New books

The newest book by true crime author Mardi Link concerns a murder case in northern Michigan that was so truly bizarre that it is hard to think of anything quite like it in the annals of American crime.

 Isadore's Secret: Sin, Murder, and Confession in a Northern Michigan Town [Amazon; B&N] was just published by the University of Michigan Press. It concerns the disappearance of a young nun in 1907, Sister Mary Janina. Her remains were found many years later buried in the crawlspace beneath her church. No less shocking was the identity of the murderer who eventually confessed to the horrific crime.

The case has been something of a well-known secret in legal circles in Michigan for a long time; I wrote a brief post on it years ago. This book is sure to stir controversy as does anything that touches on sex, religion, murder, and cover-up all at once.

Recently I met the author at the Ann Arbor Book Festival, where we appeared with true crime authors Patrick Brode, Steve Miller, and Andrea Billups. (The organizer was kind enough to vote us the “best looking panel” at the bookfest, which was sweet of him, though I didn’t get a chance to size up the competition.) Poised and professional, Mardi Link ably defended our favorite genre as she shared stories of the difficulties she encountered as she researched this book.

She also discussed her books in a recent interview with Bill Castanier on City Pulse Radio (slide to the :30 mark). Her blog Rusty Gun has more details, and the prologue of the book is posted here. I came home from the book festival with this title and more I look foward to reading and reviewing here soon.

A Sudden Shot 

Journalist Camille Kimball has written her first true crime book to the acclaim of those who know the case of which she writes.

The book, A Sudden Shot: The Phoenix Serial Shooter [Amazon; B&N], concerns a pair of snipers, Dale Hausner and Samuel Dieteman [Wiki], who went on a random, years-long killing spree in Phoenix, Arizona.

Such cases are notoriously difficult to profile, let alone solve, as the well-known D.C. Sniper case showed. Phoenix had a lucky break when a drinking buddy turned them in. The sheer scope of their crime spree is hard to grasp, let alone the motive. At least the lead murderer had the grace not to oppose due punishment. 

The author recently write an essay describing her experience covering the case. Rather than lionizing the spree killers, she says she focuses on homicide detective Cliff Jewell. "I found that a great hero had emerged in the midst of the evil," she writes, "and I had the responsibility to tell his story." It is also the story of the victims; one, left terribly wounded by what his shooters called "random recreational violence," when given the first copy of the book, raised it to his lips and kissed it. "Then he smiled wide," Kimball says, "and held it high." That's quite the endorsement.

More details are at the author's blog, and rumor has it that she is working on another.

Comments

[camillekimball.blogspot.com]

Thank you for this very nice writeup, Laura. I had missed your posts while you slowed them down over the summer. What a marvelous surprise to find my own book cover here now!

Fans of True Crime who get criticized for it may wish to bookmark and share this home video shotgun survivor Paul Patrick and I just did together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2yClHF0ZII
(thanks to my brother for braving the equipment to shoot and edit) Paul is recognized as the "face of the victims" in Phoenix. He says having the book, and the well wishes it brings him from readers, is "a candle in a dark room."

(Laura, I hope it's okay to put up a link?)

[laura]

Sure, link away! Congratulations on the early positive support for your book.