following and telephoning her. When she takes her first courses at Berkeley that fall of 1969, Poddar is waiting for her and stalking her. Tanya has made plans to move in with her fat friend, Cindy. She voices her concerns about the stalking to Cindy and at one point tells Poddar she is not interested in him. Refusing to get the message, Poddar's obsession escalates and buys a gun to finish off his unfinished business. He kills Tanya at her home in late October of 1969.

In a landmark lawsuit, Tanya's parents sued Berkeley and Poddar's treating psychiatrists for failing to disclose their real concerns that he was indeed a very dangerous patient.

This is a beautifully written, painstakingly researched and organized, fearless exploration of a tragic clash of character and culture. Deborah Blum strove for objectivity and empathy, understanding and identification, and she achieved it. In so far as a true crime story can be a work of art, this is one.

The setting is Berkeley 1969, Telegram Avenue and People's Park, etc. recalled with vivid and nostalgic detail. The two central characters, Prosenjit, an Indian exchange student at the university and Tanya, an American student, begin a flirtation that ends in tragedy. She is a sweet, innocent (or nearly innocent) girl who really only deserved to be loved, but she plays head games and heart games with Prosenjit who loves her passionately, and he is deeply hurt. I guess she couldn't know from her limited experience that in such situations some men can be dangerous. He is an Untouchable, or at least his grandfather was, and a nerd, and she lords it over him with her Caucasian beauty so that gradually he becomes obsessed with her. She grows uncomfortable with his obsession and wants him out of her life. But she calls him back after being dumped by another guy. The reader knows, as in a Greek tragedy, that this calling Prosenjit back reveals her fatal flaw.

Blum includes some photos of Tanya and some of Prosenji and his village in India. Her father is a jealous and controlling alcoholic, a Russian by birth who snoops around her room looking for evidence of liaisons and follows her about and forbids her to date although she is in college. She is a bright pretty girl who lacks in confidence. Prosenjit is a genius or nearly so, who has risen from his lowly birth to be one of the most promising of his generation in India. Interesting is his friend Jal Mehta, a Parsi Indian who knows Prosenjit from school in India and believes in his genius and tries to help him. Jal is confident and charming, articulate and wise in the ways of the world, but Prosenjit is jealous of him and cannot accept his help.

At some point Prosenjit begins to threaten violence, but Tanya continues to taunt him. She gets some satisfaction out of his obsessive love for her, but she hates him because he is such a nerd, and she despises his fawning behavior. Nonetheless, she comes to his room a couple of times a week and lords it over him. He secretly tape everything, and when she is gone he listens to the tapes over and over again, looking for some sign that she really loves him. He even splices some words together so that he has her saying "I love you." She rewards him sometimes with a tongue kiss on the mouth. Prosenjit, who is a prudish Victorian Indian, is both thrilled and shocked.

This is an excellent portrait of obsession. The clear compliancy of Tanya is notable. It suggests not just carelessness or an adolescent meanness, but something sadder, perhaps a self-destructive wish. Of course we feel sorry for her. We are led to feel sorry for both of them, just as we felt sorry for Romeo and Juliet.

Incidentally Tanya's parents eventually sued UC Berkeley, the shrinks in particular, for not warning them that their daughter was in danger. They won a landmark case that makes it mandatory for mental health care workers to warn potential victims if they think their client is dangerous.

I like mystery novels with an intriguing plot, fascinating characters, good writing, with vivid descriptions of a place (or industry or historical time..) . This novel has it all. A fun read. I've read all five of the Ben Candidi books, and this is even better than the others.

As scientist Ben Candidi and his beautiful soul mate Dr. Rebecca Levis sail toward the Bahamas for vacation, they encounter and salvage a sinking boat with an obviously murdered man aboard. Welcome to Paradise: home of good cops, bad cops, drugs and double dealing. The story unfolds and draws you in, with sharp and accurate details that keep it fresh and with pacing that keeps you turning the pages and builds to a "can't put it down" climax. Dirk Wyle's characters are such fully realized people that you expect to meet them on the street in West End, Bahamas.

