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Fiona's True Crime Book Reviews: H by author
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Robert D. Hare
Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us
"Psychopaths are social predators who charm, manipulate, and ruthlessly plow their way through life, leaving a broad trail of broken hearts, shattered expectations, and empty wallets. Completely lacking in conscience and in feelings for others, they selfishly take what they want and do as they please..." Without Conscience is a true crime, psychology, and self-help book all in one. Robert Hare argues convincingly that "psychopath" and "antisocial personality disorder" (a psychiatric term defined by a cluster of criminal behaviors) are not the same thing. Not all psychopaths are criminals, he says, and not all criminals are psychopaths. He proposes a Psychopathy Checklist that includes emotional/interpersonal traits such as glibness, grandiosity, lack of guilt, and shallow emotions, as well as social deviance traits such as impulsivity, lack of responsibility, and antisocial behavior. His writing is lucid and compelling, and illustrated with numerous anecdotes. The final chapter, "A Survival Guide," is especially recommended. As Hare writes, "Psychopaths are found in every segment of society, and there is a good chance that eventually you will have a painful or humiliating encounter with one."
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Edward Humes
Mississippi Mud : A True Story from a Corner of the Deep South
Biloxi, Mississippi, has a "strip" of nightclubs and
casinos where prostitution, drugs, and crooked gambling
flourish unchecked. An older couple who thought they
were retiring to a quiet seaside town got too deeply involved
with local politics and the Dixie Mafia, and were murdered.
The investigation would've sunk beneath the muddy swirl
of graft and business as usual, but for the tenacious efforts
of the victims' daughter. Despite death threats and
indifferent law enforcement officials, she hired a private detective
and swore to do whatever it took to bring her parents' killers
to trial. Horror/suspense Peter Straub finds the story reminiscent
of Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen: "Like those writers, Edward
Humes can make the wild, amoral, scheming sleazoids he parades
before our eyes all but sing and dance on the page. Here is America,
fat and happy, both hands crammed into the till." Mississippi
Mud was a 1995 finalist for the Edgar Award in Fact Crime.
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Edward Humes
Murderer With a Badge: The Secret Life of a Rogue Cop
As a police offer, Bill Leasure was so lacking in ambition, he was content to be a traffic cop who hardly ever gave out tickets. As a thief, he ran 6-figure scams stealing yachts, and collected guns and cars, but also stockpiled worthless goods like other people's linens. He was involved in murder for hire, but didn't pull the trigger himself, and never seemed to care much about the outcome. Was he a thrill seeker? Did he get off on hanging out with criminals and planning elaborate schemes? As the New York Times writes, "In Murderer with a Badge, Edward Humes presents us with a puzzle... Despite [his] admirable assembling of the facts, the secret of William Leasure remains inviolate." Perhaps the "secret" is that "Mild Bill" is the type of psychopath who's so completely self-contained, and empty on the inside, there is no secret. Even Leasure's savvy wife, a city prosecutor, was bamboozled by him. Despite how baffling it is, this is a well-crafted, absorbing story.
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Edward Humes
No Matter How Loud I Shout
This is one powerful book: it will grab you with vivid stories about individual kids, draw you in with honesty and compassion, and amaze you with alarming details about how the juvenile justice system works (or rather, doesn't work) in America. Anyone interested in the problem of crime needs to read Edward Humes's gripping account of how future criminals are shaped in youth, and how the system misses its chance to help them before they're lost for good. As Richard Bernstein writes in the New York Times, "There are many admirable things about Mr. Humes's book, which, despite its grim subject matter, has a narrative power that keeps you reading right to the end. One of them is that Mr. Humes is a shrewd and perceptive observer of his young subjects ... [and he] allows himself to feel sympathy for the young people whose lives and crimes he describes ... At the same time, Mr. Humes never exonerates bad children for their badness." No Matter How Loud I Shout was a finalist
for the 1997 Edgar Award in Fact Crime.
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[All reviews copyright © Amazon.com, Inc. 1997-8]
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