Thunderstruck The San Francisco Chronicle published a review of Erik Larson's new book about Dr. Crippen. The reviewer, Alan Deutschman, remarks in "How Marconi's invention helped catch a murderer" --
It would be foolish to argue with the outrageous commercial and critical success of Erik Larson's previous book, "The Devil in the White City," a finalist for the National Book Award in 2003, but I should confess right off that I had an unusual reaction to that finely crafted piece of narrative nonfiction. Larson's clever gimmick was to intertwine two true stories that happened in the same metropolis at the same time: the gruesome exploits of the serial killer H.H. Holmes and the creative and logistical triumphs of the architects behind Chicago's 1893 World's Fair.
Surprisingly, I found myself skimming through the chapters about the murderer to rush ahead to the threads about the builders, especially Larson's fond portrayal of the landscape master Frederick Law Olmsted. But I suspect that I'm probably anomalous among the book's multitude of fans: Surely it's the readers who love murder stories who have kept "Devil" on the national paperback best-seller lists for 135 weeks and counting, not the misfits who find quiet drama in landscape architecture.
Seems to me the reviewer might have it wrong: I happen to think a lot of people who read and enjoyed that book weren't the traditional true crime fans. I wonder whether a lot of the success of that case comes from people who otherwise wouldn't be caught dead reading true crime -- say, a book about H.H. Holmes all by his homely self. But pair it with a story that appeals to every planning commissioner in the country, and presto!
I happen to serve on my local planning commission, when I'm not studying murder cases. I have seen book reviews of Devil in the White City in a lot of the professional planning literature, and a true crime book review is, believe me, the last thing one expects to find in professional planning literature.
But unlike the fellow from the San Francisco Chronicle, I have to confess I found myself skimming the planning of the world's fair for the blood and guts. Go figure.
Headlines Have you noticed that most major journalism outlets online have gone entirely to lowercase headlines? Like, "How Marconi's invention helped catch a murderer," above. The reason:
LOWERCASE TEXT
IS PROVEN EASIER
TO READ THAN
SCREAMING HEADLINES.
But if you've got an unlimited amount of room, why forego the old-fashioned creative murder headline?
***
IS IT TRUE WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT TRUE CRIME AUTHORS ON TOUR? Well, ask and you shall receive. I turn the page in my San Francisco Chronicle and see this headline:
Joyce Maynard would like people to forget about her affair, please
Her latest book is a true-crime story that taps into an obsession of hers -- the bitter family secrets that may lie beneath a seemingly happy exterior
Now that's a good, old-fashioned, 27-word headline!
From the article:
Joyce Maynard began a reading for her new book, "Internal Combustion," Sunday afternoon with a quick story about her affair with J.D. Salinger. Maynard likes to talk about her 10-month relationship with the famous author, and when she began to wind down ("He handed me a $50 bill and told me to go away"), it was clear the past was threatening to upstage Maynard's current work.
The murder case she wrote about in her new true crime title, Internal Combustion, involves a suburban Detroit woman who went on trial for murder; her husband's head was split open with an axe! State of Michigan vs. Nancy Seaman was a mega-sensational case in the local press:
Seaman was the fourth-grade teacher who killed her husband, Bob, in 2004, placed his body parts in the back of the family Ford Explorer and calmly returned to work.
Court TV has a good summary here: Michigan v. Seaman.
The most amazing fact of this case: she was overheard planning to poison his food, but went with the hatchet to the head in the end. (Shades of Lizzie Borden, anyone?!?)
Well, the review indicates that the author did not talk to the teacher and injected much of her own story in this book. Wikipedia surprised me with a thorough description of the scandals under "Further Exposure," if you haven't read enough. "Dual narratives" indeed. Sounds to me like three or four narratives at once....
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