This book is very exciting and paints a vivid picture of boating around Grand Bahama Island.

Sandy Semerad,
Author of Mardi Gravestone

this is not only a cleverly plotted mystery. the author also makes you care about her characters which adds so much to the story.

A wonderful new writer has treated us to an engaging mystery that will interest everyone. The characters are ones that everyone can identify with, the settings are familiar, yet universal. Dialogue moves the story and provides insight into character's personality. The story is quick moving and exciting. Ms. Raven's style of writing is smooth, yet deep. This is a wonderful read for all age groups.

Carole Ravin's first novel, The Belle Ridge Murders, is a fast thriller. Smartly written, it takes you inside the mindset of small town folk and reminds everyone that behind closed doors, we don't really know who are neighbors are!

A great read for someone looking for a good thriller to race through!

The Mexican government's investigation into the bizarre death of Digna Ochoa, a dedicated human-rights lawyer, is set up for scrutiny in this chilling exposé. The author, Linda Diebel, founded and headed up the Toronto Star's Latin-America bureau for seven years before transferring to Washington, and was an acquaintance of Digna's.

"Betrayed" presents the known facts of the case, along with statements from Digna's colleagues, friends and family, and from local police and politicians. The portrait of her that emerges is one that forces the reader to think twice about blindly accepting "official" verdicts in such controversial cases. As we learn more and more about Digna's life and passions and her eagerness to see justice done for Mexico's poorest and least privileged, the official position - that her death was a "probable suicide" - is shown to be absurd.

Digna wasn't only a warrior for justice, hailed by Amnesty International and Bill Clinton and Kerry Kennedy: she was a former Dominican nun, a young woman with a new boyfriend, a loving and stubborn and headstrong daughter and sister. With the extremely-readable and well-crafted "Betrayed", Linda Diebel has given readers a portrait of a fascinating woman whose spirit burned brightly and much too briefly.

Do you want to read a good thriller? Despite its title, "Betrayed: The Assassination of Digna Ochoa" is much more than an account of a celebrated human rights attorney who was murdered in Mexico in 2001. (The government subsequently tried to pass off her death as a suicide.) This beautifully written and well-documented narrative keeps the reader in suspense: Why try to cover up an obvious murder? How were the investigators able to accomplish it? This is a love story, a history of human rights abuses in Mexico and a political analysis. If you want to read a riveting account based on a true tragedy, be sure to read this one.

"In Mexico, to defend human rights is to risk your life." -Digna Ochoa. And that's exactly what she did. Ironcially, she risked her life by giving a voice to her own people in her own country, unprotected by her own government, and consequently betrayed. Yet many a government official vowed that this case would not go unsolved (staple phrase in Mexico when a crime is committed). Almost 2 years later, the best they could come up with was the most ridiculous, asinine and insulting verdict I've ever read. This verdict was just as riddled with holes as the other victims mentioned in this book.

I commend Linda Diebel on her arduous, and at times dangerous, investigative work to produce this book. It was through it that holes such as careless police work of not properly securing the crime scene, removal of the body only after all medical readings are taken, no possible gun powder residue, and something as simple as the chain of custody of the evidence were either discovered or brought out from under the rug.

The case of Digna Ochoa is marred and disgraced with incompetence, contradictions, lies, cover up, and ultimately betrayal; things that go against Digna herself and what she stood for. Mexican officials are known to make dissenters disappear (via the army, police, security forces, and others). That explains why testimonies in Digna's case (one of many) were changed and documents mysteriously went missing. If a person who stands in their (government) way can easily be dealt with, then how hard can it be to get rid of a piece of paper?

I strongly recommend this book. While the white sandy beaches of Mexico are quite real, so is the corruption, injustices, and atrocities of torturing and killing of innocent people.

This book is without a doubt the only accurate account of the horrible murders in Gainesville, FL. Be in the mind of the killer; be in the mind of the detective tracking him. And know the truth, not the self-serving stories told by the killer and his paramour, not the summaries of newspaper accounts. This was a horrible event. The authors give us a driving, accurate narative. Couldn't put it down.

