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A review by barelyconcealed
Blood on Their Hands by Mandy Matney
informative
slow-paced
0.75
This is quite bad.
The only reason I think I managed through this was because I was waiting for a few other audiobooks to come in through Libby and I needed something to fill my long commute home. This was very nearly a DNF, for a few big reasons.
I am not familiar with the podcast that Matney runs based on this subject. I am familiar with the subject matter. The Murdaugh case - famous among true crime watchers - is already kind of a messy case to begin with, but Matney makes the inspired choice to (between confusing elements of a confused story) to constantly and readily insert herself. Not Gonzo style - that might have been interesting - but instead in near grotesque jumps to personal, unrelated anecdotes.
I'm not sure who wanted a book based on the least interesting perspective in the room during the investigation and prosecution of an accidental death, double homicide and extensive fraud but I guess if you wanted that perspective, here it is. Matney inserts her own story alongside the narrative in the kind of podcaster-white-knight caricature that I've come to expect (for another case study, see Payne Lindsey); this wouldn't have been solved without Matney. Matney is a key point along which this entire case pivots.
There is more time spent in this book on the trip that Matney takes with her fiance to Jamaica than on the trial itself. For a double homicide. I exit this book knowing more about Matney and every time that she's been personally and professionally slighted than about any other figure in this story and this is supposedly about the Murdaugh case.
In ways that I can't quite articulate there's something very white feminism about this book; repeatedly Matney will bring up this story and relate it to the regional plight of people of color, but barely talks about the non-white victims of this case, she tells a very strange story about a Jamaican souvenir vendor that only just avoids pastoral stereotypes, and talks a lot in the slang of the girlboss - Murdaugh isn't lying, he's gaslighting. People can't disagree with her unless they're a part of the good ole boys club. It's just exhausting and narratively unfounded. I'm not saying that the men in her life aren't ignoring her concerns because she's a woman, I'm saying that she doesn't establish that that is why.
Unless you're a fan of Matney, I see absolutely no reason to read this book.
The only reason I think I managed through this was because I was waiting for a few other audiobooks to come in through Libby and I needed something to fill my long commute home. This was very nearly a DNF, for a few big reasons.
I am not familiar with the podcast that Matney runs based on this subject. I am familiar with the subject matter. The Murdaugh case - famous among true crime watchers - is already kind of a messy case to begin with, but Matney makes the inspired choice to (between confusing elements of a confused story) to constantly and readily insert herself. Not Gonzo style - that might have been interesting - but instead in near grotesque jumps to personal, unrelated anecdotes.
I'm not sure who wanted a book based on the least interesting perspective in the room during the investigation and prosecution of an accidental death, double homicide and extensive fraud but I guess if you wanted that perspective, here it is. Matney inserts her own story alongside the narrative in the kind of podcaster-white-knight caricature that I've come to expect (for another case study, see Payne Lindsey); this wouldn't have been solved without Matney. Matney is a key point along which this entire case pivots.
There is more time spent in this book on the trip that Matney takes with her fiance to Jamaica than on the trial itself. For a double homicide. I exit this book knowing more about Matney and every time that she's been personally and professionally slighted than about any other figure in this story and this is supposedly about the Murdaugh case.
In ways that I can't quite articulate there's something very white feminism about this book; repeatedly Matney will bring up this story and relate it to the regional plight of people of color, but barely talks about the non-white victims of this case, she tells a very strange story about a Jamaican souvenir vendor that only just avoids pastoral stereotypes, and talks a lot in the slang of the girlboss - Murdaugh isn't lying, he's gaslighting. People can't disagree with her unless they're a part of the good ole boys club. It's just exhausting and narratively unfounded. I'm not saying that the men in her life aren't ignoring her concerns because she's a woman, I'm saying that she doesn't establish that that is why.
Unless you're a fan of Matney, I see absolutely no reason to read this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder