True Crime Books

Beware of used books sold directly by Amazon. This book by Bendis fell apart as soon as I read the first 10 pages. It was badly bound. A total rip-off. For a few dollars more I could have bought it new. Very aggravating.

I almost gave up on this a couple of different times thanks to artwork and page layouts that were completely amateurish. Most of the characters don't even look the same from panel to panel so that you lose track of which person is which. The only times they are recognizable is when they are exact copies of a prior illustration and in which the character is posing in a way that doesn't fit what is supposed to be happening to them -- frequently on the same page. If you've seen the comic strip Red Meat or some others where the same picture is in each panel with only new words coming out of their mouths, it's pretty similar to this. Plus there are several times when you are suddenly expected to turn the orientation of the book to continue reading the rest of the page. I'm sure this was done with the belief that it would help keep the reader's interest and make it seem more dramatic, but it had the opposite effect.

As far as the story goes, it's pretty basic. It tries to follow the facts of the case for a while, but in a rather lackluster and tedious way. The only time any suspense is established it's for a part that was completely made up in an absurdly cliched way with the heroes confronting the supposed villain. In the real world, the true perpetrator was never caught and no evidence other than wild speculation about who it might have been. Here they make it clear who the killer supposedly was and catch him red handed. This book's publicity claims it was "what really happened," but nothing at all like this ever took place. I'd chalk the claim up to just overzealous marketing, but unfortunately it's clear that many readers don't know this part was fabricated and the notes at the end do not clearly spell it out, insisting that they got the real killer. This comic book even somehow managed to win an award for journalism in the city it was based in, believe it or not. Perhaps they're just really hurting for solid news writing there.

I wrote a terrible, scathing review of Bendis's "Goldfish" title. It was so bad that I considered asking for my $ back but didn't. It took me several months to muster up enough courage to read anything else by this nationally acclaimed author. I'm glad I did. Torso is based on non-fiction accounts of Elliot Ness's post-Untouchables exploits in Cleveland and deals exclusively with the "Torso case" which he never solved and remains unsolved to this day. It's well researched, well plotted, and the art is 100,000 times better than Goldfish. This story will keep you guessing and keep you turning the pages all the while witha bit of sadness in your heart for the poor Elliot Ness who never quite received the accolades he deserved in life. The only reason I give it a 4 and not a 5 is that some of the dialogue is dated and stereotyped and it gets a tad dry in places.

I've heard good things about Brian Michael Bendis and finally got around to reading one of his works. Torso is a graphic novel that tells the true-crime story of a 1930s serial killer at work in Cleveland, Ohio, who leaves mutilated bodies around town with feet, hands and heads removed. At the same time, the city has hired famous lawman Eliot Ness to come from Chicago to clean up their corrupt city, starting with the police force.

The story moves between Ness and his work in dealing with the press, politicos, and cleaning up the city, to the two detectives who are primarily working the Torso case. There are personal and interpersonal developments with all the main characters, but the thrust of the story is a police procedural, so these are left in the background for the most part, which is appropriate given the choice Bendis is making in telling his story. As a second level they give a nice amount of texture to the main story and get you to care more about the main characters.

Bendis makes it clear at the end of the book that much of what he has presented is based in fact and provides some of the sources for art and photos that appeared throughout the story. This was neat to see some of where the story came from but left me a bit frustrated as to what was made up, particularly in terms of the climax of the story. But I was okay with that. As in real police work, all questions aren't always answered when the case is wrapped, and sometimes the best you can do to close a case is to identify the perpetrator, even if you can't charge him or her.

For the most part I also loved the art style. I loved the cinematic aspects of it, and the heavy black and white style fit perfectly with a story set in the 1930s. I also loved the way real photographs were blended with drawn art, often as backgrounds showing real Cleveland settings, underscoring the theme that this is the author's embroidering (by imagining conversations) on real people and a real time. Occasionally it was hard to tell characters apart, especially Ness and the detectives, and I sometimes had to retrace a series of dialogue balloons to figure out who was saying what, but I was okay with that.

On the whole, it was a great read, and a quick one, as I read it in one sitting, but I'll definitely revisit it and look for more of Bendis' work. One minor complaint--my book was bought new but the last page is already coming unglued from the binding, so this book will have to be treated with care as the binding appears somewhat fragile.

