monopolyllama's review against another edition
Mostly didn’t finish because it’s more of a reference book. Will likely continue he browsing it throughout the year.
titanic's review against another edition
3.0
[ 3.5 stars rounded down ]
there were quite a lot of cases in this book, which was nice. i just wished they didn’t use the most popular ones for the categories as it gets a little boring reading pages and pages about crimes you already know about.
besides that, it was interesting! i liked how they gave small snippets of crimes similar on the side!
there were quite a lot of cases in this book, which was nice. i just wished they didn’t use the most popular ones for the categories as it gets a little boring reading pages and pages about crimes you already know about.
besides that, it was interesting! i liked how they gave small snippets of crimes similar on the side!
badpunsanduwu's review against another edition
There was no way I would have finished this without the audiobook. The narration was good but let’s just say it gives me encyclopaedia vibes or a slightly cooler textbook.
By the time I’m reading this there are some changes in cases already.
Overall a decent coffee table book that you can dip in and out of whenever you feel like it.
By the time I’m reading this there are some changes in cases already.
Overall a decent coffee table book that you can dip in and out of whenever you feel like it.
taste_of_mace's review against another edition
3.0
Overall, this book was a good read. I liked how it broke down stories into digestible sizes, and generally did a good job of summarizing details. However, I was a little disappointed in a couple of things.
First of all, some of the book was particularly difficult to read, and I found the writing style wasn't always very easy to comprehend.
Secondly, specifically with the Frank Abignale and Jeffrey Dahmer sections, I was disappointed at the length of the entries. Frank Abignale was such a brilliant man, and as I recently read his autobiography, I was disappointed that the summary skimmed over a lot of his very interesting life. With Jeffrey Dahmer, I felt the summary did that as well as left out information that was particularly damaging, as police returned a 14-year-old victim (who they found naked with a hole drilled into his skull) to Dahmer who claimed he was an adult lover of his. Considering this child was a POC, this act can be seen as discriminatory against visible minorities and the LGBT+ community. Jeffrey Dahmer was so damaging to the gay community, and his sexuality or that he targeting gay men and boys was not mentioned at all in the strikingly short section of the book. This felt like erasure of important context for his killings, and I didn't appreciate that this very notable and wide-known part of Dahmer's story was left out of the book.
Lastly, I was just sort of confused as to why Caesar wasn't in the assassinations section of the book....wouldn't he have been a more obvious choice than the first two people that were included?
Other than all of that, I found I learned some interesting things, and I thought the book did well at giving a broad overview of various crimes throughout history, and did well at focusing not just on North American crime (which is often more publicized in my experience).
First of all, some of the book was particularly difficult to read, and I found the writing style wasn't always very easy to comprehend.
Secondly, specifically with the Frank Abignale and Jeffrey Dahmer sections, I was disappointed at the length of the entries. Frank Abignale was such a brilliant man, and as I recently read his autobiography, I was disappointed that the summary skimmed over a lot of his very interesting life. With Jeffrey Dahmer, I felt the summary did that as well as left out information that was particularly damaging, as police returned a 14-year-old victim (who they found naked with a hole drilled into his skull) to Dahmer who claimed he was an adult lover of his. Considering this child was a POC, this act can be seen as discriminatory against visible minorities and the LGBT+ community. Jeffrey Dahmer was so damaging to the gay community, and his sexuality or that he targeting gay men and boys was not mentioned at all in the strikingly short section of the book. This felt like erasure of important context for his killings, and I didn't appreciate that this very notable and wide-known part of Dahmer's story was left out of the book.
Lastly, I was just sort of confused as to why Caesar wasn't in the assassinations section of the book....wouldn't he have been a more obvious choice than the first two people that were included?
Other than all of that, I found I learned some interesting things, and I thought the book did well at giving a broad overview of various crimes throughout history, and did well at focusing not just on North American crime (which is often more publicized in my experience).
eilidh_beaton's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
A beautifully laid out, informative, and interesting text. In all honesty I didn't read every single entry, I skipped the chapters on gang-related crimes, robberies and the like. However, I'm sure that they were just as informative and well done as the ones I did read. The book offers a lot of information without overloading the reader. It is divided into sub-genres of crime and offers a handy overview at the beginning of each chapter that includes a mini timeline of some of the most intersting/well known related crimes. I would definitely recommend as it got me interested in genres of crime that I didn't think I was as interested in, such as infamous kidnappings and ransoms.
auroradawn's review
4.0
I've read other nonfiction/reference books by published by DK, such as Do Not Open and Pick Me Up. Like them, this compendium is full of fascinating facts and information. Similar to short story collections, it is not necessary to read this book in order; in fact, it can be even more fun to flip to random pages and learn about something completely new and different. This is a great coffee table book and belongs on any true crime lover's shelf!
Thank you to Netgalley and DK Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Netgalley and DK Publishing for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.