True Crime Books

I really am enjoying reading this book, which is clear, compelling and poignant...and sheds light on a much-ignored fact about our court system, the numbers of innocent people who get convicted by dubious eye-witness testimony..

This is an incredible book which shows the real problems with the criminal justice system. The reviewer who criticizes Ms. Smith for believing in her client's innocence has clearly missed the point. Most criminal defense attorneys would find it much easier to defend a guilty client, and in fact some of the most skeptical people I have ever met are public defenders. The most important thing about this book is that Ms. Smith constantly reexamines her point of view and potential emotional conflicts, and is incredibly honest with the reader.

Case of a Lifetime is the story, or fable, of a lawyer who develops deep feelings for a guilty client and because of those feelings she obsessed for more than 20 years trying to have her client exonerated. To the casual reader who is capable of using logic and reason, the subject of the book, Patsy Kelly Jarrett, comes across as likely guilty, despite her repeated claim of being innocent. To a reader with some direct insight into the murders and robberies that are part of this book, the subject, Patsy Kelly Jarrett, is definitely guilty.
The author went to great lengths to find people who would accept her version of the client's story and after 20 plus years, those people were still few and far between. What the author did not do was pursue people who would have information that contradicts the claims of innocence.
The author will use both sides of the "one witness" debate. She is against it when it contradicts her client's story, but she is in favor of it when it can be used to add credence to her client's fable. She can't have it both ways.
The book is a blend of fact and fiction. The facts the author detailing her efforts on behalf of the client. The fiction is the story that the client tells. Patsy Kelly Jarrett is a convicted murderer. That was affirmed at her trial and reaffirmed through the many appeals, clemency hearings, and parole hearings. Thankfully the American justice system worked.

Really nothing more than hundreds of reprinted pages and photo's from the U.S. Dept of Narcotics Enforcement in the early 1960's, it is very interesting and a vital resource for any crime historian.

A catalog of redacted FBI one-pages on certain mobsters roughly 1960's era; not complete and in serious need of updating. No charts or other supportive info.

This book is not worth the money, It grabs the reader with the title < mafia > .
And then shows you a police blotter from a few states dating back to the fifties
Everybody in the book is dead. worthless information

Interesting for buffs with a little info for today. Better off having it available in a searchable PDF file you can download.

This book is a piece of garbage and has no value. It was not described as nothing more than one page notes and a picture of Mafia members who woulfd range in age from 117 to 85. It was a total waste of $23

This is a well researched,highly readable book.It was interesting to see the mobsters own confessions via wiretaps by the FBI.The FBI was also able to uncover a mole working for the mob on the NYPD payroll.The language of these mobsters behind closed doors was appalling,not the 4 letter word cursing, but the sociopathic ramblings about murder and extortion.Those wiretaps definitely denied the mob their layer of deniability. the author gives a good account of mob extortion in the building trade,a 1% mark-up which seems scarcely noticeable turns into multi-millions on large scale building contracts.As Mr. Davis points out very coherently,the mob's main method of winning these contracts is violence or even more fearful the "threat of violence " as an option.
It was a real eye opener about "mob charites" or the mob paying a mortgage for an elderly widow.The odds are about the same as winning in a gambling casino.For every widow who had her mortgage paid by a mobster dozens more lost their mortgages due to mob crimes.It was inspiring to see how many Italian-Americans worked overtime to help bring down the Gambino crime family.If nothing else this book gives a real respectful view of hard working honest Americans and I gave kudos to the priest who refused to do a mobster's funeral.I realize however that some of the priests do the masses out of respect for the mobster's families who are often mob victims also.Really this book does not glorify the Gambino's and there is nothing good said about any of their members.Gotti is portrayed as the final deevolution of the Gambino's "family" and ironically it took the US government to straighten out some of the mess which still isn't entirely cleaned up yet.
One thing in this book really impressed me. The mob itself is nothing but a glorified pyramid scheme and actually exploits the underpriveliged instead of helping them.Short term the "worker" may get a new car but long term he gets a "long term" that is if he's lucky.The Gambino's retirement program seemed to be a mob "bodybag" or one other way. That is,having the government pick up the tab by sponsoring a criminal in the "Witness Protection Program" at 5 grand a month(at least in 1990).Gotti spent most of his time as Gambino manager trying to figure out who was going to turn up next as a government witness.That in itself would definitely be a full time job.The book makes me wonder what would have been revealed about Al Capone had the government had wiretaps in the 1930's.