I've read all three books about the Gainesville Ripper, Danny Rolling - Beyond Murder, Killer on Campus and the Gainesville Ripper.

Beyond is the ultimate Rolling book and it blows the other two books clean out of the water.

It's clear, concise and it moves at a great pace.

The authors spent countless hours investigating the case, researching their information and interviewing not only Rolling, but the families & friends of the victims, the police agencies involved and anyone else they could think of that might have valuable information, making this a tight and accurate read.

Donnelly, a reporter, covered the Gainesville murders for the Miami Herald as the case was unraveling.

Philpin, a criminal profiler for numerous years, wrote a psychological profile early on in the case for the Miami Herald.

If you want to know everything there is to know about the Gainesville killings pick up this book. The other two I would only suggest reading if you can get them for free from your public library because even a nickle for a used copy is too much to pay for them.

I lived this story. After graduating from UF in 1992, I went overseas for 7 years, not knowing the entire happenings with the case. I knew some of the details of the case and that Rollings plead guilty, but I was unaware of the entire story. This book changed all of that.
Reading this book brought tears to my eyes on several occasions. This whole ordeal was so shocking, it is impossible to comprehend. Reliving the memories of fear was hard for me, but I needed closure.
"Beyond Murder" recounts the story of the victims and their families prior to and following the murders, the police force, the killer, and every aspect of the case. There are a few times during the read that I felt as though I was reading a police report when family members were quoted, which I am sure was the case. It took a little from the overall story, but not enough to change my 5 star rating.
Get this book, learn the importance of safety, and always remember Sonja, Christina, Christa, Tracy, and Manuel, five beautiful people taken away from this world by evil.

This book has to be the best summary of politics, drug running, the offshore powerboat industry, the Mafia, crime, corruption and intrigue that I have ever read!! Aronow was an old friend of my family's in New Jersey and when he got murdered we all waited for the book to come out, sure enough it did and was excellent. If you love the mob, fast boats, fast cars, fast horses and beautiful women, BLUE THUNDER is a MUST READ!! Enjoy . . . . . H.L., Florida

If you have an interest in offshore racing, take the time and read this compelling book about the father of the the industry. Ever heard of Thunderboat row? Find out the impact he had on some of the largest manufacturers in the country, and their attempts to to keep him out of the boat building business. You will learn about the rise and murder of Don Aronow and how state law enforcement of Florida(at the time led by the infamous Janet Reno) either bungled the investigation, or for whatever reason, let his death go unsolved. You will learn of the allegation that Don Aronow had ties to the mob, South American drug smugglers, and to the DEA. At the end you can surmise what you will of what his life was about, but you can't take away what he meant to the sport of offshore racing. Read it and pay homage.

I have really enjoyed this book. I like true stories, and am especially interested in speed boat racing, and stories about how the Mafia infiltrates businesses, and eventually takes them over! It certainly is an interesting read.

All I read is true crime books and I read a lot this is one of the best true crime books I have ever read!!

I agree with the previous reviewer in that this is one of the best true crime books I have ever read. I also read exclusively true crime only, and this one stands above the rest. The story itself is very disturbing and will stay with you for quite some time. The author also has a hard edge in his style and pulls no punches in terms of vulagarity, racism, and sexual content. At times it is uncomfortable to read but this only makes the story come alive.

I found this book because I searched his name after reading his other book, Love's Blood, which is just as good. It is too bad these are the only 2 books I can find by him, but they are both definitely 5 star.

