- Paperback: 608 pages
- Publisher: Running Press; Updated edition (Feb 15 2005)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0786705361
- ISBN-13: 978-0786705368
- Product Dimensions: 19.7 x 13.1 x 4.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 508 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #939,110 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The prolific Wilson (A Criminal History of Mankind, et al.) offers this compilation of true crime narratives, abbreviated accounts of both famous and lesser-known cases. "Murder interests me," Wilson writes, "because it is the most extreme form of the denial of this human potentiality. Life devaluation has become a commonplace of our century." Wilson analyzes numerous crimes and their perpetrators, ranging from lady-killers to manic messiahs, contemporary and past: " . . . to kill by poison is perhaps the most childish of all criminal acts . . . . Nearly all the famous poisoners have been rather childish personalitiesoften delightful and charming, but fundamentally children determined to get their own way by stealth." In the "Motiveless Murder" chapter, he once again expounds on the importance of science-fiction author A. E. Van Vogt's "right man" theoryviolent men who treat women as slavesas "one of the most important breakthroughs since Sigmund Freud 'discovered' the unconscious." Wilson's now-familiar practice of intertwining throughout a rich array of literary references (Ray Bradbury, James Thurber, James Jones, etc.) only adds to the informed tone of this massive survey, so extensive and worthy a reference that some repetition is not an annoyance. An introduction defines the links between Wilson's fiction and nonfiction.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
This collection consists of 74 alphabetically arranged chapters with headings such as "Hired Killers," "Mass Murderers," " Perverts," and "Stranglers." Despite its length, the book is not comprehensive; each chapter briefly outlines a few cases with comments by Wilson, a British popularizer of crime. (See his Encyclopedia of Modern Murder , co-authored with Donald Seaman, LJ 5/15/85.) No explanation is given for Wilson's choices, most of which will be unfamiliar. Unevenly written and without a bibliography, this book is unsuitable as a reference. Even true crime buffs, who otherwise might be interested, will be upset to discover that the
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
please READ the publication dates,
By Jennifer M Mohart (Silver Creek, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Mammoth Book of True Crime: A New Edition (Paperback)
did anyone who complained about this book, and felt that it was lacking more recent crimes, turn to the copywrite page in the beginning?"Originally Published in Crime and Society 1973/4/5/6" the parts written in 1998 are the introduction and pages 95-104 and 506-22. Meaning the chapters on Computer Crime and Servants Who Kill are the only chapters written in 1998. I felt this book was a good collection of crimes. Sometimes the more recent crimes shown on tv and in newer books can be a bit redundent, it was nice to read about crimes that took place before DNA could solve everything.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Could be a lot better,
By "gdatlanta" (Atlanta, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Mammoth Book of True Crime: A New Edition (Paperback)
Fascinating read, especially for detailing some of the European crimes that are largely unknown on the U.S. side of the pond. In fact, roughly 2/3 of the book is dedicated to these crimes, the remaining being devoted to the dreaded American criminal. The inherent irony in his writing style is that although most of the book details eurocrimes, when the Americans are referenced there is usually commentary regarding the prospective socio-psychological "problems" in American society which result in these crimes although nary a mention is made to the potential causes of the crimes which occur in Euro society. The socialist slant placed on his deductions of motive and cause along with some dreadful editing chop two whole stars off this 600+ page monstrosity. Because it dealt with some crimes hitherto unknown to me (of course, along with some world-famous ones as well), this was a fascinating read. But I'm telling you once you get to those areas of atrocious editing, psychological profiling with the blinders on and hardcore leftist slant you may be left wincing (unless you're a bad psychologist hardcore leftist who enjoys poor editing).
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but biased,
By
This review is from: The Mammoth Book of True Crime: A New Edition (Paperback)
The crimes he selected for this work were reasonably well researched and his choices were interesting. (Although there are notes in the new edition that some of the stories he reported are myths) As far as finding out about different interesting crimes, this book is tops.However, his analysis of the crimes is lacking. He provides no basis for many of his ideas and shows tremendous conservative bias. He states that a woman's natural instinct is to take care of a house while men are naturally more aggressive and take more risks. He blames the sexual revolution (instead of the alienation caused by a large society) for the outbreak of serial murderers. His analysis of the motivations behind the crimes seems to be seldom accurate and often biased, but the crimes he chooses vary widely and are generally interesting.
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