Here is a very insitefull book on a "Man's Man". not saying that being a violation of any crime is I supported by me. But the Man of John Gotti as descibed in this book I can respect.

Author John Davis takes a historical look at New York's Gambino crime family from its earlier days of Charles "Lucky" Luciano and Albert Anastasia, to the Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, and John Gotti era's that followed. I liked the author's personal look at each of these Godfathers, plus his analysis of their strengths and weaknesses. Readers see how the mob derives its income from payoffs in construction, trucking, and garment-making, plus stand-bys like gambling, extortion, pornography and loan sharking. The author also examines the rise and decline of New York City's five families, of which the Gambino's were the most powerful. Not surprisingly, the book focuses more heavily on recent years, particularly the reign of the "Teflon Don" John Gotti (1940-2002) from his takeover in late 1985 until his conviction and life sentence in 1992. Overall, this is a readable and interesting look at the mob/mafia hold on New York City.

Rise and fall of the mafia. Good history on the Gambinos and other mafia. Some typos and a clear violent book. Read the book it's pretty good. I had to use sticky yellow paper to write down notes and keep track of the story the book has lots of pages so you might get lost in the story. There's present and past stories that's why I got lost so I had use notes. Interesting book overall life of an outlaw.

This book does more than only focusing on the Gambino Crime Family. It throws light on the history, rise, power, and decline of the big five crime families. Because, out of the five, Gambino Crime Family was the most powerful and organized, so it tells you in detail about the bosses of this family, which includes: Albert Anastasia, Carlo Gambino, Paul Castellano, and John Gotti. However, Vincent Mangano, who was the boss of the family before Anastasia, is ignored in this book, which is quiet strange, as he played the most important part in Gambino Crime Family for more than twenty years. Many reviewers have complained that Davis has given too much detail on Gotti, but I think it is because it was Gotti who gave the Gambino Crime Family the face we know.

The book is very well written, and even though it is full of lengthy details and gives so much information (sometimes Davis goes overboard), it still manages to keep the readers glued. I will give four stars to this book.

This is an early Ann Rule true crime story about Harvey Carignan who used the want ads to lure unsuspecting, young female victims.

Ann Rule goes back to the cases in Alaska where Carignan beat a hanging sentence on a technicality.

Carignan is a sociopath,but far from insane. He is intelligent and knows criminal law and constitutional rights well enough to have written papers on the subjects during an earlier stretch in prison.

The author defines the difference between a sociopath and a psychotic.

She mentions the possibility that Carignan may have been involved in the Piper kidnapping, although the evidence is weak.

The maps with the interesting markings showing some known burial sites gives rise to the concern that he vented his hatred of women far more times than has been known. The numerous unexplained markings loosely match some unsolved murders with similar M.O. in areas that Carignan passed through. He may have been an earlier version of a roaming killer much like Tommy Lynn Sells. One difference between Carignan and other notorious serial killers is the physical nature of Carignan, he was large,muscular and didn't shy away from fights with men.

"The Want-Ad Killer" may not be Ann Rule's best book, but it is fast-paced and an interesting choice of subject in Harvey Carignan.

I'm a big fan of Ann Rule, so I have read a lot of her books and stories. Although the Want-Ad Killer was good, I like some of her books better. I still would recommend the book if you like her work.

She did a good job illustrating this slimy, sleaze-ball, nut job, sicko from hell. No other way to describe him!

If you like true crime at it's best you have just met the master.

I've read other books by Ann Rule, especially NO REGRETS and GREEN RIVER RUNNING RED, so I was intrigued by this title. I had previously heard about scams involving "help wanted" ads, where unwitting people are lured into danger by scam artists looking to take advantage of people who genuinely need work, so this book seemed worthwhile reading.

THE WANT-AD KILLER describes the disappearance and murder of Kathy Sue Miller, the victim who finally was responsible for bringing Harvey Carignan, a longtime "career criminal" to justice. Carignan had hit upon the idea of luring women to his gas station on the pretext of applying for a job. He placed ads in the local paper. When the job applicants refused his sexual advances, he killed them, usually with blows to the head, in a homicidal rage.

Kathy Sue Miller, aged 15, was one of those girls who applied for the job she saw in the paper. Despite her mother's warning that she should not go off in a car with an unknown man for a job interview, Kathy Sue Miller got into Harvey Carignan's car, ostensibly to go to his gas station to apply for the job, and was never seen again. She had originally called the number in the paper for a job for her boyfriend, Mark, but Carignan convinced her that she could get the job herself, and she was excited at the idea of having some money of her own. Rule points out that Carignan's idea of putting a "want ad" in the paper gave him a steady supply of victims who walked right into his hands.