I'm not usually that interested in serial killers, be they real or fictional, but I'll check out almost any graphic novel, and so I picked this up from the library recently. The book is a fictional recasting of the grisly "Torso Killer" murders that took place in Cleveland roughly between 1935-39. One aspect that makes it a touch more interesting is the involvement of Elliot Ness, fresh from his legendary "Untouchables"-leading, Capone-busting successes in Chicago. After the end of Prohibition, Ness left the G-men and was hired in 1935 by the city of Cleveland as Director of Public Safety. This coincided almost exactly with the emergence of a gruesome serial killer who decapitated and often dismembered his victims, leaving most of the remains in or near Lake Erie Sound. (Note: Contrary to what some reviewers have written, this was hardly the first serial killer in America. The first reliably documented serial killer operated in the 1890s in Chicago and was the subject of a very entertaining recent book, Devil in the White Castle.)

The story documents the initial investigation by a pair of tough-talking police detectives while Ness is busy purging the police department of corrupt cops. However, as the corpses start mounting up, the mayor forces Ness to take charge of the Torso case. The bulk of the book is then a pretty straightforward police procedural, as Ness and the lead detectives pursue various angles. The most notable of these is Ness' controversial decision to clear out a large shantytown of unemployed people and burn it to the ground in order to deny the killer an easy target population. The investigation is handled pretty well, with good pacing and great dialogue peppered with plenty of period slang. Personal lives are woven in, somewhat less successfully, as Ness' marriage crumbles and one of the detectives reveals a shocking secret. These subplots feel kind of tacked on and underwritten. The climax falters a little bit as well, as the writers deviate slightly from reality in order to create an action-packed finale which never happened. However, the real suspect (Dr. Francis E. Sweeney) was interrogated by Ness, and was protected by political family, and did more or less elude justice as the book depicts.

The artwork is pretty interesting, incorporating period photographs and documents into the bold black and white artwork. Some of the layouts and paneling are quite creatively done (especially the interrogation sequence), although one section which requires turning the book sideways for several spreads is really awkward and annoying. A section at the end provides additional original photos and documents relating to the case, which are interesting, but need more context. The book really needs a few pages where it is explained what is real and what the writer invented or rearranged (for example, in real life, the postcards taunting Ness weren't sent until after the killings stopped), and what happened to Ness and the suspect and detectives over the rest of their lives. Since this series came out, a large number of original police files were discovered following the death of one of the lead detectives and several other works have appeared, including two books (In the Wake of the Butcher: Cleveland's Torso Murders and Torso: Eliot Ness and the Search for a Psychopathic Killer) and a documentary (The Fourteenth Victim - Eliot Ness and the Torso Murder). Overall, well worth checking out.

This book was very entertaining. The chapters were well written and to the point. You could tell the author was very educated on the subject he was writing about, but didn't run on and on about it. It just never ceases to amaze me, the depravity and madness that sometimes occurs in the minds of humans. Some of these murderers just seemed to become INHUMAN after you read of their crimes!
Very good, short and to the point book for true crime buffs!

Vronsky book is one of the best books written on the subject. Vronsky deal with the phenomena in a uniq way by telling the history of serial killers since ancient Europe untill today.
Vronsky is summing up the theoretical knoeledge about the causes and classifues of serial murders, and makes it more easy to deal with the different sights that different writters has on the subject.

Mayme Johnson, Bumpy Johnson's wife of twenty years, decided it was time to set the record straight. In HARLEM GODFATHER, she does just that, providing readers an intimate and in depth look into the infamous Bumpy Johnson, his life and his character.

Make no mistake; this isn't a wife's dreamy version of her husband's life, delicately covering the dark patches with a flowery illusion. No, by the end of the first chapter, you instinctively realize Mayme Johnson is a straight shooter and is giving you the truth, with all the fat trimmed away.

Bumpy Johnson was Harlem. Period. Here, he becomes more than a conflicted character in Hoodlum or a blatant misrepresentation in American Gangster. Here, his charisma and creativeness prove he should be acknowledged with all the great bosses of the "mafia" heyday.

Was he a criminal? Yes, but boy, did he run it with style and finesse, a true "Sporting Man" as Mayme Johnson calls them. It is that style, loyalty, cleverness and simple luck, which fixates mainstream America. Bumpy battled Dutch Schultz, played chess and bargained with Lucky Luciano and rubbed elbows with Hollywood stars and starlets, but would pull out his switchblade and slash a guy without a second thought.

