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A review by mattleesharp
Incendiary: The Psychiatrist, the Mad Bomber and the Invention of Criminal Profiling by Michael Cannell
5.0
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for feedback and review.
This book is great. Definite shades of Lawrence Wright. Cannell really expertly weaves the facts and reporting of the case of the Mad Bomber into an easy to follow narrative. I really appreciated how many perspectives you get: from the newspapers to the police to the profiling psychiatrist.
I was attracted to this book because I didn't really know the story of the Mad Bomber, and this was about as comprehensive a look at him and the time period as I could have asked for. Solidly sourced and incredibly thorough.
A couple years ago I read a book called Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb. A major point made there was that a lot of the power of a bomb is not in the destruction, but in the noise. A bomb, especially in the period of time this book covers, acts as a microphone for bombers. This book does a really good job of fairly covering the grievances George Metesky was trying to amplify while placing them in the context of his psychology.
The only issue I really had with the book was its epilogue, which ran a bit too long and tried to cover too much of the "after" part of the story. It was great to have so many perspectives inform the main thrust of the book, but there's a lot more time than necessary spent making sure every one of those individual storylines gets a neat little bow tied on it. Overall I definitely recommend this book highly to anyone though. It was a great read.
This book is great. Definite shades of Lawrence Wright. Cannell really expertly weaves the facts and reporting of the case of the Mad Bomber into an easy to follow narrative. I really appreciated how many perspectives you get: from the newspapers to the police to the profiling psychiatrist.
I was attracted to this book because I didn't really know the story of the Mad Bomber, and this was about as comprehensive a look at him and the time period as I could have asked for. Solidly sourced and incredibly thorough.
A couple years ago I read a book called Buda's Wagon: A Brief History of the Car Bomb. A major point made there was that a lot of the power of a bomb is not in the destruction, but in the noise. A bomb, especially in the period of time this book covers, acts as a microphone for bombers. This book does a really good job of fairly covering the grievances George Metesky was trying to amplify while placing them in the context of his psychology.
The only issue I really had with the book was its epilogue, which ran a bit too long and tried to cover too much of the "after" part of the story. It was great to have so many perspectives inform the main thrust of the book, but there's a lot more time than necessary spent making sure every one of those individual storylines gets a neat little bow tied on it. Overall I definitely recommend this book highly to anyone though. It was a great read.