Rule's book is skillfully written, with good insights not only into the emotional effects of this crime on the victim's family, but also on the detectives in charge of solving the crime. It serves as a well-written cautionary tale to anyone who is looking for a job, but also wants to make sure that he or she remains safe in the process.

Harvey Carignan is a prime example of why the US Constitution so frequently works against victims while offering loopholes for perpetrators; often setting them free to repeat their crimes as is this case with Carignan. On the side of the fence, readers develop sympathy for Mary Miller, whose daughter was the first known victim of Carignan after most recent prison release.

Ann Rule, despite this being one of her early works, does an outstanding job of providing an in-depth look into the childhood, teenage years and adulthood of Carignan. Much of what we learn is based on Carignan's "accusations" and Rule does a superb job of noting that, most likely, this are just what they are...only accusations.

While the title is a bit deceptive (Carignan only murdered one young girl, that is known, from a classified ad), the overall content of the book is intense and intriguing; so much so that I completed the book within 24 hours.

This is the last of the Ann Rule books I had not read to date. This early work is proof that Rule has a natural talent for writing about America's worst citizens....rapist and/or murderers.

I could not put this book down. I ordered it in a time where polygamy was all over the news. A ranch down in Texas was raided & 400+ children taken out of there, with only 100+ mothers. I thought this book really gave you a great idea of what it was like to live believing in this horrible religion of FDLS. It is sickening. I found it to be horrifying that young boys are tossed out of the community as to not be "competition" with the old men for the child bearing women!! I can't even believe there are people in the world that would believe this type of thing, but this book really gave me an understaing first hand of what it really is like. As a woman, you are basically stuck, you have no rights of your own, your children can be taken from you & raised as someone else's & you can be given to another husband if someone else sees fit. The "first wife" keeps track of the "sister wives" menstrual cycles, as to know when to let them sleep with her husband to produce as many children as they can. Children are abused, as are sister wives most times. Sometimes only the MAIN family eat well, dress well, etc, depending on the views of the husband. The sister wives & children eat scraps & ketchup sandwiches & wear rags, sewn together, while the first wife & their children together eat like royalty & wear new clothes. All to get a good spot in Heaven. I love this book, it is a bizarre religion, so I was in AWE alot, but it is a great inside view of their life. I read this book in 3 days flat. It was wonderful!

First of all, this was a great book! Somewhere in the middle of the book, I went from feeling very sorry for these women, to actually being sort of mad at some of them. Some of these same women contined to find yet another Polygamy family even after leaving a horrible one.
I feel mostly sorry for the children :(
Great book otherwise !!

While this book is worth reading, it is not about Warren Jeffs as anyone might expect from the title. While it does tell about the women in polygamy the dialog in most of these stories reads like that in a harlequin novel. Since I was expecting to learn about the life of Warren Jeffs I was disappointed.

Dear Professor Western:

I LOVED YOUR BOOK. My teacher says it was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
I have read a lot of books on polygamy, but I liked yours the best of all because it talks about all kinds of polygamous groups in America. It really is a different "world". I intend to do my research paper on your study. I was sorry to hear that some polygamous people are giving you a hard time for telling the truth. I THINK THE MEDIA AND EVERYBODY SHOULD READ THIS BOOK BECAUSE IT SO DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHER 'ESCAPE' TYPE BOOKS. It explains why polygamist men behave like they do, and all their different doctrines--fascinating. Keep up the good work, I learned a lot. - Thanks Rick.

Written as if it were being put together for the History channel. I would put this just above "Under and Alone".

A first glance you would think this book is about the Hells Angels in particular. However, it is more of a primer about several of the major outlaw clubs here in the US and internationally. I found it interesting to see how all of the clubs tear into each other in their expansion for "market" or territory. If the ATF accounts are true and the book is accurate, then you will be amazed at just how organized these clubs have become in the past 20 years. No longer are they just the rowdy "good ol' boys" tearing down the highway looking for some good times. They have basically become international corporations with trademarked branding only a lot more dangerous than Sam Palmisano and the IBM "blue crew". Although, sometimes I wonder...

good account of the Hells Angels activity, related in an entertaining manner.

This is a great book - -there are a lot of facts so it isn't an easy read but very interesting just the same!