While Mayme Johnson provided an insightful and comprehensive journey of her husband's life, Karen Quinones Miller did a masterful job of seamlessly molding the pieces together in this flawless work. The amount of research, time and effort put here cannot go unnoticed. Karen Quinones Miller undoubtedly filled in the blanks, providing the political and historical climate, which enriched the telling of Bumpy Johnson's life.

Mayme Johnson's candor is refreshing, and the simplicity with which she and Karen Quinones Miller deliver this complicated biography is wonderful.

Reviewed by a. Kai
for The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

I was dubious about buying this book, but I decided to go ahead and get it since I'm familiar with the author. I knew it wasn't something I would like myself, but figured my boyfriend would so it wouldn't be a waste.
After I got it I flipped through a few pages before my giving it to my boyfriend. Well why did I do that! I was hooked from the very first page.
This is really and truly one of the best books I've ever read.
It tells the story of Bumpy Johnson, the gangster who ran Harlem after fighting it out with the Mafia in the thirties. I had seen the movie Hoodlum, so I knew Bumpy was a colorful character, but the movie didn't tell the half of it. This books tells Bumpy's early life, how he turned to a life of crime, and the principles he had while in the life. He wasn't like the thugs they have out here now. He was tougher than any alive, for one. But also, as tough as he was (and he was tough!) he still was a good man in a lot of ways. That's why he was so loved.
The book tells about Bumpy's childhood in Charleston, his arrival in Harlem in 1919, and how he got started as a gangster. We also learn about a lot of the other colorful characters he ran with like Bub Hewlett and Madame Queen who were also portrayed in the movie Hoodlum, and also what eventually happened to them.
It also tells about Bumpy's time in prison, and how he raised so much hell there the wardens were trying to figure out how to get him the heck out of prison. Can you imagine that?
The book also tells about other Harlem characters who've never been written about. Like Dickie Wells, who was a gigilo who romanced white movie stars and got rich doing so, and then spent all his money uptown in Harlem, treating black women to a good time. He was a gigilo who never took a dime from a black woman but bilked white ones for all they had.
And the book also talks about Red Dillard Morrison, who was almost (but only almost) as colorful as Bumpy.
And the book gives an interesting history of Harlem that I never knew, and how the black people had to hire people like Bub Hewlett and Bumpy Johnson (they called them the Harlem Bad Men) to protect them from the whites who would come up from Hells Kitchen and try to break black heads. Bub really put a stop to that!
There's also great stories about Bill Bojangles Robinson, Lena Horne and others. And I didn't know that Bumpy was godfather to Sydney Poitier's oldest daughter. But with all that, Bumpy was still a bad man, and a colorful one that you can't help taking a liking too. He didn't smoke or curse around women he didn't know, but he would still shoot or cut a man in a minute.
Like another reviewer already said, the book reads like a novel, and a really good one. Even though it's more than 200 pages I flew through it and then was mad when I was finished because it was so good I didn't want to stop reading it.
I can't say enough about this book. Like I already said, it's one of the best I've ever read. I really, really, really recommend it to everyone!

This book is GREAT!. I love the way Bumpy Johnson's story is told from his wife's point of view without the book being all about her. Ms. Quinones-Miller is such an excellent writer that you forget while reading it that it is a non-fiction book. I read this book from the moment I got it until I finnished and I was not dissapointed at all. I suggest this book to anybody who loves BIOGRAPHIES AND URBAN FICTION. It is the best!!!

I really loved this Book.. After spending years searching for any information on Bumpy Johnson, I was excited to find that this book would be published. When I recieved my copy I read it in two days, and was very happy to learn about the "Real Bumpy Johnson". He was some man... The movie couldn't get it right, but this book certainly has... Congratulations to the author on a job well done...

Imagine sitting around on the living room floor in your grandmother's house, listening carefully as your grandmother recaps your family history. That is the feeling I got while reading Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson by Mayme Johnson and Karen E Quinones Miller.

Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson was born and raised in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was already making a name for himself. His parents, worrying about his safety, send him to live with his older sister, Mabel, in Harlem. This was the beginning of a new sheriff in town, and he meant business.

