Howard Engel, an award-winning mystery writer, studied true crime stories for years. Eventually his notebook reached a critical mass, resulting in this interesting book of curated true crime stories. The book is Crimes of passion: an unblinking look at murderous love (Buffalo, New York: Firefly Books 2002).
I like this book for its full-throated defense of the true crime genre and its odd collection of cases known and obscure.
True crime must be faithfully reported, the author reminds us as he explores the well-plowed fields filled with the likes of Ruth Ellis, Jean Harris, Juliet Hulme (Anne Perry), Yvonne Chevallier, Dr. Crippen, Snyder & Gray, Thompson & Bywaters, OJ Simpson, Lizzie Borden, Susan Smith, Elizabeth Workman, etc.
Some of his essays are very amusing (Lorena Bobbitt) and some are ridiculous and I would recommend this book for its storytelling alone. He does have a bibliography, but I winced when I saw it, as I recognize that there are some prolific true crime encyclopedia writers who are reliably unreliable.
Anyway, Howard Engel mentions some obscure crimes, mostly European, with a murder connoisseur's good eye for the interesting (Cyril Belshaw, Peter Hogg, Jean Liger, Ralph Klassen, Kenneth Peacock).
The author also explores the intersection of true crime and high art and literature - Shakespeare, Dante.
To prove the point, he begins with the case of Francesa de Rimini, who fell in love with her husband’s handsome younger brother Paolo but was alas caught with him in flagrante delicto. Her husband killed them both at once. The case has inspired everyone from Dante (Inferno) to Tchaikovsky.
Without true crime, there is no Carmen or Hamlet. Or any crime fiction worth a fig, as the finest crime fiction writers recognize, at length.
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.