The Angels of Death is riveting book about the Hells Angels quest for global domination. Reads like a thriller where the most exciting part is about ATF's undercover operation. Well recommended and hard to put down.

"The I-5 Killer" is the story of Randall Woodfield, a multi-sport high school star who was drafted into the NFL after a successful college football career as a Wide Receiver.

He had the same problem as Lance Rentzel of the Dallas Cowboys, a severe problem with exposing himself to young women. Unlike Rentzel, Randall Woodfield's behavior escalated to more serious activities like armed robbery and sexual assault. It's difficult to understand how that led ultimately to murder. The final number of murder victims may never be known.
Woodfield has suggested that steroid use was a factor in his becoming aggressive.

Ann Rule details the jurisdictional battles of law enforcement entities that were involved in the investigation. That battle may have been responsible for Woodfield's destruction of incriminating evidence in the interim.
She also explains the evidence that originally tied him to the multiple crimes around the I-5 freeway in multiple states.

The thinking behind California deciding not to prosecute the double-murder charges was explained.

Randall Woodfield is a narcissist, totally wrapped up in himself and his "image". What's so puzzling is how someone with a popular social life and apparently normal family background could become a serial killer.
Ann Rule tells the story of the I-5 killer in gripping style!

Writing as Andy Stack, this is an Ann Rule novel. I read Stranger Beside Me from Ann as my first book from her. I didn't care for it much. This true crime story covers the life and crimes of Randall Woodfield. Ann really does a good job with this tale. Nothing is held back as she goes over Randall's very interesting life. The writing is crisp and clear making the 296 pages fly by. What makes this story of a killer so interesting is how much he had going for him. Randall was a normal kid raised in a normal home. He was good looking, popular and excelled in sports. It seems incredible that someone like that could do the horrible things he did. Very gripping story.

Randall Woodfield seemed to have it all. Growing up he had a stable home life, did well in school, and was an exceptional athlete, excelling in every sport he tried. He was such a good athlete, in fact, that the Green Bay Packers drafted him. But Woodfield didn't make the team and he never finished college, instead drifting from job to job, from city to city. He also went from woman to woman, pursuing all of them intensely. Still, he seemed like a nice enough guy and people who knew him were shocked to find out that he was the I-5 killer, committing a series of robberies, terrorizing and assaulting young women, killing some of them.

"The I-5 Killer" is one of Ann Rule's early true crime books and it shows. It's not a bad book, but it's not as good as her later efforts. Rule focuses more on Woodfield than his victims, consequently, although the crimes against the victims were horrific, I felt detached since I never came to know what any of them were really like. There are eight pages of photos, but only one picture of a victim, which also adds to the feeling of detachment. Woodfield's trial had a bit more detail to it and was quite interesting.

This isn't a bad book, but someone trying Ann Rule for the first time should try reading one of her newer books.

"The I-5 Killer" lacks the elements that make Ann Rule books so fascinating. Granted that Randy Woodfield is a complex criminal, and his story is interesting, but when Ann Rule wrote this book she had not yet started delving into the perpetrators' pasts and psychological makeup. Like her other early works, "Lust Killer" and "The Want-Ad Killer", Randy Woodfield's story is a better-than-average true crime offering when compared to books by lesser authors, but not nearly up to the level of Ann Rule's writing today.

The title of my review is kind of taken from the back of the book which I think is understandable. Again, Ms Rule has written with knowledge & with an edge that keeps one hooked from page to page. This book was the most terrifying I've read so far just because the killer, Randall Woodfield, spent a great amount of time in the area where I grew up (SW Portland) and at the same time when I was 16 years old (the age of girls he was attracted to). The bar where he worked is less than a mile from where I lived at the time. I probably saw him at some point but did not know it. I think that's pretty scary!

Randall Woodfield was a sick, disgusting pervert that received exactly what he deserved...LIFE in prison. Ms. Rule's research states that he is not eligible for parole until he is the age of 81 years old. God help us all if he is still alive! This book just goes to show that you cannot judge a book by its cover. Even though someone may look like an Adonis, it does not mean that they are the same way on the inside. Randall Woodfield still is every young woman's nightmare. Ann Rule writes with such detail and really brought this story to life for me.

if you want to learn how to sign this book is a must.

My 12 year old daughter needed this book for a sign language class she is taking. She hasn't even started the class yet but is having so much fun learning with the easy instructions in the book. She has shown it to her friends and it occupies them for hours.

Very, very fast delivery. Book in wonderful condition. Honest seller. Seller included personal note to ensure happiness.