If loyalty is what you wanted; Bumpy was the man to find. Anything happening in Harlem had to be approved by him as well, and he never ever backed downed. Especially when he knew he was right. Though his main business was numbers running and protection, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison, on a drug trafficking charge. Something he did not see coming, for all of Harlem knew the type of man he was.

Mayme Johnson wanted to set the record straight about the type of man, her husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson, was. The type of people he kept company with and how he dealt with those who thought they could bring him down. At 93 years-old her memories of the things which took place, from the time Bumpy was young all the way up until the day of his death, was impressive. Though she met Bumpy in 1948, he along with his true friends shared the events of his earlier days with her, as well as things that took place when she was not there.

Mayme Johnson and Karen E Quinones Miller cleared up a lot of falsified information in Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson. Sometimes they flipped back and forth within the timeline, but it was not hard to keep up with. The main thing I had a concern about was the lack of proper editing. There were numerous errors of all sorts. The binding was also an issue for me. I found it hard to hold the book comfortably. All and all I still recommend Harlem Godfather: The Rap on my Husband, Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson to anyone wanting to know the truth about the real American gangster.

Jennifer Coissiere
APOOO BookClub

This book is poorly written, has long boring stretches and I quit reading it about one quarter of the way through.

Compelling! The Tangled Web is my first ever "mob book". The pace certainly propelled me though it fighting off sleep to do so. The author's use of crime terminology brought realism to the page. His desciptive narrative brought color to the black and white of the time period.
I am a fan of murder mysteries which this was not. At times I thought the story was influenced by the fact that the author was also his brother and was "easy" on this corrupt man. Possibly he has been "too easy" on this character, Dick Cain, I thought but the last chapter changed my thinking. Dick Cain was clearly a sociopath from my perspective and they often have ingratiating personalities thus the portrayal.
Michael Cain writes brilliantly particularly noting his extensively poignant vocabulary. I do hope he continues to express himself with his writing talent.
The plan is to send this off to a friend who is anxious to read the book in Detriot. Linda Jean

I picked this up on a recommendation from a friend, and could not be more pleased that I did. Written by Michael J. Cain, this is the account of Richard Cain's life and times in crime. A Mafia solder for Sam Giancana, Cain worked both for and against the law to further his agenda. This is such a fun, interesting read that anyone can enjoy.

Dick Cain was my father's sister only son. I knew him very well. All the family ever knew about him was the good things. High police offical, polygraph expert, electronics nut, Bay of Pigs organizer, dependable friend, etc. I personally coveted his 1953 black Ford sedan when he used to hang around my father's warehouse. But then, I also lusted for a new 1949 army surplus jeep that I never got. When I was old enough I was given the opportunity to join the mob. He gave me a cousin to cousin talk convincing me this would be a bad career decision with the simple biblical phrase, "he who lives by the sword, dies by the sword." He also convinced my sister who had just lost everything in a bad divorce not to go into prostitution. He was a really great guy and I loved him.

Bob Todd
formerly Roberto Scalzitti

One of the most esteemed JFK assassination researchers, Dr. Peter Dale Scott has long been intrigued by the life and times of Richard Cain.
As both a respected cop and a ruthless murderer, Cain personified Scott's assertion that "deep politics," the shady nexus of elected power-brokers and underworld forces, determined the course of history in the 20th century.

As a made member of the Chicago Outfit who also rose to the position of Chief of Special Investigations for the Cook County Sheriff's Police, Cain clearly operated as a deep political player.

This new biography of Cain reveals that he was also an international operator whose travels took him to Mexico, Japan, Colombia and Cuba.
Although he has occasionally been named as a possible shooter and/or conspirator in the JFK hit, Cain is apparently exonerated by this new bio.

The book, with the wordy title "The Tangled Web: The Life and Death of Richard Cain - Chicago Cop and Mafia Hitman," was written by Cain's half-brother, Michael J. Cain. It includes eight pages of photos.
As a relative of his biographical subject, the author offers many personal observations of Cain as an aspiring Chicago PD cop along with plenty of family history. One amusing anecdote has Cain and his police partner attempting to stab a dead wino's body so they could call in the homicide cops to take the stiff off their hands.