Four young men, three white and one black, escape from a Maryland correctional facility. They pick up fifteen year old Billy Isaacs along the way. On the escape, they break into a trailor. Unfortunately for six members of the Alday famiy on May 14, 1973, they come home to the trailer parked in wooded Georgia's Seminole County. Carl, the ringleader of the gang, with his fellow escapees, Wayne Coleman and his black lover George Dungee, are more involved in killing 5 members of the family. 15 year old Billy is the only one who feels any sense of remorse and conscience despite being an unwilling participant in these crimes. The five members of the family were men and they were shot off in the trailer. Carl refuses to go to prison and face being gang-raped by the other prisoners. Carl is the unofficial leader who calls the shots and performs a massacre unlike ever seen before in Georgia. They rape and kill the only female member, Mary, left naked an dead in the woods a few miles from the trailer of blood. The four guys escape the scene and fled to West Virginia. They wanted to drop off Billy in Maryland but they all get caught. Carl was executed in 2003 for his part in the murders. Billy was released in 1994. The other two are on death row for their role in the murders. Clark Howard's writing helps explain the brutality, history, childhoods, and poor upbringing. Their lives were pitiful to begin with. Their fertile mother abandoned them. The State of Maryland's Children Services did nothing but place them in foster care and homes until they didn't know what to do with them. Howard's writing offers us flashbacks to Carl walking to his grandmother's house in Pennsylvania one night. How Wayne and George made an unlikely friendship and partnership in the correctional facility? Poor Billy who was almost murdered by the others because of his obvious guilt and remorse. Still a child, Billy, was crying all the way from Georgia. Billy was only involved because Carl got him involved by taking him away from Baltimore. Oh, if things had only been different. I never heard of the Alday murders until I got this book. 2 months before my own birth, crimes like this happened and occurred. 6 innocent people dead for no reason. The Aldays pleaded with their killers to let them live and take whatever they wanted but the problem was Carl's death wish. He didn't want to go to prison and stay in the general population if he got caught because of the gang-rapes. Even 30 years later, you can't help but wonder what might have happened to prevent such a tragedy. If we can't learn from it, then they all died in vain.

Books in the Nancy Drew Paperback Series (79-175) were discontinued in 2003, and are now available at used book stores. The Case of the Dangerous Solution (#127) is only one more example of these finely crafted mystery stories. This particular mystery involves the drug industry and a local pharmacy in River Heights where orders are filled that are doing harm to people. Nancy must be at her inquisitive and level-headed best as she navigates through a maze of suspects and unexpected events. In characteristic fashion, the alert and inquisitive Nancy does not jump to conclusions until all the facts are in. Her loyal friends George and Bess assist her through all the twists and turns.

While this book and the other Minstrel and Alladin paperbacks are now out of print, they are well-worth exploring if you are a mystery lover. The well-written dialogues are constructed to put the reader right there in a particular scene. The writing is remarkably concise, only utilizing carefully selected words and expressions; the complex plots keep the reader in suspense from beginning to end.

It's my understanding that when Simon and Schuster bought the rights to the Nancy Drew Mysteries, the way the stories were written underwent a change in an effort to appeal to an older group of young readers. After the mid-80's, the Minstrel and Alladin printings showed the newer and crisper writing style, which make them so readable and enjoyable right up to the present day.

I'm really very picky with books... I don't like older books, they scare me. Thus, I don't like the old Nancy Drews. I don't like some of the corny ones. My favourite are these ones, the NEW Mystery Stories, like The Case of the Dangerous Solution and The Case of the Twin Teddy Bears. This was great. Not corny, and just suspenseful enough to make sure you can still sleep at night. George takes up a job at Twickham's Pharmacy, the most reliable pharmacy/drugstore in River Heights. The staff are friendly and Twickham's is the only drugstore that still delivers. George always enjoys making her deliveries to elderly Mrs. Cay... until a discovery of tainted medicine is made and Mrs. Cay is one of the poisoned victims! Nancy, George and Bess must track down the person out to kill. It's a FANTASTIC book, I enjoyed it down to the very last word.

I have read heaps of Nancy Drew stories and this is one of the better ones. The story line is easy to follow and has twists. It holds you in suspense right up to the end. Jemma Ferguson

CELESTIAL DOGS Jay Russell St. Martin's, Mar 1997, $21.95, 272 pp.