Best book on the market for the price. Easy to read and understand the signs. Gives a "How-to" at the bottom of each page. Excellent for beginners or advanced students.

Great book, clearly displayed, signs are easy to understand and are very helpful in learning the language.

These are old-school scene-of-death photos from the 30's-50's collected by a former Los Angeles Homocide Detective. The guy had his own scrapbook.

All photos are in black & white and are very graphic. Most photos are of murder scenes. Some are suicides and accidents. A few are also of unusual physical diseases.

A lot of the photos were marked by the detective with a date and some type of identification. Most photos in this book are augmented with some kind of background info, however brief.

Gun-shot wounds, stabbings, strangulation, decapitations, and more. Hell, there is even a section of old police mug shots..boy, a lot of em are more horrible to look at than the death photos.

Obviously, this book is only for those interested in this kind of thing. If you are one of those interested, then this book is sure to please the "gore-hound" in you.

This book shows through the eyes of the author that nothing has really changed about the violence we do to each other and ourselves except maybe the methods. This was an exceptionally accurate glimpse into a time gone by and the unchanging human condition. The photos were excellently restored.

This Book is not for the faint of heart! I knew Sean Tejaratchi when he was a teen at his mother's house in Walker Basin so I just had to have a copy. Well Sean you still are marching to a different drummer! Best wishes.

Well, I must say that this book is a gruesome one. I have a friend that is a doctor and gets to see stuff similar to the pictures in this book first hand. His background didn't help him much when flipping through the "kid" section in this book. The text rambles and really doesn't provide anything but page filler. This book would not make an acceptable coffee table read, but will cool you to the core if you're all alone and have an overactive imagination. Good luck with this one if you are even slightly a wuss.

This book is profoundly disturbing and not for the faint of heart or stomach. After first viewing some of these photos over 10 years ago, I lost the desire to eat food of any kind for almost a full 24 hours afterwards. Some of the most heinous murders pictured here were real headliners in their time - some cursory research on the internet reveals front-page coverage in the L.A. Times, particularly of the Virginia Lee Griffin murder, in which case the killer was executed in San Quentin a mere 4 months after sentencing. Makes you realize how no-nonsense the justice system was back in the 1940's. As the sub-title of the book succinctly states - "There were no 'good ol' days'". This book proves that nostalgia is largely a lie and, as Jesus Christ said, "The past is best forgotten."

This is a docudrama rather than a novel. It's a dramatization of the sleuthing behind the arrest of a serial killer in England, and it's chief point of interest is the first use of DNA evidence to solve a crime. Wambaugh does this sort of thing better than Truman Capote, because he's more of a storyteller; but unlike Capote, the less imagination required to tell the story, the better Wambaugh does. Here his writing is at its best, because he has little to concoct--just arrange the facts to tell the story. The story might be of more interest to students of crime than the rest of us, but it's an interesting tale and a good read. As usual, Wambaugh has trouble depicting women, less than usual, because so much is on the record and available to him. All in all, well written light reading that will consume no more than one afternoon. But the question that runs through all of his work remains: Why does he have no idea what women are like?

I love Wambaugh because his books are so much like Giovanni Guareshi's "Don Camilo" series, where I cannot read two pages into the book before I am cracking up so loud that my wife becomes concerned about what the neighbors are going to say.

This book is a page turner, very interesting, never boring. But it is a serious non-fiction work and there are no laughs.

I have read now all of Wambaugh novels, (except "Echoes in the Darkness" which hasn't arrived yet) and the best and funniest of all, IMHO, is "Delta Star", which deserves not five, but six stars. Make it seven stars if you like dogs.

I love Wambaugh because his books are so much like Giovanni Guareshi's "Don Camilo" series, where I cannot read two pages into the book before I am cracking up so loud that my wife becomes concerned about what the neighbors are going to say.

This book is a page turner, very interesting, never boring. But it is a serious non-fiction work and there are no laughs.

I have read now all of Wambaugh novels, (except "Echoes in the Darkness" which hasn't arrived yet) and the best and funniest of all, IMHO, is "Delta Star", which deserves not five, but six stars. Make it seven stars if you like dogs.

This 1989 true crime book tells of two murders in English Midlands villages that were solved by DNA testing of the local male population. It was the first in the world. This book lacks an index, a table of contents, and pictures. Wambaugh recreated events from reliable witnesses or independent corroboration. Two 15 year old girls were raped and strangled three years apart. Could an innocent suspect confess to murder? Can DNA testing be defeated? [This shows an England that is not in the tourist press. The writing shows Wambaugh's skill, it reads like a fast-paced novel.] Details of the crimes are accurately described.