Before Dick Cain rose through the CPD ranks and, in the 1950s, became a bag man for the Outfit delivering payoffs to fellow police officers while guarding the interests of his best friend, Sam Giancana.
As his focus grew national, Cain mastered the operation of the polygraph machine and also became an adept wiretapper, two talents that well-served both his upperworld and his underworld bosses. Cain taught those skills to Mexican authorities and also had considerable contact with CIA operatives whom he hoped to impress with his investigative capabilities.

In a chapter barely more than four pages long, the author deals with the JFK allegations by claiming that on the afternoon of Nov. 22, 1963 Dick Cain was waiting to testify to a grand jury in Chicago. But since he has turned up only one witness to that scenario, Michael Cain's mind remains open. "I welcome any new evidence," he wrote.

Anti-Outfit politicians and Judge Julius Hoffmann (famous for his role in the Chicago Eight trial) sent Dick Cain in prison during the late-1960s, but by 1973 he was back on the street and still scuffling between the Outfit and the Feds. Giancana had been exiled to Mexico, so Cain took up with a burglary crew led by Marshall Caifano, who may have eventually engineered Cain's murder in December '73, at Rose's Sandwich Shop, about a mile from The Loop.

"Corrupt cops lead complicated lives," the author writes, and later, "Dick Cain was a complicated guy, to say the least."
Even though "The Tangled Web" makes few direct contributions to our knowledge of what occurred in Dallas, it paints a vivid portrait of the deep political corruption that was epidemic in major metropolitan centers during the 1950s and '60s.

For that alone, the book sheds important light on a world previously cloaked in darkness, a world in which the killing of a president and the cover-up of his murder was no longer unthinkable but actually inevitable.

I bought this book because it is set in my home county and for a first novel, I wasn't expecting much. However, I was hooked from the opening page. This is a great read. I'm looking forward to more books by Judge Gayden. Now I'm off to see if I can find pictures of the characters in the Sumner County Archives and read the newspaper accounts for myself.

This book was great-fast read! I am in Nashville and it was fun to know the places where the book was taken place.

I had hoped that the Women Suffrage had played a larger part of the story.

Kip Gayden has written a wonderful novel based on actual events that took place in Gallatin and Nashville Tennessee in the early 1900's. The reader is exposed to a different time in history that has been all but forgotten. The subject matter which is as much about womens suffrage as it is about murder; but it is also about passion and forbidden love.
Anna Dennis meets her future husband (Walter Dodson) in summer camp. Walter Dodson takes note of Anna the minute she arrives at camp with her father. Anna soon takes note of Walter and signs up in all of his camp counselor activities. When Summer ends and they depart, both Anna and Walter find themselves wondering if they would ever meet again.
Years later the two do meet again at a hospital where Anna takes a job and where Walter just happens to be a physician. Once they meet eye to eye again, there is no stopping this powerful romance; well almost. Anna's miscarriage of their second child and Walter's ambition and thoughtlessness, sets in motion a wanton, lustful, extramarital, love affair that had no chance of ending well. The actual newspaper articles are included in the novel which makes the novel a historical fiction.
It is an easy, wonderful, read and I recommend it highly. Miscarriage of Justice: A Novel

I LOVED this book! I'm not always content with historical fiction, sometimes there is too much history and not enough story. This book is a perfect mix of both. It centers around the Women's Suffrage movement, a 1913s love triangle, and the longing of a lonely woman. The author has done a great job blending together the facts and the fiction to create characters that come to life and characters that I was able to care about. Hope to see more good works from Mr. Gayden!

Miscarriage of Justice is based on the actual events surrounding a 1913's love triangle gone horribly and irrevocably wrong. Kip Gayden has delivered an impressive novel that is as exciting as the crime and verdict were shocking. Anna and Walter Dotson were prominent members of the small Tennessee community of Gallatin. Walter, in addition to being a very successful physician, was active in numerous community activities, Masonic Lodge, church bible study and city orchestra leader, and he also had political aspirations. While Walter was attending various groups and meetings, his wife, Anna, was home with her two children. There's a pointed change in the marriage after Anna miscarries their third child, all the romance and intimacy the couple had once shared was drained from the relationship. As time and time again Walter rejects his wife's attempts to rekindle the romantic fires, she is left feeling lonely and unfulfilled.

