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Fiona's True Crime Book Reviews: G by author
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Jeffrey Good, Susan Goreck
Poison Mind
Many of us have experienced being annoyed by
neighbors whose loud music, objectionable habits, or
destruction of property get on our nerves. This is the
story of a man who got so annoyed, he poisoned
his neighbors with an extremely painful nerve toxin. The
personalities are what make the book: the cartoon-character
nerd who was a disgruntled househusband to a female
orthopedist, the quietly charming policewoman who went
undercover to get the goods on him, the loving Southern
family who suffered so much. And there's a revelation at
the end of the story that will appall you. As The New York
Times wrote, "Florida, the cradle of creepiness in detective
fiction, offers up some weird criminals in real life, too. . . . The
authors are good at portraying the oddly disconnected society of
small-town Florida, as well as the man who almost committed the
perfect crime there."
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A. W. Gray
The Cadet Murder Case
David and Diane were called in the press "a dream
couple"--he'd been admitted to the U. S. Air Force Academy,
and she was bound for the U. S. Naval Academy. But in fact
this pair of high school sweethearts from a small bedroom
community near Dallas, were insecure and troubled
even before they murdered Adrianne, another student of
whom Diane was jealous. This book, written before the
trial was to begin in late '97, effectively dramatizes the
small-town Texas setting in which a relationship between
a white boy and a Hispanic girl is still considered unusual,
and brings out the controversial behavior of the military
regarding the other Navy plebes to whom Diane confessed.
A. W. Gray corrects some misconceptions about the case
that arose during earlier press coverage, and outlines--in
careful, even-tempered prose--the issues that would most
likely arise at the trial (such as the the admissibility of
David's confession).
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Melissa Fay Greene
The Temple Bombing
Jacob Rothschild--rabbi of the Temple,
Atlanta's oldest and richest synagogue--responded to
Southern upheaval over the 1954 Supreme Court decision
in favor of integration, with an outspoken defense of
civil rights. "He was aware that he lived in strange
times, when the pronouncement of elemental moral
observations stirred political havoc." The bombing
of the Temple by neo-Nazi extremists, in 1958, was
but one climactic moment in a progression of
conflicting messages and class struggles experienced
by Jews in the post-war South. Melissa Fay Greene is
a fine storyteller with a rich, literary style: She portrays
the social setting, as well as the crime itself and its
aftermath, with a plethora of compelling details. By
the end of the book, when Rabbi Rothschild is hosting
a dinner for Martin Luther King in honor of his Nobel
Peace Prize, the reader has gained a solid sense of a
pivotal time and place in Southern history.
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[All reviews copyright © Amazon.com, Inc. 1997-8]
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