Chapter 1 describes the three small villages. Leicestershire is the site of Bosworth Field, Richard III the last Plantagenet. The half-nude body of a 15 year old was discovered one morning (Chapter 4). People were scared and alarmed by the murder (Chapter 6). The body was found near a mental hospital. People were terrified, they had no protection. The police followed every lead, anonymous or not. After months of investigation it was shut down. Chapter 9 tells of the discovery pf DNA analysis at nearby Leicester University. [What is a "donkey jacket" (p.75)?] Further investigation continued into DNA (Chapter 10). Everyone's DNA is different except for identical twins. The murder of a child creates additional problems for the family. A suspect was arrested for the second murder (Chapter 14). The suspect confessed after being questioned by the police (Chapter 15). The family of the victim also had problems (Chapter 16). In order to prove the suspect murdered the first girl they used DNA analysis (Chapter 17). The result: one man raped and murdered both girls, but it wasn't the suspect in custody! The television program "Crimewatch UK" showed a recreation of the murder and asked for clues (Chapter 18). The police continued to check all reports.

The police tried a new tactic; they would test the blood of all male residents who were in an age group (Chapter 19). There were no identity cards in England then. Chapter 22 tells how one blood test was done. [If anyone tells you a hard-luck to gain your sympathy you should assume it's a confidence trick.] Chapter 23 describes the scientific precision of the testing. At one unguarded moment a man told of taking a blooding test for another. Someone repeated this to the police, who compared signatures and got a break. "He looks the way our man ought to look!" (Chapter 26). The confession showed neither remorse or emotion. Real life confessions are rarely tidy. One girl survived because she fought back (p.267). There was an ironic ending fro the chief investigator (Chapter 28). The psychosexual sociopath "looked almost human" (p.275). Chapter 30 tells how the media covered this.

Joseph Wambaugh shows his bias in the term "gun-crazy country like the U.S." (P.243). The small villages in the US have high gun ownership with no such murders as in this book. It can't be a coincidence. Or is it the higher rate of church membership? Journalist Per Wahloo wrote novels that used Swedish society as the background. They documented their lives and housing. Wambaugh tells little about these villages, or what people do for a living. How do they compare to others?

In 1983, a rapist and killer struck in Leicestershire, England, leaving a dead girl in a wooded pathway near an insane asylum. A year later, in another part of the same county, Dr. Alec Jeffreys uncovered something called a genetic fingerprint, of which no two are alike unless they belong to identical twins.

With that, the biological leftovers of the killer's attack became evidence that could theoretically put him away, if he can first be persuaded to take a voluntary test.

Joseph Wambaugh's 1989 true-crime story "The Blooding" is perhaps the author's most accomplished book, as he delves headlong into a strange netherworld where science and crime intersect, both in terms of genetic fingerprinting of which this case provided the first working model, and of the psychopathic mind of the killer, whom Wambaugh studies at length in the book's second half.

"The Blooding" captures a small British community in a state of terror, and details a frustrating, often misguided investigation that gets its man only after much confusion. "As with many police investigations the secret ways of people often produced peripheral mysteries as baffling as the one in question," Wambaugh writes, and to his credit he follows at least a couple of them at such length you think you are about to discover the killer at last before hitting a dead end.

Say this for Wambaugh: No one else makes police investigation seem so thrilling and comprehensible, and at the same time so worthy of respect. Here he is working far away from his California home base, but the differences in culture and police technique only seem to serve to sharpen his focus. He even manages to delineate a few of the key investigators, though here, unlike his more famous "The Onion Field", Wambaugh's interest remains firmly on the case at hand, however absorbingly he may portray certain indescribable emotions, like that of a father called upon to identify the body of his daughter, "the cruelest, most ravaging sight this world has to offer," he writes.

As Wambaugh notes at another point, "murder annihilates privacy," and in this case this means not only the agony of a murder victim's parents but the ethical question of mass-collecting DNA samples for possible use against a suspect. For it is clear without this innovation of Dr. Jeffreys' and its employment by the Leicestershire constabulary, a killer would have gone free, perhaps while an innocent man was put away.

Humane, electric, alive both to individual moments large and small as well as to the overall significance of the case, "The Blooding" is so good you may close it as I did feeling guilty you enjoyed a book so given the circumstances that produced it.