When Charlie Cobb and his family moved to town, he began working at the local barbershop and quickly became Walter Dotson's favorite barber. It isn't long before the flirtations between Charlie and Anna spiral into a full blown affair. They are both so consumed by the affair and finding ways to be together they fail to recognize the whispers, quiet nods and gossip, that eventually reach Walter. With her adulterous behavior exposed, Anna confessed her actions to her husband and then at his behest, to her brother. What follows is a crime that rocked the small Tennessee community to its core and a controversial verdict that would ultimately play a roll in the women's rights movement.

Masterfully weaving fact with fiction, Kip Gayden has crafted a wonderful novel that brings the characters to life and gives the reader a front row seat in the private lives of people that lived almost a hundred years ago. Gayden has the ability to take the reader back in time and present a believable story, that is informative and entertaining. Threading the women's suffrage movement into the story at the onset puts the reader into the mindset of the era...painting a detailed picture of Anna Dotson's daily life and the importance of women's rights.

A tragic, beautifully delivered historical novel that was a real pleasure to read. I look forward to reading Kip Gayden's next novel. Miscarriage of Justice: A Novel has a wonderful combination of everything, true crime, romance, deceit, adultery and historical fiction.

A must-read for anyone from New Mexico.

Even if you're not from the area, if you liked reading about other unsolved murders such as California's Black Dahlia case, you'll enjoy this one too.

A very interesting and a wonderful insight into history that has never been solved. Living in the same area truly brings history to life.
A great read with politics so involved.

ALTHOUGH THIS BOOK WASN'T TERRIBLE, IT WASN'T GREAT EITHER. IT WAS A LITTLE STRANGE. I HAVE NEVER READ A TRUE CRIME BOOK THAT GOES IT TO AS MUCH DETAIL AS THIS ONE DID CONCERNING THE PROSECUTOR. I ENDED UP SKIPPING MOST OF THAT PART. NOT ONLY DID IT GO ON ABOUT HIS CHILDHOOD, BUT IT ALSO INCLUDED CHILDHOOD PICTURES. WHO CARES? PERHAPS THE AUTHOR COULD NOT MAKE THE BOOK AS LONG AS HE WANTED, SO HE THREW IN TRIVIAL DETAILS.

I don't think so. we really need to pay more attetion to the people who are in a constant rage. they are the one's who kill to kill.I feel for the girl and her boyfriend who was left behind to miss her forever and her family who has lost a piece of them to never return.

Sarah Rodriguez was a beautiful young woman with a whole life ahead of her. Unfortunately, she had two men including a dangerous psychopathic killer Richard Namey who would kill her and the love of her life, Matthew Corbett, who was shot and survived with paralysis. The story takes place in Orange County, California where the author, Don Lasseter resides.
One of my main criticisms of this book is the enormous amount of detail regarding Dennis Conway, the Orange County prosecutor. I know more about him than the victims themselves. While I know a lot about Sarah and Matthew's lives, I know more about Conway and his childhood in Massachusetts and how he became an attorney. Most true crime authors don't spend an enormous time on the background of the prosecutor's life. At times, I felt confused and had to re-read because the author simply was talking about Conway as opposed to Corbett, Rodriguez, and Namey who are more central figures. The book is a good true crime read but unclear at times.

This book was written about my cousin Sarah, her borfriend Matt, and the person who destroyed all our lives. With pain and a tear in my eye, I made it through this book. Even for myself, who knew exactly what happened, I got confused a couple times. I do have to say that this book was well written, and during the jury trial, I could picture my self sitting in that court room like I was a few years back. I am glad that so many people have taken some time to read this book, and have found a spot for Sarah and Matt in their hearts.

Matt is doing well. He is a strong guy, someone to definitley look up to. He is still working and going to school. I admire him for everything he tried to do for my cousin, and now, for everything he is doing for himself. Never Give Up!

Don Lasseter has done an amazing job on this book. It has taken me back many years ago, when I knew that I had Sarah by my side. I loved her so much that words could not explain. This book shows the pain that we went through. How forever our lives are changed. Namey, has changed our lives forever and not for the better. Sarah was my cousin. She will foreer live with us in our hearts and our prayers. Reading this book,has taken me back to the days in court watching Namey enter the room. This book tells a lot about the turth. Matt is still very much part of our family and forever will be. Thanks to Don, her life story will live on to hopefuly one day help others.