Celestial Dogs, which I stumbled upon doing a search through Amazon, is the story of a Raymond Chandler -isque private detective who gets caught up in a supernatural plot to summon real demons into present-day Los Angeles. As "Ghostbusterish" as that sounds, the author pulls it off beautifully, mixing humor with intensely graphic suspense. I especially love Russell's writing style and look forward to reading the next Marty Burns novel

Jay Russell may be America's best-kept secret. I blame myself for this. And you, of course. If you and I had bothered to read his work, he might be a lot more famous. Instead, he ran off to the UK and rests in relative obscurity.

Shame on you.

Russell is the author of a short series of books featuring Marty Burns, former child TV star and washed-up private eye. In "Celestial Dogs", Marty is introduced as a likeable drunk, a not-too-terribly sharp detective and a Hollywood namedropper par excellence. Every page is filled with so much LA lore you'd think the author spends his days on a studio backlot with a tape recorder running.

"Dogs" starts off like your ordinary LA potboiler. Witty, wisecracking and jaded PI is hired to locate a stripper for a local pimp. During his investigation, PI is lied to, beaten up, misled and has his body taken over by a demon from Japanese mythology.

You heard me. This ain't Elvis Cole we're talkin' about.

It turns out that the myths are truth and that one particularly bad-bootied demon has already joined the guest list at Spago. Marty and his new girlfriend Rosa find themselves in the middle of this dreamworld trying to protect themselves and the people they care about from things they can barely comprehend.

Jay Russell does wisecracks like nobody's business. His writing is deceptively easy and fluid, making "Celestial Dogs" speed past like a Ferrari, but Russell manages to tell a darned good story. I bought this book because I had read the author's "Brown Harvest" and liked it, but the Marty Burns tales quickly rose to the top of my favorite detective stories list.

If you are put off by a supernatural element in your mysteries, "Celestial Dogs" might not be for you, but if you enjoy a little macabre with your mayhem, you'll love it.

Jay Russell deserves to be more than a well-kept secret.

Hill is a wonderful writer, and this series just gets better and better. In this book we have a little bit of everything - greed, murder, police politics, and of course the guy who never lets any of that bother him in his efforts to solve mysteries - Andy Dalziel. Hill unfolds his plot like a wonderfully wrapped package - layer upon layer comes off until we get to the surprising ending! One thing about Reginald Hill - he is never predictable and every book is surprisingly different. Enough to keep me guessing, and continuing to read this wonderful series.

Hill is one of the top mystery writers. The world he has created in the Dalziel and Pascoe series is as real as Nero Wolfe's. The interplay between liberal, educated, and sexy Pascoe and gross, vulgar, and brilliant Dalziel is well observed and outrageously funny. Hill has a sly wit, often leading to laugh-out-loud outbursts that can be embarrassing in public places. Read the whole series, spend time with his characters.

I'm flabbergasted that nobody has chosen to review this book before. This is my first exposure to Mr. Hill's writing and I am impressed. Hill is an English writer of detective mystery fiction. This book is one in a series that revolves around the workings of a pair of policemen based in Northern England, one of whom is a Rabelaisian, dyed in the wool Yorkshireman, the other a University educated middle class everyman. Childs Play is a story that evolves around the entwined fates of two families and, of all things, a repressed homosexual cop. When a mystery man appears graveside to claim the heritance of a prodigal son, things quickly spin wildly out of control when he and another complete stranger are killed within a week of each other in apparently unrelated incidents. Complexity is added when an eager representative of a named party in the origingal deceased's will begins to cobble together an alliance in order to overturn the will, which makes any one of the interested parties a suspect in the murders. Dalziel and Pascoe work together to puzzle the pieces and solve this fine mystery in an ending that is sure to have you curling your toes in anticipation and suspense. I am giving this book five stars because it is truly well-written and the suspense becomes wonderfully excruciating as the author proceeds to weave a half-dozen seemingly disparate threads together into Gordian knot before cutting it. My only objections to Mr. Hill's story telling is his penchant for throwing in obscure high culture references that seem oddly out of place and his willingness to place extreme pressure upon his audience's suspension of disbelief. All in all though, this story will have you panting for more, I am quite sure.