The subtitle of this book promises the "untold story" of dirty international financial dealings. That's not quite what it delivers, because the book compiles already-published accounts, public reports and Congressional testimony, and adds to them. Given that money laundering involves drug dealers, terrorists and slavers, the book has some titillating asides about sex, violence and filthy money. Author Peter Lilley explains precisely how money laundering works, including an introduction to the practices and techniques that have proven most successful. While praising the author's reportorial depth, we note one dilemma that emerges from such thoroughness: we hope this book doesn't fall into the hands of someone who wishes to take up money laundering but is unsure how to proceed. Business people who want to avoid being victimized should take particular note of the chapter discussing well-known checks-and-balances, controls and best practices.

The fully revised and updated third edition of Dirty Dealing: The Untold Truth About Global Money Laundering, International Crime And Terrorism by global crime expert Peter Lilly is an informed and informative study of international corruption and crime as resulting in over two trillion US dollars being siphoned for illegal purposes every year. Introducing readers to a methodical and documented account based upon expertly researched information and analysis, Dirty Dealing provides a progressive basis for comprehending the global funding of international terrorism, major national and international organized criminal groups, the impact of the internet and "cyber laundering", and international anti-money laundering strategies for all types of corporate and multinational businesses. A seminal work of considerable scholarship and insight, Dirty Dealing is very strongly recommended reading for students of economics, criminology, and global terrorism.

I found the Birthday Party to be a very entertaining book, although the other reviewers are correct in their assertions that the author is full of himself. He is, but the experience that he describes is riveting. One thing that really stuck with me from this book is how the author talks about his belief that the death penalty is wrong. However, in the story it turns out that the biggest reason why he wasn't killed was the criminals' belief that if they killed government attorney they would be more likely to get the death penalty. Can we all get business cards with our profession listed as Federal Prosecutor so our chances of being murdered by the criminal element will drop to Stanley's?

After hearing a great interview with the author on NPR, I ordered the book anticipating a great read. I'm sorry to say that I was sorely disappointed. The narrative drags, the protagonist's whining description of his predicament did not bring the natural empathy that the story surely deserves. His portrayal of his abductors never goes beyond the level of stick figure drawings and are filled with superficial stereotypes. I would recommend passing this one up.

I was eager to read this book after hearing an interview with Stanley on the radio. After getting through the initial kidnapping and the first couple of hours he spent with the thugs, the book drags a bit. I commend Stanley for what he went through and how he survived this terrible ordeal and I mean no dissrespect at all to him, but the book was just a little dull for me. Granted, Stanley is a lawyer, but much of the legalistic writing in the later chapters tend to run together. Great, intriguing story, but I found myself bored by the end of the book. I will say...it's amazing the amount of detail Stanley recalls from this ordeal.

others have used the words "annoyingly arrogant and apparently editor-less man" and i totally agree. how insecure must he be to continually bring up his wannabe dating habits? and if i was that lisa woman, i'd be pissed that he continually kept writing her full name, including middle initial. jerk. borrow this book from the library.

From the minute you pick up this book, you cannot put it down! The Birthday Party is about a most extraordinary tale of the kidnapping of a US Attorney the day before his birthday, and the events so bizarre, that it couldn't be anything but true. Stan is an instantly likeable character who is enjoying an ordinary evening in Manhattan, when in an instant his world is turned upside down as he faces the barrel of a gun and the reader is immersed at once in the story of his captivity at the hands of his kidnappers.

It is a truly compelling account of what Stan's hours were like blindfolded and held at the mercy of men with guns. Stan's ability to remain calm and find the humor in some of his circumstances really made the book an enjoyable read. There were moments of genuine humor as well as details of the pain and fear that followed his ordeal. The poignancy with which he writes about what he learned and the life he leads is very inspiring. The details he remembers and explains to the reader assist in making you feel like you're living the roller coaster ride with him. And his recount of how the police found the guys who grabbed him and how they proceeded through the legal system was an interesting glimpse into the criminal justice system most of us know nothing about.

There are many moments in the book where I felt like I was holding my breath waiting to see what would happen next. It was truly a great read. Stan's ability to relay the story really makes you feel like you're there with him and waiting for his safe return to his home, to his family, to his friends and to his very accomplished life. It's a great book and a very enjoyable read.